The Nazis have reason to be afraid. Above is a chart of the control of the Senate, Presidency, and House since 1855.
In the 120 years from 1901-2021, the US has had 64 years of split rule and 56 years in which one party has held both chambers of Congress and the White House:
1921-1933 GOP 12 years
1933-1947 Dem 14
1949-1953 Dem 4
1953-1955 GOP 2
1961-1969 Dem 8
1977-1981 Dem 4
1993-1995 Dem 2
2003-2009 GOP 6
2011-2013 Dem 2
2017-2019 GOP 2
After the watershed election of 1932, Democrats held a sweep for 30 of the next 48 years. During that period we enacted the New Deal, restored America from the Republican-created Great Depression, beat Hitler, built the American middle class, won the Cold War, and walked on the fucking moon.
A 1932-like realignment could destroy the GOP as a national party for a generation or longer. Note that while Democrats were split between liberal and regressive factions during the FDR Realignment, and the two warring sides often undercut one another, the Democratic split is now only between liberals and centrists. Democratic rule now, while still compromised by crony capitalism, would be unburdened by the racists and fundy wackjobs we ejected from the party in the post-WW2 period. Democratic leadership now could be far more coherent, and far more effective in advancing a progressive agenda not only on social justice but towards unwinding the plutocratic nightmare of the last half century.
We truly could undo much of the damage of the 1981-2021 interval (a.k.a my entire adulthood), and in a fairly short amount of time. The GOP held a sweep for just 8 of the 40 years of the Reagan Realignment (1981-2021), and look at how quickly they transformed this country into an Off-Broadway Pinochet revival.
We could start with decades-delayed reform of the political process itself, to seriously curtail fraud, Jim Crow 2, and bribery. Those were the only way the Republicans were able to get to the White House since 1992. Having restored free elections, we could move on to correct some of our other constitutional imbalances, admitting new states, creating guidelines for elections and election equipment in order to qualify for the federal guarantee of state “republican government,” and addressing the “Rotten Borough” problem of gross population imbalances in the Senate.
The point is: the Nazis have reason to worry, and they aren't going to go quietly. They know an interval of Democratic control, now unburdened by the internal cancer of the Dixiecrats, could spoil their work of two generations of neo-feudalism and white supremacy. They will certainly not go without cheating, and perhaps not without violence. We need to be ready for their meltdown.
Right now polling suggests a good chance of a Dem sweep. Say things keep getting worse for the Nazis. Say on Labor Day Dump is down 16 points and polling is predicting a 1932-like realignment tsunami and the demotion of the GOP to a regional white nationalist party.
What will the Nazis do? There are three options:
1. Take their lumps; try to rebuild on the other side
2. Eject Dump; limit the damage as best they can
3. Stop the election
#1 and #2 are fine; they are normal politics. #3, obviously, is a coup and has to be prevented by any means available. Hopefully the last 30 years in general, and 3 in particular, has convinced everyone that the Nazis have no scruples. What was Merrick Garland after all but halting a constitutionally-mandated process for partisan purposes? Dump would do it, McConnell would go along, and a SCOTUS that installed a Republican president and has only gotten worse since is no guarantor of democratic process.
So, looking squarely at #3, what can we be doing today to be ready for it? How do we stop them now so they cannot even begin to consider it?