Given the reactions to the egregious orgy of Hatch Act violations yesterday, it might finally be time to change the fundamental question "What will Trump do in November?" to "What will YOU do in November?"

The reaction to blatant illegal acts so far has been much hand-wringing and rending of garments, but nothing actually done. That will not suffice if the illegality is brought to bear to affect the election directly.

What will happen if, for instance, Barr deploys his federal SA wannabes in targeted areas to seize ballot boxes deemed "illegal" or "tampered with" or some such nonsense? Whining about the unconstitutionality of it all won't do much good.

What if people "finding their purpose in vigilantism" intimidate voters (or prevent them from voting) under the benevolent gaze of cops? What if election official are summarily replaced by regime-friendly drones? What will happen then, besides strongly worded op-eds?

This might have been seen as fantastic alarmism before, but stuff like this has already happened and no consequences followed. The brazen, public trashing of the Hatch Act can be construed as a test of what pushback is expected if laws are openly violated come election day.

This collapse of checks and balances is more than a dismissal of norms and institutions Americans blindly hope will protect them. It is a sign that the slip of the United States into authoritarianism may not be forthcoming, but may already be under way.

In other words, if Trump and his coterie of sycophants decide not to rig the election in secret, but to steal it openly, what's there to stop him, really? I wouldn't count on his scruples...