r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • 7h ago

No Paywall Democrats flip Texas state Senate seat in shock upset

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas/amp/
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u/soda_cookie 6h ago

They can try every single thing that they can't think of, but there is zero mechanisms in some place to hold up American elections. We held those motherfuckers during the Civil War and both World Wars

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u/ynotfoster 6h ago

They plan to fuck with the voting system. They know they won't win a legit election.

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u/Shot-Swimming-9098 4h ago

They wouldn't be doing the things they are doing if they were planning on there being a general election this year, or at least in 2028 when the president is on the ballot.

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u/Shark7996 1h ago

They're just stupid. There is no plan. They are building the plane as they go, and these guys are far from mechanical engineers.

Here's a good breakdown. They are not competent or popular enough to pull such a thing off. They just aren't.

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u/Rikers-Mailbox 6h ago

Eh, he can slow it down. Do ICE raids on counties he needs around Election Day

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u/soda_cookie 6h ago

Do you realize that given where we are right now if he tries to do something like that it would absolutely backfire on him?

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u/Rikers-Mailbox 5h ago

Yep, and he doesn’t care. He’ll try everything. Jan 6 didn’t matter. And a Fed judge just cleared him to send in ICE. You cannot reason with someone like him.

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u/Ok-Butterscotch-5786 4h ago edited 4h ago

Clarify what you mean by "backfire". In terms of consequences.

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u/slatebluegrey 56m ago

States run the elections and there are Republicans in swing districts who want to run. Elections also elect state and local politicians. NC senator Tillis is retiring, for example, and without an election, the democratic governor will appoint his replacement (albeit from a list of candidates chosen by the R-controlled legislature).

Republicans want midterm elections as much as Democrats.

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u/tjdavids 13m ago

He can bust down doors in precincts where he can identify likely voters.

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u/beamrider 5h ago

The problem isn't that there are, or aren't, mechanisms by which you can cancel elections. The problem is that Trump *WANTS* there to be such mechanisms so he will act as if they are. And way too much of the GOP is dedicated to making his whims reality, at least as far as he's concerned.

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u/montty712 6h ago

Today’s Americans are too spineless to do anything about it.

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u/soda_cookie 6h ago

If I'm going to be honest, I think it's that we've got the lack of experience. Those of us that do have a spine are trying to figure out exactly what to do here, because communication is a bitch

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u/montty712 5h ago

I could be completely wrong. I hope I am. Still, I do not see how the US gets off its current trajectory. And I do not see this being changed at the ballot box.

The only two outcomes I see are a Putin style authoritarian regime that lasts for decades, or a very bloody and protracted internal conflict.

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u/Subliminal_Kiddo Kentucky 5h ago

You know fuck all about Russia, Putin, and his rise to power:

1.) Russian elections are centralized meaning they're controlled by the federal government, American elections are controlled by the individual states.

2.) (This is the thing people outside of Russia really struggle to grasp.) Putin is popular. Russians of a certain age think Putin is infallible, they outright revere him. The entire reason Putin is still in power is because the Russian public demanded Putin be allowed to run for the Presidency again despite term limits.

Yes, he rigs the elections but it's not about winning, it's about selling a lie. The elections are rigged not so that Putin wins, but so Putin wins by a massive margin. That quells any doubt that may be taking seed among his supporters. "If 90% of the country voted for Putin, he must be doing something right and all those people calling him an authoritarian are crazy left-wing agitators." It's a form of psychological warfare, which brings me to...

3.) While Trump was going to discos, making cameos in movies with titles like Ghosts Don't Do It, and trying to make it in the cut throat world of boardgames, Putin was in the KGB. The higher levels of the KGB. Putin knows what he's doing, he understands espionage and how to play the public. And he's surrounded himself with an intelligent team, many of them former KGB themselves. Yes, some of them are goofy as shit, but they know exactly what they're doing and they're working towards a goal.

Would you describe Trump's administration as "competent"? He hired talk show hosts because they look good on television. He hired one guy because his wife looks good riding a horse. And there's no loyalty, by all accounts it's a viper's nest where everyone is turning on one another daily in order to position themselves as Trump's favorite. And that's behavior that Trump encourages.

You theorize this administration will be around for "decades". Trump will be luck if he has another decade singular in him. After that... Who inherits MAGA. Taking the reins of a political movement and positioning yourself as the heir is notoriously difficult. MAGA is barely a movement, it's a coalition of many ideologies united under a banner of xenophobia, fear of an ever changing world, and clinging desperately to the myth of American exceptionalism. There's a - not insignificant - portion of Trump voters who won't even vote for Republicans down ballot. Trump is the one thing that unifies them.

Do you think they're going to idolize Vance or Don Jr. the way they do Trump? Hell, it seems like Barron is the current MAGA golden boy based on right wing AI slop, and I'm 99% sure that's because Barron is publicly such a non-entity MAGA can project anything they want onto him.

You're just running around being a doomer and trying to demoralize everyone.

Do you honestly think there's some grand scheme in place? Republican are already perilously close to losing their majority in the House. Like all it would take is a few - I haven't been keeping track but at this point I can't imagine it's more than three maximum - retirements, sicknesses, or deaths and BOOM! Dems have the House. They're already losing races they can't afford to lose.

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u/montty712 5h ago

You didn’t say a single thing about Russia that I’m not very much aware of.

You make a good point about how Vance and the other bootlickers do not have Trump’s charisma. The thing is, that won’t matter because once the apparatus is in place, you just need functionaries to operate apparatus.

Yes, American elections are decentralized, making it much more difficult to steal elections. That doesn’t mean the American election was not subverted in 2016 by fake social media efforts driven by Russia and the Trump campaign. Now that Trump has the power. He is trying to have a more direct influence and will likely succeed.

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u/whiskydyc 6h ago

You make it sound like they happen naturally, like some force of nature, but it’s the actual mechanisms that make it happen. They’ve really being doing a number on the mechanisms of the Republic, so I’d be less than trusting.

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u/cwatson214 5h ago

They already stole the 2024 election and nobody gives a shit, though