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MAGA’s Dirty Tricks

Sheila Markin

Update November 4, 2024

 “Republicans bring back fake electors in battlegrounds,” by Liz Crampton and Kyle Cheney: “Of the 93 Republicans designated as prospective presidential electors for Trump from the seven battleground states, eight are facing felony charges for signing false Electoral College certificates in 2020, according to a POLITICO analysis. Another five signed similar certificates in 2020 but were not charged. And at least six others played notable roles in challenging the results of the 2020 election or promoting election conspiracy theories. All told, at least 1 in 5 prospective Trump electors from battleground states this year had some connection to the scheme to overturn the 2020 election.”

THEY’RE BACK, PART II — “The Proud Boys Have Regrouped and Are Signaling Election Plans,” by WSJ’s Tawnell Hobbs and Jennifer Levitz: “While it isn’t clear what the far-right group is planning or how coordinated its plans are, many chapters are amplifying election-cheating claims made by Trump or his allies and discussing potential responses … Chapters have gathered across state lines, talked about watching polls and have been boasting about attending Trump rallies to protect the former president.” (Politico Playbook)

Update: November 1, 2024

The MAGAs are losing in court in case after case.  It’s important to follow up on the court cases that the MAGA Republican Party is bringing to try to keep more Americans from voting.  Here is a run down of that information as summarized by Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket.

No matter what happens, this has already been the most litigated election in American history. This year alone, nearly 200 lawsuits have already been filed in 40 states.

This year will also be remembered for the composition of those cases. In 2020 Republicans and their allies were largely playing defense in court prior to the election. This cycle, they tried to flip the script by filing over 148 anti-voting lawsuits. The RNC revamped its “election integrity” legal team to bolster its aggressive litigation strategy, bombarding the courts with lawsuits aimed at restricting mail-in voting, kicking eligible voters off the rolls and more.

Equally important, however, has been the result of those cases. To be blunt, the GOP has learned that while it is easy to file a lawsuit, it is difficult to win one. Their losses have been staggering. In the month of October alone, the Republican Party lost 20 lawsuits.

On the Friday before Election Day, that is something we can celebrate.

Court wins from the past month

Over 30 lawsuits were filed in October — more than double the number of new lawsuits we saw in October 2020 — and over 30 cases were decided — also more than double the number of decisions that came down in October 2020.

We saw wins this month in the following categories:

  • Vote by mail: The October decision that might have the greatest impact on what votes count came from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordering counties to allow voters who submit naked mail-in ballots without inner secrecy envelopes to cast provisional ballots in person. Another win in this critical swing state happened in Luzerne County where voters will now be able to use drop boxes to cast their ballots. In Nevada, the state Supreme Court rejected the Trump campaign and RNC’s attempt to block the counting of non-postmarked ballots received up to three days after Election Day.
  • Overseas voters: One of the strangest targets Republicans have gone after this past month are military and overseas voters. Thankfully, courts stepped in to reject the GOP lawsuits in Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania so that U.S. citizens living abroad can participate in this year’s election.
  • Voter rolls: Just days before the election, when millions of votes have already been cast, Republicans in multiple states tried to remove voters from the rolls as part of their unfounded claims that noncitizens are voting in federal elections (they’re not). In North Carolina, a judge dismissed part of the RNC’s lawsuit that sought to disqualify over 225,000 voters. In Alabama, a court ordered the state to halt its voter purge programs. In Illinois, a federal judge partially dismissed a lawsuit led by the right-wing group Judicial Watch seeking to gain access to voter registration records and remove allegedly ineligible individuals from the rolls. And an Arizona lawsuit aimed at changing the way the states maintained their voter rolls was dismissed.
  • Certification: Even before Election Day, the post-election is already being litigated. All eyes were on Georgia this month when rulings blocked the controversial rules passed by the MAGA-controlled state election board that could have delayed the certification process. The Georgia Supreme Court denied a bid from Republicans to reinstate the rules after they were struck down. Another Georgia court ruled it is mandatory for election officials to certify results by the state deadline.

