War games and draft lawsuits: Democrats work to Trump-proof November election
asserted
Democrats → work → election
-
Click here to listen to this article -
- Stepping in for an absentee Congress, Democratic attorneys general are ready to fight efforts to undermine or overturn the midterm balloting.
-
asserted
general → click → balloting
‘We need to stay nervous and stay vigiliant,’ says Colorado’s Phil Weiser.
asserted
Weiser → need → ?
From his aerie, Phil Weiser has a sweeping view of the city skyline, the gold-domed Capitol and, occasionally, a red hawk on the wing.
asserted
Weiser → have → wing
But looking toward November, Weiser sees something darker.
asserted
Weiser → look → something
Federal agents swarming polling places.
asserted
agents → swarm → places
Voters intimidated or blocked from casting their ballots.
asserted
Voters → intimidate → ballots
“With this administration what we have seen is it’s important that we not limit our imagination to what ... type of harm could happen,” Weiser said during a sunny noon hour in the Mile High City.
uncertain
Weiser → see → City
For that reason, Colorado’s attorney general and his Democratic peers around the country have spent more than a year strategizing — by phone, via Zoom, sometimes in person — on ways to Trump-proof the midterm election.
asserted
general → spend → election
They’ve researched history and the law, war-gamed what-ifs, divvied up responsibilities and drafted emergency lawsuits and temporary restraining orders so they can be hurried into court at a moment’s notice.
Richard M. Nixon famously declared, ‘I am not a crook.’
asserted
I → research → notice
Donald J. Trump, his approval rating slumping toward Nixonian levels, is urging his backers to act like crooks in November’s election.
asserted
rating → slump → election
“We have prepared for a range of contingencies ... so that we’re ready to act,” Weiser said.
asserted
Weiser → prepare → contingencies
“We’re not going to be reacting in real time” or pulling all-nighters, he added.
asserted
he → go → nighters
“We are going to be following through on plans we’ve made, having looked at what’s possible.”
asserted
what → go → plans
The efforts of Weiser, California’s Rob Bonta and more than 20 other Democratic attorneys general are part of a mass mobilization aimed at thwarting Trump’s unprecedented efforts to pervert and subvert November’s midterm balloting.
asserted
efforts → aim → balloting
It’s remarkable that kind of man-the-barricades action is needed to preserve and protect the voting franchise in this, the land of the free and home of the brave.
asserted
kind → ’ → brave
But having weighed the threats, Weiser said his greatest fear of election interference comes not from a bad overseas actor or some terrorist group, but rather our own federal government “and what this administration might do.”
uncertain
administration → weigh → what
To fend off that threat from within, state Democratic parties across the nation are aiming to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in the event armed federal agents show up.
asserted
agents → fend → event
Various sponsors have launched education campaigns to explain election rules and offer hotlines for voters who have trouble casting their ballot.
asserted
who → launch → ballot
Civil rights groups and democracy-defending organizations have staged their own tabletop exercises brainstorming and rehearsing various scenarios.
asserted
groups → defend → scenarios
A group of Democratic U.S. senators has done the same.
asserted
group → do → same
“What we’re doing is preparing for the fact that Donald Trump, in 2020, lied about the election in advance, lied about it in the aftermath, went to court … and then he instigated a violent insurrection in this very building,” Marc Elias, a Democratic elections attorney, told MS NOW in a July interview at the Capitol.
asserted
Elias → do → Capitol
“So I think we need to take these threats in the 2026 midterm run-up … both seriously and literally.”
asserted
we → think → up
In a more courageous, less heedlessly partisan world, Republicans would be working with Democrats to keep the power-drunk Trump in check.
asserted
Republicans → work → check
(The House and Senate supposedly comprise a separate and equal branch of government, with its own power, prerogatives and such.)
asserted
House → comprise → power
But, as Weiser noted, this Republican-led Congress “has been lacking in backbone, lacking in the role of checks and balances.
asserted
Congress → note → checks
That has left it to state attorneys general to fill that vacuum, going to court and essentially playing the role of a check on a lawless and often bullying president.”
asserted
That → leave → president
The nation’s 24 Democratic attorneys general have filed more than 125 lawsuits in Trump’s second term alone, fighting his moves on trade and tariffs, energy and immigration policies and efforts to gut or eliminate programs and whole government agencies.
asserted
general → file → programs
They’ve prevailed in the overwhelming majority of cases that have been adjudicated or settled.
asserted
that → prevail → cases
Even before Trump was elected again, some attorneys general began conferring on ways to fight the excesses they anticipated in a second administration.
asserted
they → elect → administration
Anyone who didn’t see them coming wasn’t paying attention, said Weiser, who, most likely, will be elected Colorado’s next governor on Nov. 3.
asserted
who → see → Nov.
(His victory in Colorado’s Democratic primary stemmed in good part from Weiser’s record battling Trump in court.)
asserted
victory → stem → court
“The worst-case scenario was that a Trump presidency would work to implement Project 2025 and would do things like try to end birthright citizenship, try to interfere with the delivery of ballots in the mail, would seek to use ICE in ways that were a basic affront to the rule of law,” Weiser said.
asserted
Weiser → work → law
“All those things have happened.”
asserted
things → happen → ?
Victor Marx barely won, but his victory delivers a strong statement about the nature of today’s politics.
asserted
victory → win → politics
It shows what happens when a party stops seriously competing and instead indulges its fever dreams.
asserted
party → show → dreams
Trump is constitutionally (small “c”) incapable of acknowledging the result of any election he didn’t win.
asserted
he → acknowledge → election
He’s openly urged supporters to “cheat like hell.”
asserted
He → urge → hell
Thus, one can only assume malign intent when the president tries to wantonly purge voter rolls, hijack the U.S. Postal service to gum up mail balloting and override the Constitution (capital “c”) by federalizing November’s election.
asserted
president → assume → election
Some might call such fears melodramatic, or overblown.
uncertain
Some → call → fears
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
