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The Biggest Threat to Democracy Is the GOP Stealing the Next Election
The Atlantic ^ | 7.9.2021 | Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Harvard Profs)

Posted on 07/11/2021 11:23:32 AM PDT by libh8er

The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election. Contemporary democracies that die meet their end at the ballot box, through measures that are nominally constitutional. The looming danger is not that the mob will return; it’s that mainstream Republicans will “legally” overturn an election.

In 2018, when we wrote How Democracies Die, we knew that Donald Trump was an authoritarian figure, and we held the Republican Party responsible for abdicating its role as democratic gatekeeper. But we did not consider the GOP to be an antidemocratic party. Four years later, however, the bulk of the Republican Party is behaving in an antidemocratic manner. Solving this problem requires that we address both the acute crisis and the underlying long-term conditions that give rise to it.

Last year, for the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president refused to accept defeat and attempted to overturn election results. Rather than oppose this attempted coup, leading Republicans either cooperated with it or enabled it by refusing to publicly acknowledge Trump’s defeat. In the run-up to January 6, most top GOP officials refused to denounce extremist groups that were spreading conspiracy theories, calling for armed insurrection and assassinations, and ultimately implicated in the Capitol assault. Few Republicans broke with Trump after his incitement of the insurrection, and those who did were censured by their state parties.

From November 2020 to January 2021, then, a significant portion of the Republican Party refused to unambiguously accept electoral defeat, eschew violence, or break with extremist groups—the three principles that define prodemocracy parties. Because of that behavior, as well as its behavior over the past six months, we are convinced that the Republican Party leadership is willing to overturn an election.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2018; 2020election; authoritarian; danielziblatt; election2024; gop; harvard; howdemocraciesdie; j6; stevenlevitsky; theatlantic
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To: libh8er

These guys will never understand the damage they’ve done until they get smashed in the face for it. The left has been allowed to run amok and needs to be put down at this point. There’s no other way to have peace anymore, the left has destroyed any chance of that along with everything else Americans hold dear, including our once fair and free elections.


41 posted on 07/11/2021 11:54:22 AM PDT by Bullish (CNN is what happens when 8th graders run a cable network.)
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To: libh8er

I’m so sick of the left constantly saying Trump was an authoritarian in office. Really? How many newspapers and media outlets did he have shut down? Did he have the FBI and CIA spy on his political opponents? On the contrary, they SPIED on him! No one had their free speech rights halted by the Trump Administration. It’s the left doing the censoring and cancelling of the rights of all Americans. The Atlantic article is a pile of crap, but I find it interesting that they seem to time these hit piece articles when a particular issue is starting to look bad for the left. They’re afraid of these election audits and what they may reveal!


42 posted on 07/11/2021 11:55:36 AM PDT by dowcaet
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To: libh8er

If we had np compunction about stealing an election we would have done it LAST time


43 posted on 07/11/2021 11:57:04 AM PDT by SMARTY (Republics decline into democracies & democracies degenerate into despotisms. Aristotle)
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To: libh8er

The greatest threat to Democracy is Lunatic Leftist Media organizations that are willing and eager propaganda organs of the DemoMarxist Party.


44 posted on 07/11/2021 11:58:37 AM PDT by Bayan
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To: melancholy

Typical Alinski; accuse them of what you do!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Right out of Rules for Radicals.

The Ministry of Propaganda told us before the election that we would see a “red mirage” on election night, but that the days that followed would show a Biden win.
They told us after the election how they “fortified” the election.


45 posted on 07/11/2021 11:59:09 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents)(Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: libh8er

imbeciles


46 posted on 07/11/2021 11:59:56 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (RISE UP O MEN OF GOD. BE DONE WITH LESSER THINGS.)
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To: Textide

That’s why they co-opted the opposition party.
Most of the elected GOP are Assistant Democrats.
Who else would want to give them a permanent majority with amnesty for illegal aliens?


47 posted on 07/11/2021 12:03:27 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents)(Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: JonPreston
I believe the Republicans are in on the Steal.

They're not smart enough to be the masterminds. They're only good for driving the getaway car.

Those guys usually get whacked in the third act.

-PJ

48 posted on 07/11/2021 12:08:24 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (* LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: JonPreston

They are.


49 posted on 07/11/2021 12:09:54 PM PDT by sport
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To: libh8er
or the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president refused to accept defeat

Purposefully (deceptively?) worded to eliminate Al Gore from consideration.

50 posted on 07/11/2021 12:09:54 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (Never do anything illegal, when you are doing something illegal. )
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To: libh8er

The Atlantic: The Biggest Threat to Democracy Is the GOP Stealing the Next Election

The Atlantic Translation: Our Democracy will be destroyed if the GOP so much as wins one more seat in our next election. They must be stopped!!!


51 posted on 07/11/2021 12:11:29 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: nesnah

WTF are these morons smoking?


CCP manufactured drugs, usually Fentanyl ...


52 posted on 07/11/2021 12:12:50 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Regulator
My Paternal Great³ Grandfather, Robert, and Great⁴ Grandfather, Moses, both fought with Colonel Campbell's Virginia Riflemen in the Battles of Kings Mountain and Guilford's Courthouse.
53 posted on 07/11/2021 12:17:03 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken )
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To: libh8er
IIRC it's now the widow of Steve Jobs who is bankrolling The Atlantic.
54 posted on 07/11/2021 12:31:00 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: libh8er

When the revolution comes we burn Harvard and Yale to the ground and drive these professors naked into the wilderness.

L


55 posted on 07/11/2021 12:33:00 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
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To: Mathews

The Supreme Court was intimidated because of threats of court stacking. The Dems had an iron-clad strategy and now we will have to buckle down with faith in Jesus Christ to bring love back into this nation and the armor of protection.


56 posted on 07/11/2021 12:37:56 PM PDT by jonrick46 ( Leftnicks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: PIF

Flabbergasting, astonishing and downright shocking.

But maybe that is the virtue of this screed. A lie so big, so outlandish, it has to contain a kernel of truth somewhere.

Whereof comes these tales and deeds of election tampering? A very good engineering blueprint of the effective ways to make it all happen was unveiled in the 2016 election in New York State and California, and some of the other coastal regions. Herself won those venues by exceptional margins, enough so that she could claim to have won the “popular” vote, but lost the Electoral College vote anyway.

This time, the circumstances made it possible to apply many if not all those vote trickster tactics in a sufficient number of states to tip the election in the Electoral College as well as just the “popular” vote.

Just from a general point of view, more votes were COUNTED in this election than there were legal voters that used the voting booth, or the legitimate early voting, or the vote-by-mail procedures already in place and established with adequate safeguards in many states previously. Add to that the curious algorithms used by certain voting machine systems, that seemed to switch votes by some predetermined manner, that permitted the trailing candidate to catch up to and go into the lead as the vote count was nearly complete.


57 posted on 07/11/2021 12:41:40 PM PDT by alloysteel ( Cows don't give milk. You have to work for it.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Yup. You’re right.


58 posted on 07/11/2021 1:00:11 PM PDT by melancholy (You can vote Socialism in, but you have to shoot your way out. (FReeper pilgrim heard it said))
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To: libh8er

They believe that Joe Biden got 84 million legitimate votes and the think I’m crazy? C’mon man.


59 posted on 07/11/2021 1:04:28 PM PDT by Dave Wright
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To: libh8er

Why is it Democrats always accuse Republicans of doing exactly what they do themselves? It’s pathological.


60 posted on 07/11/2021 1:06:14 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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