I harbor no such illusions.

I can't tell you how many Democrats/liberals I know and have read online who are in "hunker down until this passes" mode. They think we just need to sit through the next 3-1/2 years and that it's so bad that "no one will vote for these guys" again. Too much faith that our existing election systems will still be in operation in '28.

The crisis is existential. Republicans aren't interested in following the electorate and providing what is needed. They're interested in forcing a narrow worldview on a country they've just taken over, regardless of what the citizens want or need. It's minority rule and is about pure power and control. It's a Mao-like cultural revolution.

I disagree whole-heartedly with Dems who are saying it's about money or economics. It's about 1984-like control of people's minds and souls. It's about forcing a Christian theocracy on the country. Christian Taliban is spot on.

I am doubtful the US will come out on the other side intact.

2028 election - it will be free and fair.

We are looking at Regime change by any means necessary.

To include Gerrymandering in the favor of American Patriots.

n/t

In fact, I believe one of two things will happen. Either the elections will be held but will be the most corrupt in our nation's history or Trump will declare martial law, suspend the Constitution and cancel the elections.

The trajectory of the Trump Administration is not towards openness and democracy. It's totalitarian and a dictatorship.

No more pussyfooting around after the victory. Those bastards are always conspiring.

We contribute to fight them in the courts. And we hold them accountable to the Constitution.!!

Stealing it as much as possible as well. That's right now. tsf can make it far worse and you can 100% count on him to steal the election. If Starlink is involved again, it is a certainty that we lose big every time.

for a free and fair election....

until we get rid of electronic voting machines and go to hand counts.

trust that now either

And we just know that the other party wouldn't do that after we extend our hand across the aisle.

but they're MAGAts.

These folks are enemies of American democracy, enemies of the American people, and given their climate denialism in particular, enemies of humanity. If they were situated in a foreign country patriotic Americans would support sending troops to neutralize them.

I would never expect that --- not with this crew. They must always have their finger (fist!) on the scale.

what if Trump suspends the election and the Senate and the Supreme court back him, no election, DONALD TRUMP FOR life... fuck

By free and fair do you mean that the votes cast will be counted accurately? I believe that.

Does free and fair mean nothing that might cause someone to not vote that might have otherwise like long lines or distance to the voting station? And what's the cutoff for acceptable and unacceptable? I'm lucky and the only time I had to wait more than a few minutes to vote was the 2020 general election. Is the cutoff 10 minutes? An hour? Obviously different people have competing time restrictions, people with kids will likely have less time to spend voting.

Does it mean no gerrymandering? That's been a thing forever and people here are demanding we do more of it. Does it mean no barriers like requiring whatever documents? Again, nothing new.

Further on gerrymandering, what is the goal of efforts to fix it? Is it maximizing competitive districts? Is it closely matching the political distribution of the population at the time of the census?

I don't ask these questions to be contrarian, but to hone in on what is meant because I'm guessing people have wildly different understandings of the question.

But I do think there's a good fundamental question about how to properly divide congressional districts and how that impacts turnout and political responsiveness. Would Republicans have turned as radical if there was pressure on them from competitive districts rather than just from a primary where the candidate is likely to be more rightward?

Would we have more bipartisanship if we had more people in Congress with a reason to compromise?

In Oder to Gerry meander the state in their favor.

But, if both parties strived to make districts more competitive, then we’d have candidates more open to compromise.

I never thought I would be for a mandated federal standard for redistricting, but that's where I'm at now.

We can't raise the minimum wage but a bipartisan crypto bill sails through thanks to crypto lobbyists that donate to both parties and punish their critics by funding their opponents. Some of the things that both parties agree on is pretty horrible such as arming & funding Israel while it commits a genocide.

I do support independent redistricting though which is like what we have in Arizona.

I don't believe any of the elections were honest.

The only reason Biden won in 2020 is because Trump didn't cheat well enough. If it were honest, Biden would have won by a much greater margin.

We know they were trying. I think that may have something to do with why he got so mad: he thought he had it in the bag.
And why in 2024, he said he didn’t need votes. They just perfected the scheme. Musk may have been critical in it, and not just with money.

the repugs are drunk with power and greed at all expense

However, I would add a couple of thoughts to the discussion.

Does talking about elections being canceled or stolen through cheating have a possible affect of depressing the turnout of Democrat and independent voters? Whose cause would depressing the voter turnout serve?

The Corporate owned McGreedia makes a $hit ton on money from coverage of the elections, not to mention political ads. Are they going to be willing to pass up all that loot? In return for what?
I get that many of us fear that cheating by the Guardians of Pedophiles will steal the election, but their ability to achieve that goal can be assisted by low voter turnout.
I completely understand that our side is miserably disheartened by our loss of the last election, but it seems to me that the best way for us to win is to turn out voters for our side in ginormous numbers, which would make any effort by the Greedy Old Perverts to steal the election blatantly obvious.
I'm not sure that undermining people's trust in our election process is a good strategy for motivating people to vote.
The Pukes have been handing us golden issues to achieve a Dem victory on: higher costs of living due to the tariffs being essentially a nationwide sales tax on all of us; destruction of Social Security and Medicare; higher health care costs through destruction of the ACA and Medicaid; increase of the deficit through continuing massive tax giveaways to billionaires and large corporations; removal of financial and environmental protections from anyone who isn't uber wealthy; etc, ad nauseum.
Is it really a good idea to depress voter turnout by insisting that all is lost and we should just give up in despair?
I'm with everybody who feels that way, but I don't think that convincing people that it's all rigged and we should just give up is an effective strategy.

They've whined and bellyached and complained and told us exactly how they are going to steal the election.

Wanna bet the Democrats lay down and let 'em do it?

...talking about "Wait until the midterms" as if autocrats are going to stop doing autocratic things.