A few things the Republicans are up to

 Thom Hartmann

— Infiltrating police departments and the enlisted ranks of the military

— Taking over school boards and local boards of elections

— Firing principals and teachers who defend multiracial, multicultural democracy while banning books that contain such “dangerous” ideas

— Demonizing queer people and outlawing drag shows

— Gerrymandering states so regardless of how people vote, Republicans control the levers of power

— Changing election laws so they can both make it harder for city-dwellers to vote and to ignore and then change the outcomes of elections they don’t like  

— Building media structures that will support the authoritarian takeover when it happens

— Organizing armed paramilitary militias, with back-channel connections to local police

— Creating legal organizations to sanitize and rationalize ending messy democracy

— Radicalizing average Americans through social media and an ever-growing network of hard-right radio shows and podcasts 

— Spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories about Democrats and Jews using the dog whistle of “George Soros”

— Firebombing Texas Democratic Party’s Austin headquarters and threatening them that if they don’t stop trying to get Democrats elected worse will come