this shit is so good. republicans break the rules and just do whatever they want and democrats response is 'sorry, the rules say we can't do anything' https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1293995915888361472

"what do you expect them to do???" i expect them to start breaking rules. get fucking weird. throw your body on the gears and just do absolutely bizarre and drastic shit to stop an election being blatantly criminally rigged

break rules, make up non-existent ones to accuse republicans of breaking to slow shit down, park a truck on their front door, leak scandals about them and/or make up non-existent ones, personally physically threaten them

or at least get serious about dominating the news cycle

go back to your state and use local influence/forces to bring resources to your post offices, tell them to break the orders of their bosses and you'll pardon them if arrested, take anyone locally messing with the mail and charge them with bullshit to take them away from work

if i'm a politician with a fair amount of power who knows i can wield it to avoid any personal consequences of my own then i can think of like a million different ways to affect what's happening other than strongly worded letter and tell people to vote early

it's not like you even have to think about how to do it in *secret* either - consequences and enforcement against politicians breaking rules and laws have been eroded to nothing.

you can just break the rules! in public! on camera! it won't matter!

people quote tweeting this shit derisively: democrats use local influence and power to illegally harm and intimidate people in their cities, districts, states, all the time

they could, for once in their lives, use this to do *good* things

they have immense power and influence and a lot of protection from the law. they can (and already frequently do) actually do *quite a bit* that's not enshrined to them by the constitution or local legislation

pete buttigieg didn't cross all the t's and dot the i's and submit all the proper paperwork every time he wanted to shut down black officers on south bend's force complaining about racism, y'all

there is so much they can do with their influence, they just rarely use it for good