Rachel on Kagan with Schmidt

 Rachel Maddow refers to Robert Kagan's article in the Post. He's a conservative raising the alarm about the Republican attack on our elections. 

the United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the civil war, with a reasonably chance over the next three to four years of mass violence, of breakdown of federal authority and the division of the country into warring between red and blue enclaves. The warning signs may be obscured by the distraction of politics, the pandemic, the economy, global cries and by wishful thinking and denial, but about these things there should be no doubt.

...

the amateurish stop the steal efforts of 2020 have given way to an organized nationwide campaign to ensure that Trump and his supporters will have the control over state and local election officials that they lacked in 2020. Those recalcitrant Republican state officials who effectively saved the country from calamity by refusing to falsely declare fraud or find more votes for Trump, those officials are systematically removed or hounded from office. Republican legislatures are giving themselves greater control over the certification process.

Then Steve Schmidt has some choice words.

I think it`s extremely ominous, Rachel. I think we are in a crisis. It`s hard to overstate the magnitude of the crisis. I agree with Mr. Kagan that Donald Trump will certainly be the Republican nominee in 2024. We have an autocratic movement in this country. And one thing is certainly true. The Republican Party of late September 2021 is a profoundly more radical party than it was on Election Day, than it was on January 6th, than it was inauguration day.

And part of the strategy -- and it`s important to understand -- you see this with the chaos that could result from the debt ceiling -- is they are trying both chaos at the same time where they are selling order. So, all right-wing authoritarian movements always do this. It`s how they come to power. They drive chaos through policies of cynicism and nihilism and then they promise to restore order with easy scapegoats.