A big unspoken subplot is how many of the alternative options to Biden look dicey because of bad faith conservative legal shenanigans and in-progress attempts to steal the 2024 election. Challenges to putting a replacement on ballots or leaving VP office vacant could result in stolen election
The fact that no electeds last time were punished for trying to steal the election predictably lead to out-in-the-open maneuvering to do the same thing in 2024. It's bad
Back in late 2020 I advocated for expelling all the members of Congress who voted against certifying, then using the rump majorities you'd gain after to pass court reform (who'd ratify the legality of this maneuver). Radical proposal! but the alternatives of doing nothing were more radical
the AG’s delay in prosecuting trump & his ppl until they were on the verge of capturing the nom predictably forced establishment gop into the posture of defending him in a way they wouldn’t have in 2021-22. SC wouldn’t have issued their insane immunity decree if he wasn’t their party’s nominee.
I think this could have been argued and well accepted. It would have made a difference.
Not sure though the votes were there for expelling all traitors.
Ah I see. Ok yes that’s a different kettle of fish. Sadly an administration that won’t even consider Court expansion would never go for that, and the Democrats in Congress would very much need the executive branch’s backing to make that stick
Well the alternative wasn't "and everything is chill and normal" the alternative is "the supreme court unwrites the constitution" and that turns out to be much more radical and unpleasant
Though I'd be willing to use it as leverage though. e.g. you can get your name off the to-be-expelled list if you explicitly endorse and vote for impeachment and conviction.
My alternative is founded upon presidential droite de seigneur where the insurrectionist are rounded up for a ten year kink Olympics in a secure facility down a mineshaft
I agree. But I think there's a significant subtext of trying to avoid armed rebellion.
Even though Heritage openly stated that we're in a rebellion, anyway.
Is it okay now to question Garland’s worship of institutionalism over “catch the crooks?”
Cuz I got chewed out by fans of him, Mueller and Smith who brook no murmurs about their sainthood.
I sometimes think of the local media in Stefanik's district post-1/6. They were *hounding* her about missing votes to go fundraise at Mar-A-Lago and then suddenly everything went back to normal.
I would feel better if I had any indication at all that anyone high up in the Democratic party was saying, "let's game out what the worst case scenario is on election day and beyond, since we've been constantly getting caught flat-footed for 4+ years"
seems like now would be a great time for Jack Smith to go ahead and start naming those un-named co-conspirators and drop some indictments. Trump may have a legal fig leaf - but these people don't.
They had two months to plan Jan. 6, and lots of internal pushback. It failed because not all of Team Trump was in on it. They've had four years to plan the next coup and eliminated all internal dissent; Team Trump is all-in; they even have SCOTUS on board this time.
“It’s hard to convince people something is a real threat if you continually behave like it’s not” -I dunno, probably several people on here at various points.
I have to imagine that inside the party none of these would be new questions or so you’d hope. Biden dying or being incapacitated at any point wouldn’t exactly be black swan event.
Dem leadership's inability to overcome their incredibly strong instincts to be as chickenshit as possible – both in 2020 and today – is really imperiling The Republic
The Supreme Court is bananas insane but no, they aren’t going to rule a party can’t nominate someone differently from the guy who dropped out and never had the nomination.
That fantasy argument can be simply countered with some “official acts” that rectify it.
There’s a clear path here.
I was also assured they wouldn’t overturn centuries of precedent and rule that the President is above the law, retroactively legalizing Watergate and Iran Contra. Nothing in their hands can be regarded as safe merely because it is reasonable.
FACTS, man. And context.
Ohio’s deadline is prior to the convention, and the convention is TRADITIONALLY where you’d expect a real nomination.
The DNC is ALREADY planning an earlier roll call to formally nominate Biden and avoid this issue. They CAN do the same for Harris if Biden steps aside.
Seems like they could easily say that it's too confusing to have a candidate on the ballot that wasn't in the primary, in the same way that they say it's too confusing to voters to change an obviously gerrymandered map close to an election
