Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Monday, August 4, 2025

MAGA gutting voting rights to establish permanent voter minority single party rule

To maintain permanent authoritarian control of congress  and the White House, MAGA elites need to gut voting rights and establish their permanent minority tyranny. The obvious timeframe is before the 2026 elections. Various sources, e.g., CNN and what's left of CBS News, are reporting that the USSC has accepted a case that it can use to completely obliterate the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA).

The whole point of the VRA was to prevent white voters from blocking black voters from having representation by gerrymandering the hell out of voting districts. But now absurd as it is, MAGA lawyers argue that creating or preserving black voting districts is unconstitutional because it discriminates against white people. If the USSC agrees with this argument, the VRA will be gutted and unenforceable. Republicans in red states will gerrymandering the hell out of House voting districts, giving the House to the GOP as long as MAGA authoritarianism is in power.

One analysis projects that hyper-gerrymandered voting districts would give (1) Texas and Florida together 10 additional safe House seats, (2) North Carolina and Ohio Republicans would each get 3 new guaranteed Republican seats for a total of 16 in those four states alone. Democrats could blunt most of that if they chose to gerrymander blue states to kick Republicans out of the House. Given the chaos in the Democratic Party, it is not clear what they will do to counter the threat, if anything.

Pxy estimates that Republicans could gain an additional 14-20 House seats if all red states gerrymandered to their maximum capacity, bringing their total gerrymandering advantage to approximately 30-36 seats compared to fair maps. If that assessment is accurate, it looks to me like Armageddon in the House for Democrats as long as MAGA stays in power, which may be for a very long time.

To maintain control of the Senate and White House, authoritarian MAGA elites need to rig and/or subvert elections, which they are in the process of doing right now. For example, after Democratic Party gains in the 2018 midterms, Republican-controlled states immediately began implementing new voting restrictions. By April 2019, states like Texas, Arizona, and Tennessee were considering bills that would: add criminal penalties for voter registration form errors, complicate early voting procedures, and fine groups involved in voter registration drives. 




In 2021-2024 there was an unprecedented wave of voting restrictions. Red states enacted laws that almost doubled the number of restrictive laws enacted in the past two presidential election cycles combined. At least 22 states implemented 38 new restrictions on mail/absentee voting not in place in 2020, and 14 states enacted 31 "election interference laws" imposing criminal penalties on election workers.

The lead-up lawsuits to the USSC taking up this attack on the VRA indicates that the USSC will probably decide that minority voting districts discriminate against whites. That would make the VRA unconstitutional and therefore void. Starting in 2026, the House will likely become permanently Republican as long as MAGA authoritarianism is in power -- ~75% chance IMHO.


Q: Who or what can stop MAGA elites from establishing and maintaining a long-term kleptocratic dictatorship with djt as dictator, followed by some form of kleptocratic authoritarianism (corrupt dictatorship, Christian nationalist theocracy, and/or billionaire-corporate oligarchy) after he is gone, (1) the USSC, (2) the GOP, (3) the Democratic Party, (4) the mainstream media, (5) the pro-MAGA media like Fox News, MAGA podcasters, X, etc., (6) the US military[1] or police forces, (7) the DoJ and FBI, or any other federal agency or agencies, (8) massive public resistance with tens of millions of people protesting in the streets, and/or (9) something else, e.g., late night comedians?  


Footnote:
1. djt and MAGA elites are trying to get the US military to work for MAGA kleptocracy and dictatorship. MAGA loyalists are attempting to transform the U.S. military into a force that serves partisan political ends, not the Constitution. The first manifestation of this was the systematic removal of military leadership deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump. In February 2025, Trump fired six top military officers in what has been described as a "Friday night massacre" at the Pentagon. Also, djt has instituted a new requirement that all four-star general nominees to meet personally with him before their nominations are finalized. The point is to find generals who will pledge loyalty to djt before the US Constitution. Finally, Project 2025 explicitly calls for using the US military for domestic law enforcement. Russell Vought, a major Project 2025 co-author and djt's current OMB director, has been recorded describing plans to (1) deploy the US military in response to domestic unrest, (2) put civil servants in trauma through systematic purges and attacks, and (3) create shadow agencies to rapidly implement djt's agenda without interference from the rule of law, congress or federal courts.

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