The Trump strategy to steal the election, thus far, seems as well thought out as Trump’s plans to replace the ACA with something even better. More a favorite talking point than an actual plan.
As I noted on September 28, a successful effort to steal the election would rely on Republican operatives, with Trump simply giving signals: ‘The linchpin: “if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them.” ‘
Most Republicans aren’t playing along at this stage, in stark contrast to the successful effort to “Stop the count” in Florida in 2000. As Rachel Maddow observed in a 2009 look back at the Brooks Brothers riot to intimidate officials to stop counting ballots in Miami-Dade, the ruckus was well planned. New York State Chairman of the Republican Party, Brendan Quinn, and New York Republican Congressman John Sweeney organized the the effort.
As Maddow explained, “The mob that the GOP sent to stop that count in Miami was billed at the time as a spontaneous, grassroots uprising …,” but it consisted of national Republican operatives — none from Miami — at least a half dozen who were paid for their services. Maddow identifies several of them by name and position — 1 though 10 — in the photo above.
“Many of these Brooks Brothers rioters went on to pretty good jobs in the Bush-Cheney administration,” Maddow reports. “That mob scene they participated in became something that Republicans put on their resumes.”
The Brooks Brothers riot occurred in early December, a month after the election. So there’s plenty of time for mischief in 2020 — and well into January 2021 for that matter. But thus far, it appears that Trump is flailing away without much effective, organized support. And — as I wrote on Wednesday — many Washington Republicans (even those, I suggest, who — as reported today — believe that Trump’s campaign carried them to reelection this week) almost certainly welcome a Biden White House after four years of Trump. There are distinct advantages to escaping from Trump’s craziness, while gaining an unalloyed partisan enemy (whom I’m sure McConnell believes will likely serve a single term) at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.