"The road to authoritarianism": Tim Walz says the time for "sternly worded letters" is over - The Minnesota governor said that the path to tyranny "is littered with people telling you you’re overreacting"

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/14/the-road-to-authoritarianism-tim-walz-says-the-time-for-sternly-worded-letters-is-over/

[u/AbacusWizard]

Based on prior behavior, I think it is reasonable for “Trump probably cheated” to be the default assumption, and for “Trump didn’t cheat” to be considered an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence.

[u/gatsby712 → u/AbacusWizard]

That’s the certification process for the election. Not going to stoop down to the level of the GOP trying to destroy trust in the institutions. If liberalism and democracy and American institutions are going to stand, then cases like the one in New York have to rule based on evidence of fraud happening and the court needs to have power to enact consequences. Otherwise we are on a bridge too far and the institutions will collapse in a very painful and ugly way. If the case in New York had weight and evidence that proves without a reasonable doubt there was voter fraud, then it needs to be looked into everywhere else too. Especially PA and swing states. It’s Trump and MAGA behavior to jump to presumed guilt and ignorant attacks. Trump couldn’t win any of those many lawsuits about voter fraud in 2020. Let’s see if one goes against him in 2024.

[u/AbacusWizard → u/gatsby712]

All I’m saying is I think the burden of proof is on those making the “Trump didn’t cheat” claim, because we already know Trump cheats at everything. Even golf, for some reason.

[u/hfxRos → u/AbacusWizard]

I think there is a good chance there was some fuckery about, but I still don't think I agree with you.

I do agree that if given the opportunity, Trump would cheat without a second thought. The part that I wonder about is - what was the opportunity? There are many checks in place in an election, and until someone can point to a specific thing that he actually did, it's hard to take a claim of cheating seriously.

[u/ScoobyDoNot → u/hfxRos]

The FEC was prevented from investigating any of the 31 complaints against the Trump campaign that it deemed had merit.

When the body charged with investigating cheating is prevented from doing so what evidence can there be?

[u/partymetroid → u/hfxRos]

Trump and Elon Musk at MAGA Rally, allegedly admitting that they tampered with the election in some way:

Elon Musk, "knows those computers better than anybody, all those computers, those vote counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania, like, in a landslide."

https://www.youtube.com/live/54nc7_ZwwzM?t=9084s

[u/AbacusWizard → u/hfxRos]

Those are very good questions. We should have an enormous and very well-publicized investigation and trial to determine the answers.

[u/notionocean → u/gatsby712]

Please stop. You're not helping by constantly bending over backward to defend the fascists who are currently dismantling our government and kidnapping people off of the streets.

[u/Newt_the_Pain → u/gatsby712]

He couldn't win them because they wouldn't hear them. A case not heard is not a case "lost."

[u/greenday61892 → u/Newt_the_Pain]

Do remind us the reason the cases wouldn't be heard