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Comment by sorry_outta_gas | Hacker News Reader

After the summer of 2020 I wouldn't be shocked things sprial out of control fast

I'm pretty sure that if a mob pressures the Senate into accepting a slate of "alternate electors", and that swings the Electoral College vote, there will be a very short period of time in which this could be shut down short of a civil war.

For some lesser cause? Another murder of an unarmed black person, even by police, seems unlikely to cause it. Economic inequality? Doesn't look like it. Illegal aliens? Again, probably not. Climate change? Also no.

> mob pressures the Senate into accepting a slate of "alternate electors"

That would have to be one hell of a mob. How would they exert pressure? Unless their "pressure" is lawful then they'd just be arrested like the Jan 6 people.

The mob of January 6 was close to enough. If an equivalent mob brought weapons (or was willing to use the weapons they had), and if the authorties' response was equally ineffective and delayed, that sized mob might be enough. Ten times that size would almost certainly be enough.

How many Senators are willing to die for the Electoral College vote? How many are willing to do so after they just saw several other Senators shot dead in front of them?

I'm not sure on the downvotes, I'm speaking about the potential for social unrest and how easily it can be realized not the reasons behind them which everyone is free to agree or disagree with

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