There’s of course the quote of DJT saying “Vote, one last time and you won’t have to vote again after that” at some evangelical event before the election. But the way I know is because unlike his first term, he has completely stopped holding rallies for his supporters.
Yes, there is no third term announced yet, but I’m sure he and his sycophants will engineer a crisis to ensure marshal law can be invoked or some other measure to let him rule till death like daddy Vladdy.
He stopped feeling accountable to his base, which is the first time since he’s gotten into politics. He knows if there ever was accountability again in government, he and Muskrat are absolutely done.
He 100% can affect elections, refute their legitimacy, send in “inspectors,” or whatever else. And remember even if you think it’s not legal, he can’t be prosecuted for anything done in an official capacity, and he can pardon anyone who does break federal law.
He can do fucking anything and our only recourse is the legal system, which will take months or years to play out, and ultimately the Supreme Court is on his side even if they don’t agree with everything he does.
But there is the question of if he has the balls to do it, if he can do it all in time, if he makes it that far without choking on a hamberder, and how much resistance he encounters. I’m not defeated, just thinking strategically. We may have to prepare to fight for ourselves because the Democratic Party as a whole really cares more about stability than any ideology (and to be fair, it appears in swing states that might be exactly that their constituents largely want, and ideologues would never have gotten elected in the first place).
Democracy must be defended, constantly. Sometimes with blood. Hopefully we aren’t there yet, but I wouldn’t expect to be rescued and that doesn’t mean we are defeated.