Melquiades Gagarin 🌹 🇵🇭 🇵🇷Konto zweryfikowane

I'm torn between two reasonable arguments: 1) freaking out about Trump's authoritarian statements is serving his purpose of seeming more powerful than he actually is; 2) we've gotten here because we've consistently under-reacted to his authoritarian tendencies

I honestly don't know what's the better take on Trump's authoritarianism: he's bluffing and we'll jujitsu our way into his trap or we're not nearly as alarmed as we should be. But the former argument kinda reminds me of "don't feed the trolls", which has never worked.

Will overreaction really play into Trump's hands by discouraging Nov turnout? I haven't seen evidence of that during these past 4 years. People have BEEN freaking out and it led to a blue wave in 2018.

But there wasn't a pandemic in 2018 and Trump has made moves since then to consolidate power, particularly at the Justice Department.

Anecdotally, I know an elderly man who's interested in politics but not nearly as highly engaged or informed as me. I told him about PA Republicans plotting to steal the election. He is still planning to vote in person on Election Day.

Alsohttps://twitter.com/andreachalupa/status/1309161766081961991?s=21 …