On the evening of Nov. 3...Donald Trump seems to be having an excellent night. Counting the votes cast at polling places, Trump is winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Those states don’t even begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, yet Trump quickly declares victory.
...as many as 40 percent of the ballots are mail-in and still being counted, and those votes are likely to be overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, but [Democrats] can’t control the emotions of that night. It’s a gut punch.
As the mail-in ballots are tallied, the Trump leads erode. But the situation is genuinely unclear. Trump is on the warpath, raging about fraud.
...
Trump says he won’t let Democrats steal the election and declares himself re-elected.
...
A certain kind of Republican takes to the streets to enforce Trump’s version of events...50 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” Nearly as many believe, “A time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.”
The left is in the streets, too. On the fringe of the left...this is their chance at mayhem, too, and they seize it with sometimes violent passion.
But a new force looms into view...a certain sort of conservative has been cowering from the Trump onslaught. Certain sorts of moderates and liberals have also been keeping their heads down...But now the very existence of the Republic is at stake.
They understand that...this is...about the transition from a certain kind of white-dominated America to a diverse America — and the people who will do anything to stop it.
...
...the realist militants who walk in [Dr. Martin Luther] King’s shadow also know that it is the U.S. Constitution that keeps us from slipping into chaos...this crisis is not just about race, but also the greatness of American institutions...
...
If Trump claims a victory that is not rightly his, a few marches in the streets will not be an adequate response. There may have to be a sustained campaign of civic action, as in Hong Kong and Belarus, to rally the majority that wants to preserve democracy, that isolates those who would undo it.
Two themes would have to feature in such civic action. The first is ardent patriotism. The country survives such a crisis only if most people’s love of nation overwhelms...partisan fury...
The second is the preservation of constitutional order...if there were to be any violence and anarchy, it would come from the foes...
... mobilizing for an accurate election outcome, before it is too late...a struggle to preserve the order of our civic structure...
...
It’s time to start thinking about what you would do.
Those states don’t even begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, yet Trump quickly declares victory.
...as many as 40 percent of the ballots are mail-in and still being counted, and those votes are likely to be overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, but [Democrats] can’t control the emotions of that night. It’s a gut punch.
As the mail-in ballots are tallied, the Trump leads erode. But the situation is genuinely unclear. Trump is on the warpath, raging about fraud.
...
Trump says he won’t let Democrats steal the election and declares himself re-elected.
...
A certain kind of Republican takes to the streets to enforce Trump’s version of events...50 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” Nearly as many believe, “A time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.”
The left is in the streets, too. On the fringe of the left...this is their chance at mayhem, too, and they seize it with sometimes violent passion.
But a new force looms into view...a certain sort of conservative has been cowering from the Trump onslaught. Certain sorts of moderates and liberals have also been keeping their heads down...But now the very existence of the Republic is at stake.
They understand that...this is...about the transition from a certain kind of white-dominated America to a diverse America — and the people who will do anything to stop it.
...
...the realist militants who walk in [Dr. Martin Luther] King’s shadow also know that it is the U.S. Constitution that keeps us from slipping into chaos...this crisis is not just about race, but also the greatness of American institutions...
...
If Trump claims a victory that is not rightly his, a few marches in the streets will not be an adequate response. There may have to be a sustained campaign of civic action, as in Hong Kong and Belarus, to rally the majority that wants to preserve democracy, that isolates those who would undo it.
Two themes would have to feature in such civic action. The first is ardent patriotism. The country survives such a crisis only if most people’s love of nation overwhelms...partisan fury...
The second is the preservation of constitutional order...if there were to be any violence and anarchy, it would come from the foes...
... mobilizing for an accurate election outcome, before it is too late...a struggle to preserve the order of our civic structure...
...
It’s time to start thinking about what you would do.