[continued from previous message]   
      
   and emboldening of the violent, well-armed, extremist fringe of   
   Trump followers.”   
      
   UCLA law professor Richard Hansen was then allowed by Edsall to   
   dream up a scenario where former president Trump runs for a   
   second term and “fails to win legitimately but finds a route to   
   being installed as president,” which, according to Handsen,   
   would mean the United States “ceases to be a democracy.”   
      
   As to what sneaky, illegitimate “route” Trump, or anyone else,   
   might take to being allowed into the White House while everyone   
   sits on their thumbs is unclear. Hansen either didn’t say, or   
   Edsall failed to include that part of his quote.   
      
   The piece went on like this at length, with various scholars and   
   professors consulting their dream diaries about what a future   
   second term for Trump or first term for DeSantis would mean.   
      
   —“Certain groups would be more vulnerable. These include   
   historically marginalized groups, who might find new   
   restrictions on voting. Or members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community   
   who are treated as second-class citizens.”   
      
   —“One might imagine the [Republican Party] in power during   
   unified government would seek to dramatically expand the number   
   and size of the federal courts, then fill these new positions.”   
      
   —“There could also be soft or harder controls over the media.   
   There would be tremendous uncertainty over what a postdemocracy   
   period would look like in the United States.”   
      
   Edsall concluded his piece by asserting that whether DeSantis   
   wins a second term as governor, it will be “a referendum on   
   democracy, and the odds do not look good.”   
      
   That we got from Point A — DeSantis is an exceptionally skilled   
   and popular policy executive — to Point B — DeSantis as   
   president would turn America into an authoritarian hellscape —   
   should leave everyone reading this with severe neck pain from   
   straining to find the logic.   
      
   To call this talk “divisive” is to give it way too much credit.   
   This is panicked. Democrats have surely spotted a threat, but   
   not to our system of government. The threat is to them.   
      
   https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/09/democrats-arent-divisive-   
   theyre-desperate/   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)