Let's game this out the way some of the comments are saying.
Scenario 1: Proud Boys and other right wing militant groups stand around polling places with open carry weapons to intimidate Democrat-leaning districts. Maybe it doesn't chase everyone away, but we know a lot of election officials are complaining about threats and have quit. So it's going to have some effect. Enough to swing the vote? I don't think that matters. It's still election interference.
Scenario 2: right wing militants show up, and so do various antifa groups to counter them. Maybe antifa show up armed, maybe not. Either way, it's an escalation. Escalating tensions with guns present significantly increases the chances that someone uses their gun, regardless of who shoots first. The first shots in a civil war? Then the right wing militants win, because they've been agitating for this for years. Who wins is immaterial to the millions of people who will suffer as a result.
Scenario 3: polling places are reinforced with police and National Guards as necessary to prevent any election interference. They can be present to "observe" but they're not allowed to intimidate anyone. This is the only scenario I can see where democracy is defended and preserved.
Agree or disagree? What am I missing? Where am I wrong?
You're missing that the police etc and the proud boys etc are the same group.
Nah, he's missing:
4. The Fat Boys only show up in red counties, having no impact whatsoever. They pass out drunk in the parking lot of the voting locations and their wives and kids have a quiet night to themselves.
They forget to vote. They don't intimidate anyone because the few liberals who live there voted early. They later complain it was "rigged".
Those people pride themselves at driving to another county to show up uninvited and unwelcomed. Source: Dealt with a few at protests in a "liberal urban" city.
Sure, ACAB. But that doesn't mean every cop who shows up to keep the peace at polling stations will enable right wing violence. Especially not with the press watching.
the press hasn't been a concern to the police for a good long while now, and internal unity is more important than stopping murders (half of what the FBI does nowadays is arrest precincts because they were covering for the cop who happens to be the guy dumping bodies in the woods, bonus points if it's the woman he knocked up while having an affair with)
(half of what the FBI does nowadays is arrest precincts because they were covering for the cop who happens to be the guy dumping bodies in the woods, bonus points if it’s the woman he knocked up while having an affair with)
When local cops manage to make the FBI look like the good guys.
Jesus Christ. This is a boring dystopia.
Look, consider why you believe the FBI to be the bad guys for a second, on the one hand you have a locally powerful person, easy to bribe, easy to influence, along with a strong insider friend group setting and only the local town will even care much, on the other hand you have the FBI that audits its own members in a beurocratic manner, and is heavily scrutinized by outside institutions.
I actually find it amazing that people trust their local branch of "the boys" more than the FBI...
I don’t think that matters. It’s still election interference.
Short of cancelling the election after the polling has happened, how do you expect to counter that if Trump wins because of it?
I mean it doesn't matter because it's election interference that will happen again and again because we don't seem to have the political will to stop it. Unless we get Scenario 3.
Let's game this out the way some of the comments are saying.
Scenario 1: Proud Boys and other right wing militant groups stand around polling places with open carry weapons to intimidate Democrat-leaning districts. Maybe it doesn't chase everyone away, but we know a lot of election officials are complaining about threats and have quit. So it's going to have some effect. Enough to swing the vote? I don't think that matters. It's still election interference.
Scenario 2: right wing militants show up, and so do various antifa groups to counter them. Maybe antifa show up armed, maybe not. Either way, it's an escalation. Escalating tensions with guns present significantly increases the chances that someone uses their gun, regardless of who shoots first. The first shots in a civil war? Then the right wing militants win, because they've been agitating for this for years. Who wins is immaterial to the millions of people who will suffer as a result.
Scenario 3: polling places are reinforced with police and National Guards as necessary to prevent any election interference. They can be present to "observe" but they're not allowed to intimidate anyone. This is the only scenario I can see where democracy is defended and preserved.
Agree or disagree? What am I missing? Where am I wrong?
You're missing that the police etc and the proud boys etc are the same group.
Nah, he's missing: 4. The Fat Boys only show up in red counties, having no impact whatsoever. They pass out drunk in the parking lot of the voting locations and their wives and kids have a quiet night to themselves.
They forget to vote. They don't intimidate anyone because the few liberals who live there voted early. They later complain it was "rigged".
Those people pride themselves at driving to another county to show up uninvited and unwelcomed. Source: Dealt with a few at protests in a "liberal urban" city.
All of them? Curious.
A few bad apples spoil the bunch, homie.
Sure, ACAB. But that doesn't mean every cop who shows up to keep the peace at polling stations will enable right wing violence. Especially not with the press watching.
the press hasn't been a concern to the police for a good long while now, and internal unity is more important than stopping murders (half of what the FBI does nowadays is arrest precincts because they were covering for the cop who happens to be the guy dumping bodies in the woods, bonus points if it's the woman he knocked up while having an affair with)
When local cops manage to make the FBI look like the good guys.
Jesus Christ. This is a boring dystopia.
Look, consider why you believe the FBI to be the bad guys for a second, on the one hand you have a locally powerful person, easy to bribe, easy to influence, along with a strong insider friend group setting and only the local town will even care much, on the other hand you have the FBI that audits its own members in a beurocratic manner, and is heavily scrutinized by outside institutions.
I actually find it amazing that people trust their local branch of "the boys" more than the FBI...
How many are doing something to stop it?
Short of cancelling the election after the polling has happened, how do you expect to counter that if Trump wins because of it?
I mean it doesn't matter because it's election interference that will happen again and again because we don't seem to have the political will to stop it. Unless we get Scenario 3.