I go back and forth on this one. Sometimes I think I’m being paranoid. Other times I believe I’m right.

Today I believe I’ve got a justified concern. My worry is that Donald Trump will try to steal the mid-term elections in November and then try to run again and stay in power after 2028.

The latest evidence for that argument comes in two forms: his complete take over of the Department of Justice and the FBI and his creation of his own paramilitary force in ICE.

Pam Bondi and Kash Patel took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to be loyal to Trump. Every day they make a mockery of that sacred promise. In a sane world they would have been impeached and removed from office on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. But that would require a Republican Party that hadn’t also sold its soul to the devil long ago. The latest example of their subservience to Trump is their carrying out of his orders to seize years-old ballots and other documents from Fulton County, Georgia. There was no legal justification for this. None. Zero. Those ballots have been counted and recounted since Trump lost the 2020 election. On the one hand you could say that this is just Trump continuing his obsession over that defeat. It’s bad enough that Bondi and Patel carried out his insane wishes while Congressional Republicans say nothing, but it will end there.

But you could also argue that this is a preview of things to come this fall. Trump will order Bondi/Patel to seize ballots in several Congressional districts won by Democrats. He’ll allege, without any evidence, that there has been some sort of voter fraud. Then he’ll order Mike Johnson to refuse to seat those Democrats, thus maintaining a Republican majority. Anybody who expects the Supreme Court to intervene hasn’t been paying attention to the Supreme Court.

And when people go to the streets to protest this — and even I, a guy who is absolutely allergic to everything about street protests, might join them — he’s got his Brown Shirts ready to restore “order.” And if they can’t handle it — and given their performance so far, why would you think they could? — he’ll order in the National Guard and maybe even Federal troops. That’s what all those “anti-crime” surges were about this summer and fall. Get people used to the idea of seeing troops in their cities.

It’s early of course, but every month or so there’s more evidence that this will be a Democratic blow out year. Just last Saturday, a Democrat won an open state Senate seat in Texas by 14 points. That’s a district Trump won by 17 points only 15 months ago. So, that’s a 31 point swing. The technical, political pundit term for this is: yowza.

I’ll add here my now standard language that nobody is voting for any kind of Democratic agenda, Rather Democrats are showing up in droves, motivated by all of Trump’s outrageousness, Republicans are lethargic and independents vote against whoever is in power. I’ll keep writing about that as the year goes on, but consider that base covered for now.

The hard-right likes to talk about “Trump derangement syndrome” as if opposition to a man who has quoted Hitler is a form of mental illness. Trump has created so many constitutional crises that nobody even recognizes them as such anymore. According to Fox News and, too often, even the more staid Wall Street Journal, it’s just the way it is and if you still keep harping on it, well, you’re just deranged. But what may happen in November will go way beyond that. It could be a full-on coup. And, at least as of today, I don’t think I’m being paranoid.

“But that would require a Republican Party that hadn’t also sold its soul to the devil long ago.” That’s literally demonization.

Part 2 is here.