The Coup

A persistent media narrative since the election of Donald Trump has been that Hillary won the popular vote, and this somehow makes Trump illegitimate. To help make the point, they continually point out the Electoral College system itself is racist. And sexist.

There is probably a thinkpiece coming from Salon, or an explainer from Vox, about how the Electoral College is ableist or classist as well. The point is to de-legitimize the system. That being done, the next step is to target the individual Electors themselves.

This is the logical outcome of our tolerance for direct action. These days, it is normal for hundreds of women to parade in front of a man's house wearing disgusting yoga pants.

This insurrection might be directed from the sitting President himself. The Tiffany Network ran a story "wondering" if some electors will "go rogue." Never forget that the president of CBS News is the brother of one of Obama's national security advisers.

Other media outlets have gone much further. Politico published the names of all 538 electors.

Buzzfeed published a list of the electors with their personal information attached. They later took the post down. Ten hours later.

Yesterday, electors reported that they were being harassed.

Today, electors are reporting they are receiving death threats.

Tomorrow, expect to see the deep dives of investigation begin to bear fruit. Recalcitrant electors will have court records unsealed, and The Guardian will have a story about an elector who was once arrested for domestic battery. Meanwhile, stories about Democratic electors who volunteer at soup kitchens will proliferate.

This is Saul Alinsky's 12th rule for radicals: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions."

And the media will help the radicals, because the media has taken Trump's victory personally. Trump studied mass media for three decades, and applied that to his campaign. The media always believed that they could destroy anyone they chose to. They would attack, the target would apologize, and his apologetic weakness would diminish him.

Normally I'm not one for paranoid conspiracies. I need a few more data points to confirm. But the Twitter suspension of those on the alternative right is partial confirmation. The first thing totalitarian governments do before a crackdown is round up all the dissidents.

Some of the more powerful Twitter accounts, like Mike Cernovich and Ann Coulter, are also lawyers, and would put up a legal challenge. Twitter would want to wait until the last minute to ban hammer them. But the purge is continuing. Every day it's someone else.