A year in review: Some of the major wins for voters

Thanks to court rulings issued this past year…

  • Drop boxes are back in Wisconsin
  • Also in Wisconsin, absentee ballots won’t be thrown out for witness address variations
  • 55,000 Minnesotans with felony convictions have their rights restored
  • Alabama and Louisiana each have an additional majority-Black congressional district
  • New Yorkers can vote early by mail
  • Utah voters can meaningfully engage in direct democracy
  • Minnesota and Nevada election workers are protected from intimidation and harassment
  • Ohio voters with disabilities can get assistance with their ballots
  • Volunteers in Georgia can hand out food and water to voters waiting in line within a supplemental zone of 25 feet (and so can New Yorkers)
  • Over 41,000 Arizonans who registered using the federal registration form can vote in the presidential election
  • Iowa counties can provide election materials in languages other than English

How Do You “Win” An Election When You Are Actually Leading an Autocratic Take Over of Our Country?

We know what that looks like because we are seeing it in real time in our country right now. Our country is under attack from a movement that is trying to snuff out our democracy and replace it with a dictatorship by installing Trump as the dictator-in-chief. Autocrats are leaders who have unchecked power and repress any opposition. They run the country they control into the ground while the rich get richer. Corruption is rampant. Elections are predetermined to re-elect the dictator.

How do the MAGAs get Trump into power? Trump and his allies are employing a bunch of dirty tricks to try to win this election.

We can see part of the playbook, but the effort is bigger and broader than what we can see going on in this election. Autocratic movements are global. These movements are usually supported by ultra wealthy people who want influence and power. In our country, for example, Elon Musk has joined Trump’s team and is throwing his own money at the presidential election to get Trump into power. He is even promising a million dollars to people who register to cast ballots- which is against the law. The DOJ sent him a letter warning him of the potential illegality of his so-called lottery. Now Musk is trying to alter the terms of the deal he is offering by claiming whoever wins the lottery will be a spokesperson.  Billionaire Elon Musk has been ordered by a judge to attend a Philadelphia court hearing on Thursday after he was sued by District Attorney Larry Krasner over his $1 million giveaway to voters.

This autocratic movement in the United States has been joined by other autocratic governments around the world. Autocrats help other autocrats get elected. Russia, for example, is trying to get Trump over the finish line, which was recently called out by the DOJ.

The battle has been going on before Trump became politically active, but Trump is leading the effort to take over our country and the fight is intensifying now with our election only a few days away. Trump knows the playbook. He most recently held a rally in which he called our country a garbage can. Dissing democracy and democratic institutions is part of the playbook. Crazy conspiracy theories are part of it too.

Autocratic movements have succeeded in many other countries around the world and work to help other autocratic regimes to succeed: Iran and North Korea are helping Russia to keep fighting Ukraine and these countries share information very openly to try to undermine the democratic world. Autocrats want to stay in power and will do anything to stay in power. Once in power, it is incredibly hard to get them out of power.

I highly recommend Anne Applebaum’s new book, Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World if you want to learn more about what is happening in our world that is currently affecting our election in this country.

She writes:

People think they know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top; he controls the police; the police threaten the people with violence; there are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.

DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE TO THIS ATTACK

The Democratic Party is aware of what is happening even if some of the response has been too uncertain and too late in my opinion. Kamala Harris is calling it out by warning people that this election is about their freedom.  The Department of Justice, Marc Elias (Democracy Docket) and other attorneys are fighting against this movement in our courts and mostly winning so far. So far, our courts are holding pretty well, but the autocratic attempt to take over our country and stay in power will not end if Trump loses. If Trump were to win this election, there will be tremendous pressure on our court system to cave in to the whims of Trump and the MAGAs. The courts are often the last line of defense in an autocratic country that has been taken over by a dictator.

