I say “speculation” rather than prediction, but based on the behavior of the feral GOP officeholders (which is to say, most of them) in recent days, I think something like the following scenario is plausible:

Trump leaves office next month, still insisting that he is the rightful president, still denouncing “fraud” and “theft.” Meanwhile, out in Real America, one or more Republican-dominated states, through their governors and/or legislatures, make official statements (even if these be mere “resolutions”) that the Biden/Harris administration is illegitimate and that any policies and regulations it may promulgate are accordingly null and void and without force of law. And if one brazen state takes such a public stance, others will surely follow, and the right wing media will take up the meme

Now, talk is cheap, and I daresay that any serious, consequential attempt by a state to thrust a stick into the federal spokes would generate some meaningful pushback, which even the officeholders must realize, but the mere proclamation will be enough to rile up the mouthbreathers with whom most of these states are abundantly provided. It’s hard to see how stoking the grievances of armed goobers yields anything but, from our standpoint, suboptimal results.

Years ago, in these very precincts, Bill Patient scoffed when I suggested that we could descry the stirrings of a nascent fascist movement. I wonder what he’d say now? What I say is that the thing is quacking pretty fucking loudly at the moment.

cordially,