cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/42694823
Trump has no power to “decree” that voters must present ID or to end mail-in balloting. But that doesn’t mean he can’t at least try both. Under the Insurrection Act or some other dusty statute, he can declare a state of emergency. Then he can decide that said state permits, nay requires, him to take extraordinary measures. On October 5, say, that might mean outlawing early voting. By October 13, it might mean no mail-in voting. By October 29, a reminder that all voters must present ID to vote. And by Sunday, November 1, two days before the election—an announcement that all these “reasonable” measures have alas failed, and he is now forced, against his will, to postpone the election.
IN Politics yes, for sure, but I’d say the first one was Rush Limbaugh. His radio show became the gathering place for Conservatives, and was the recruitment and indoctrination center for millions of new Conservatives.
Those new Limbaugh conservatives not only voted in Newt Gingrich, but a LOT of other like minded radical Republicans for him to use as a club to beat America with.
But, yeah, that’s where it all started. Gingrich and Limbaugh were the Proto-MAGAs.
I think “maga”/Nat-Cs are just Republicans unmasked, that’s all. The party has always been full of these types (basically RWAs - Right Wing Authoritarians as described by Altemeyer). You had the John Birch Society going way, way back.
Democracy in Chains traces some of the threads related to the university level spread of this stuff. There are people that have discussed the Chicago School of Economics. I’ve not read it yet, but Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style in American Politics gets mentioned a lot. I’m sure there are some other good docs/books that might cover this long-running tradition, and I’d love to hear about them.