Subject: Re: January 6, Part Deux

And I think you're wrong about the late 1970's. Those folks were in the immediate aftermath of Watergate and ABSCAM - I doubt there's much going on today they would have thought impossible. At best unlikely, but certainly within the realm of possibility. Other than the Russia stuff.

I was there. I finished my Bachelor's degree in 77 and entered the full time workforce.

The difference was there were consequences for corruption by public officials. Agnew was forced out by his corrupt practices as Gov of Maryland. Nixon was forced out by his corrupt activities as POTUS. Jerry Ford might have won the election in 76, if he had not pardoned Nixon, but the people were in a surly mood and not going to tolerate that sort of whitewash. And, when he lost, Ford quietly left office, instead of having a hissy fit, and inciting a riot. Abscam rolled up seven corrupt members of Congress, as well as some state and local officials.

But corruption has been normalized. Ignoring democratic processes has been normalized. Ops like Abscam don't happen anymore. We joke about Trump's "ball room fund", "Trump Center remodel fund", and "Board of Peace" as "bribe laundering schemes" because it is so obvious that is what they are.

I mean, sure - they're grabbing mostly rules-compliant and otherwise law-abiding folks (the ones who voluntarily show up for hearings). But that's so much easier than going after violent criminals! It's just efficient!

You forgot the sarcasm tags. The point is, that those people are here *legally*, until they have had their legal due process wrt their asylum claim. Grabbing them as they show up for their hearing, is, in that sense, grabbing people who are here legally.

But that's not true at a polling place. There's little reason for people who are undocumented to go there. Even if you subscribe to conservative fever dreams about the undocumented voting in large numbers, they're pretty unlikely to do that via in-person election day voting, rather than other methods.

Trump has been on his campaign against "mail in voting" for years, to force people to line up at the polls. MAGA will love the visuals of brown people being yanked out of line at the polls. The fact that they will all be found to be US citizens, and released, after the polls close, will not matter to MAGA. The important thing, in their eyes, would be that they were prevented voting.

Steve