The Coup Might Be Dressed Up a Whole Lot Nicer in 2024
My friend Tom Edsall recently joined our podcast and discussed something we’ve been screaming from the rooftops for a while now:
What you’re seeing from the ultra-MAGA right is being carefully planned and coordinated.
It may look chaotic. It is. But there is a method to this madness, and you can look no further than the pending lawsuit in front of the Supreme Court that may give ultra-MAGA dominated state legislatures the ability to vote on election results.
As Tom quoted Richard Hasen in the New York Times: “the potential coup next time will come in neatly filed legal briefs and arguments quoting Thomas Jefferson and wrapped in ancient precedents and purported constitutional textualism. It will be no less pernicious.”
This is basically the Glenn Youngkin of policy goals. It’s ultra-right-wing agendas wrapped up in a sweater vest to make it look a little more appetizing. It’s too easy to dismiss all of this as a sideshow. It isn’t. It’s too easy for the media to act like both sides are extreme. They aren’t. And it’s too easy to get lulled into thinking the Presidential election next November is the only battleground. That’s what they want you to think.
At an RNC donor retreat this week, Cleta Mitchell, one of their chief coup architects, went into detail about exactly how they’re going to institutionalize the next coup. Everything from even more outlandish court cases to active voter suppression in swing states. She said they should “combat” voting on college campuses. Eliminate things like early voting and same-day voter registration. And don’t think she won’t do it, either. She was on that “perfect” call where Trump asked Georgia’s Secretary of State to just “find him some votes.”
They will stop at nothing. Everything they can do to make pro-democracy voters stay home while inspiring ultra-MAGA diehards to vote.
Nothing from the leaked donor retreat surprises me. Nothing they do surprises me anymore. We all know how far they will go. The problem is that not everyone has woken up to the threat yet.
Our goal for the next 16-plus months is to leave no stone unturned. Take action at the local level with The Union. Mobilize to make America smoke the whole pack of extremism. Drop into key races with air cover when they need it most. And not ever let up.
Pitch in now, if you can, and help make sure we can fight where it counts >>
I’m grateful you’re with us. We have so much to do. Just because the next coup looks more genteel doesn’t make it any better. It’s probably going to be a lot worse.
-Trippi
Senior Advisor, The Lincoln Project
@JoeTrippi on Twitter