Imagine you vote for somebody, they win, and Washington decides your district doesn’t get to seat them. According to reporting, that’s being openly entertained in a circle of MAGA influencers heading into the midterms.

Retired Air Force colonel Rob Maness floated a hypothetical about Ilhan Omar being charged and said he wouldn’t seat her as speaker, election or not. I spent twenty years as a cop. A charge isn’t proof. And the Supreme Court already addressed the House inventing new qualifications for elected members in Powell v. McCormack.

The same allegation-versus-proof problem shows up in California. DOJ identified more than 20,000 people it suspects are noncitizens on the rolls. On October 30, a federal appeals court denied the administration’s emergency request. That doesn’t make everyone on the list eligible. It means the government hadn’t earned that kind of intervention in the middle of an election.

Then there’s the civil war talk, from people who, according to reporting, have held civilian roles at the Pentagon. That doesn’t mean the department directed any of it, and nothing in the reporting shows Trump ordered it. The White House sent reporters to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon didn’t respond.

I know what happens when people decide a political emergency gives them permission. On January 6, I was on the receiving end. The guy on the mic calls it a hypothetical. The person listening may hear a mission.

Vote. Protect election workers. Challenge real misconduct with evidence. Don’t let them scare you out of your rights.