to those thinking “if they did this no one would vote for them again, it would be political suicide”

My sweet summer child, they would do this is if they knew that there weren’t going to be anymore elections. if they’re 100% sure they can pull that off then they will start mandatory conscription.

they would do this is if they knew that there weren’t going to be anymore elections

Ballot box or bullet box.

You’d get street protests from sea to shining sea that would make BLM and Occupy look like the Macy’s Day Parade.

The US is enormous, authority is devolved, and a lot of what keeps the wheels moving is voluntary compliance. Elections help people to believe that government is popular and their own stupid opinions are just in the tiny minority.

When you try to force these systems of power through brute force, you break them. It’s a recipe for balkinization and civil war. Same as what happened in the run up to the Civil War, when slavers and abolishionists came to a head.

You had low key insurrection all through the North long before Buchanan left office. Southern states effectively denying Lincoln a ballot line only fueled his popularity in response.