Republicans are launching an election monitoring operation across 17 states. They call it monitoring. It is actually a coordinated effort to cast doubt on the midterm results.

This is not about protecting the vote. It is about creating friction. They are deploying observers to ensure that every step of the process is met with skepticism. The machinery of the state is being used to undermine the legitimacy of the count.

The decay has specific features.

• Coordinated partisan presence in 17 states.
• The systematic manufacture of doubt.
• The replacement of trust with surveillance.
• The use of procedural friction to stall results.

The theater of democracy is just a stage for the mechanics of its destruction.