Subject: Re: Selective prosecution
...whatever the plans were of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, they had no actual real-world chance of allowing Trump to retain the Presidency.

By themselves, no. But they weren't by themselves. They had people in government trying to move some levers. Trump himself called state officials (most famously in GA) saying "find me 11000 votes". In this particular instance, he had no chance. He hadn't put in place enough lackeys to do his bidding. He had insulted the Pentagon, so he couldn't rely on military support (which would violate posse comitatus, though if there was a coup then I suspect they wouldn't respect posse comitatus). He hadn't done all the stuff that would have facilitated his illegal seizure of power. But I do believe it is naive to think it couldn't happen here. So he was threatening our democracy, and his actions will linger for years. I was hoping we'd have more convictions before next year to put a chill on anyone trying something like this again. We've got a few Proud Boys, but we need some of the bigger wheels (like Sidney Powell, and several of the other higher-ups that were indicted). As you say, just because they weren't successful doesn't mean they aren't guilty of the attempt (and conspiracy surrounding the attempt).

Because he almost certainly is going to be the Republican nominee. We need people to be terrified of tampering with the election so that he can't pull anything shady again. People will be too afraid to be complicit. Trump won't be scared. He's too dumb, and narcissistic. If we continue to have disruptions to the peaceful transfer of power, eventually we may not have a peaceful transfer of power.