When does it make sense to start contingency planning for when Trump successfully sabotages the election, then preemptively declares himself victor? Because it feels like we’ve been watching a test run of a loyalist paramilitary against direct mass action to remove him.

I very much wish this were the sort of question we could shrug off as paranoid fantasy, but... He’s openly admitted he’s trying to monkeywrench the postal service to make large-scale mail voting impossible. He’s already effectively saying it will be fraud if he loses.

He’s got unconfirmed “acting” cronies heading DHS and has been giving CBP and DEA unsolicited practice in deploying domestically to crack down on protests in urban centers. It no longer seems outlandish for this to potentially go somewhere very ugly.

At this point, frankly, the idea that he will NOT attempt to sabotage the election (he already is) or that he will accept the legitimacy of a defeat if it’s remotely close (and perhaps even if it isn’t) seems like the fanciful position.