At some point it would end up as a test of the prestige of the Court and Congress vs. the Executive. Trump believes (erroneously, as usual) that in a showdown between him and the other Branches the military and law enforcement would take his side regardless of the black-letter law of the Constitution.
Very, very doubtful.
And even more likely Trump voters. But it’s dangerous to use too broad a brush to paint us olds (and yes, I is one.)
This one might get through on the merits. Yes, it would benefit Democrats against vote suppression but it would also help out some of Republican base e.g. the really rural voters a long way from much of anything.
He already convinced his supporters in Congress to enthusiastically forfeit their authority to hold him in check. The Constitution and the courts have said the legislature had the power to subpoena current and former members of his administration, but when it became politically expedient for a Republican executive to declare “no you can’t” the Republicans in the legislature didn’t even push back for a moment, instead declaring “DAMN STRAIGHT WE CAN’T!” with zero regard for the implications that had for their own authority.
If the Judicial and Legislative branches were unified against the Executive then we MIGHT expect the police and the military to side against him, but that’s a very tall order. Anyone who has sided with Trump through everything he’s done so far is unlikely to abandon him now, especially during a time of crisis.
Stabbing people WILL be the default way to cast a vote in 2024, replacing the previously popular “vigilante mob” form of election tallies after the results of the 2022 midterms are left in doubt due to the high number of hanging Chads (and Steves and Bettys and Jareds and Melindas…)
Amy Klobuchar and Ron Wyden have a bill before the Senate to make emergency funding and expertise available for this. Watch the Senate GOP shoot it right down.
Given the appalling state of the USA’s voting infrastructure (particularly in poor & non-white districts), delaying the election until appropriate safe-voting infrastructure (remote voting etc) is in place would actually be a sensible thing to do. More sensible would be to already have that infrastructure in place so that postponement is not required. Ideally, that would have been done decades ago, but the next best option is to get to work now to develop it ASAP.
Trump has no need to cancel or delay the election. It’s completely within his power to just rig it. The GOP control the electoral administration in the majority of states, and constantly demonstrate their willingness to abuse this power for partisan ends.
There’s also the fact that there’s people older than Boomers that people seem to forget about – there’s quite a few Silent Generation people out there like your aunt and my parents, and even a few GI/“Greatest” generation people left.
I’m pretty much of the mindset that we’ll be under martial law in about a month, and if anyone is still alive by 2024, it’ll be more like a post-apocalyptic feuding warlord situation in our failed states.
Hey, @beschizza can I ask a favor? We’re all pretty stressed out already over COVID19. Can you stop with the huge body-horror photographs leading every political article? It’s not that I necessarily disagree with the inherent viewpoint, it’s just that we have enough going to freak out over …
I think we’ve established here that if you post normal pictures of Fox Business’s Trish Regan or congressman Dan Lipinski, people not paying too close-attention will just assume it’s been horrifically photoshopped.
