... [T]he Biden administration needs to be gearing up to unleash the full power of the federal government against Trump and his legal and political allies on the morning of November 6, assuming that Harris wins the election. (If Trump wins the Electoral College then it turns out the Constitution really is a suicide pact, and there’s no legal recourse for that outcome).
By that I mean that any and all federal and state laws that prohibit post-election fraud and sedition need to be enforced with absolutely no consideration for prudential arguments about not engaging in “lawfare” against one’s political opponents. If Trump and or his allies arguably violate criminal laws while trying to overturn the election they have lost — which they are practically certain to do — they need to be arrested on the spot. They can be given plenty of due process in due time, but this will not be the time for any kind of hesitation in terms of unleashing the the full legal power of the state against them. Nor will it be time to hesitate in terms of unleashing the full violence of the state against violent attempts to overturn the election, including violent protests. It’s a grim fact that a certain amount of state violence — another word for this is “law” — may have to be brought to bear against post-election seditionists, to encourage the others.
Part of this planning should include Merrick Garland’s resignation letter, dated November 6th, 2024. It would be a severe understatement to note that Garland is not a wartime consigliere, and anybody who thinks we’re not going to the mattresses on that morning — assuming again that Harris actually wins the election; after all, we are not communists — is living in the kind of reactionary centrist dreamworld we can’t afford to inhabit in America 2024. (our emphasis)
We've been thinking a lot about this, too, as likely many of you have. The Malignant Loser is stating his intentions rather loudly and clearly: he won't accept losing the election, and he intends to challenge a loss all the way to Inauguration Day and to the Republican Supreme Court. Violence is certainly on the table for him and his fascist supporters, as it was on January 6, 2021, except more so and everywhere. All the more reason, of course, to thump him soundly on November 5, a task which may prove more difficult than it should be.
Regardless, we heartily agree that the steps that need to be taken (and are already gamed out) must include nipping any seditious actions or criminal acts in the bud with the full force of law, no matter who commits them. The Malignant Loser has broadcast his plans; if countermeasures haven't been planned, it would be a fatal betrayal of the Constitution and of our (flawed) democracy.