Women have gotten engaged in the fight to sustain our democracy because they are on the front line of the loss of their fundamental rights with the end of Roe v Wade. Harris underscored this loss in her Houston rally with Beyonce. The Dobbs decision has resulted in many tragic and horrible medical outcomes for women because doctors are threatened with prison terms and the loss of their licenses to practice medicine if a woman is pregnant and miscarrying, has a tubal pregnancy or is experiencing some other reproductive health care emergency. Women are losing their lives, losing their ability to have future children, being forced to carry to term against their will after being raped, adversely affected for life because they could not get the medical care they needed. If you live in the wrong state you are unable to use IVF to get pregnant. Lawmakers don’t have medical licenses and have no business telling women what to do with their bodies. As Harris made clear in her rally in Houston, men are affected too when their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters cannot get the medical care they need. If Trump wins, there will be a national abortion ban no matter what he says he will do. He will cave to the wishes of the evangelicals because he needs their support to get and stay in power.

The loss of women’s rights would just be the beginning. If the autocratic movement in our country succeeds in this election, many more people will lose their rights. Florida, with Ron De Santis as governor, is creating a model intolerant autocratic state that bans books insists on revisionist history when historical facts are not to their liking, attacks LGBTQ and “others” many sub- groups that do not fit the desired image including darker skinned people or people who are not Christian. There would be concentration camps and expulsions of immigrants who could be caught when they try to pick up medications at Walgreens or CVS, for example, and do not have the proper citizenship papers.

DOJ EXPOSES MAGA INFLUENCERS BEING PAID BY RUSSIA TO SPREAD DISINFORMATION

Prominent right-wing influencers Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool have huge followings on YouTube and a fondness for the Trumpist talking point that allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election on the former president’s behalf are a “hoax.” That’s not all they have in common: They also reportedly enjoyed lucrative deals with a content creation company that was a front for Russian propagandists.

The Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian propaganda outlet RT on Wednesday, charging them with laundering almost $10 million through foreign shell companies and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The DOJ alleges this was done “to covertly fund and direct” a media company that produced videos whose content and subject matter were “often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests.” (MSNBC)

The Mueller Report exposed Russian influence operations in our 2016 election that Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. Based on these recent indictments, DOJ has become aware of much more Russian interference in our elections (Iranian influence also). Some well known MAGA influencers say they were duped by the Russians who used them to push Russian propaganda to their followers.

Federal officials have accused Russia of using unwitting right-wing American influencers in its quest to spread Kremlin propaganda ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department charged two employees of RT, the Russian state media broadcaster, in a scheme to secretly fund and direct the production of social media videos that racked up millions of views.

The RT staffers, named in the indictment as Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They’re accused of funneling nearly $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company that contracted with online influencers with big audiences.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday.

WHAT CAN WE DO

Pro-democracy groups need to understand the threat and pull together to defeat the threat. There needs to be more honest discussion about what is happening in our country and how it is part of a larger global autocratic movement. I don’t hear about that enough from the media.

The media needs to stand strong. Washington Post and  LA Times decided not to endorse Harris out of fear of retribution. How can the Washington Post claim that Democracy Dies in the Dark if they are part of the Dark?! The New York Times put General Kelly’s comments about Trump being fascist not on the front page of that newspaper but buried it on a later page. That is shameful. The failure of our newspapers and reporters to expose the threat or, worse, to give in to the fear that the dictator-in-waiting, Trump, could shut them down if he is elected, needs to be called out and LOUDLY. It is just that sort of wimpy response we have seen from people like George Bush, Mitt Romney, cowering Republicans, and silent lawmakers who know better that helps the dictator get into power.

Those of us who do know what’s up need to do everything we can to insure a win for Harris/Walz and the Democrats up and down the ticket. Until the Republican Party comes to its senses, it needs to lose elections.

Expect updates as they come and check for more!

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