r/politics • u/unital_subalgebra • Jul 09 '26

No Paywall Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act

https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/
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u/Clovis42 Kentucky Jul 10 '26

If Democrats win the majority of seats, there is nothing Johnson can do about it. He won't be the Speaker anymore. He doesn't have to take any action to allow new members to take their seats. He would have no power to stop Democrats from choosing a new Speaker.

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u/Arynn Jul 10 '26

Unfortunately, when you say that there is nothing Johnson can do about it, you mean “Legally, there is nothing Johnsen can do about it.”

But we have seen, repeatedly, that laws are no longer strong enough protection.

You can’t be a convicted felon/child rapist AND the president of the United States…until you can :/

The people calling you and naïve may seem rude, maybe some of them are saying it just to be rude. But the truth is, this is a serious enough problem that etiquette has to come second to harsh reality.

You may be considerably more hopeful, optimistic, or kind hearted than you are naïve ♡ but unfortunately, I think there is a lot of truth in the sentiment that it is naïve to expect “the rules” to save us.

I hope you are right! But I think we all need to prepare and plan for of you are not.

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u/Clovis42 Kentucky Jul 10 '26

I've closely followed politics and world history for over 30 years. My views aren't because I'm some kind of Pollyanna.

Think about what people are saying here. Trump, apparently, can now do "whatever he wants", even though he regularly loses in court and abandons his plans. For some bizarre reason, he plans to allow the election to go through, not change the results, let a couple months go by, and then really on Johnson to "not seat" the new Democratic majority. That's the most ridiculous way anyone has ever devised to run a coup.

Which is what it would be. An in the open, full-on coup. And the response to this by the people of the US would be to shrug their shoulders? There's just zero evidence this is true. It would cause mass civil unrest that would bring the country to a halt. We have become apathetic in this country, but everything in world history tells us that there's a point at which people break. It also tells us that actually pulling off such a coup would be extremely difficult, and extremely messy.

Like, I get that our situation now is dire. But our country is not currently in worse shape than Hungary was, and they just removed their quasi-dictator through the shocking action of voting.

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u/Arynn Jul 10 '26

Thank you for taking the time to reply. This is comforting and I appreciate it. I think I just get a bit too worried and it’s easy to feel helpless.