Discussing What Used To Be Unthinkable

We need to talk now about what used to be unthinkable. We need to talk about what happens the day after election day if they just … ignore the results. I’m not talking about securing things before the election. I am not talking about redistricting, or the efforts to restrict voting rights, or how they keep bringing up the repeatedly-proven-false accusations of vote-tampering. I’m talking about when a politician — or a whole political party — decides they just don’t want to follow the rules. The typical answer — what’s supposed to happen — is that there are rules for that, too. Whether generally about government officials breaking rules or ignoring court orders, or specifically about election results, the answer is the same everywhere I’ve looked: some variation on “but the rules say they’re supposed to”. There’s lots of talk about court rulings and how there are processes to keep things in check, and how things are supposed to go. There’s been movement to close possible loopholes in…