The GOP doesn’t want mail-in ballots because that would take the hackable voting machines out of the equation.
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I think the line would go out the door. I see many people willing to commit violence for Trump but not too many willing to die for him. He doesn’t really inspire a lot of loyalty beyond “what can you do for me”.
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I don’t know if the possibility of an election with some states not reporting or sending electors has come up before, perhaps in 1864? Also, who is in charge of assembling and recording the vote of the College of Electors, presumably the Executive Branch of the Federal Government?
Like in Bush v. Gore?
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I wish I could concur. As far as his base is concerned he might as well be the Messiah. He certainly does not reciprocate loyalty, but for some reason I cannot fathom he doesn’t have a shortage of loyal supporters.
Plus there’s the matter of what happens to certain chains of command when the President disregards the Constitution. I do not take it as a given that the Secret Service would simply hand the President over to some other law enforcement agency if Trump refused to recognize the results of an election and resolved to stay put. I also have very little difficulty imagining his followers committing acts of terrorist violence across the country in his name.
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I think Reopening Fever has proven this wrong. Of course, none of them think that they are going to die, and a lot of them will risk it to…
…kill the brown people. Trump’s greatest political asset is not the economy, it is racism.
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Drudge (I think) said it about Clinton, along with all of the emerging neocon right. Chomsky (I think) said it about George W. Bush, along with a chorus from the Democratic Party. The right said it repeatedly about Barack Obama, along with similar nth part harmony from those knuckleheads. It was only a matter of time before they said it about Trump and they’ll say it about whoever comes next.
It is bullshit paranoia to stoke the echo chamber and we can expect it to continue forever.
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Every non-face mask wearing idiot out there is willing to die for him.
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That depends on the precise circumstances. If there’s a regular presidential election that produces a clear winner, certified as such by Congress on 6 January and sworn in by the Chief Justice on 20 January, but Trump holes up in the Oval Office yelling “FAKE NEWS! I’m still President”, then at 12.01pm EST the Secret Service are going to throw his crazy ass into the street, same as they’d do with any other trespasser who managed to get into the White House and refused to leave.
If there’s any sort of cloud over the result, however – for example, if GOP congresscritters mange to scupper Congressional certification of the results, and/or if it goes to a contingent election, esp. one that’s still not resolved by Inauguration Day – it could be a different story.
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Having an election is worth a shit. China and Russia have elections.
How you do it is important.
(also true after exchanging an “l” for an “r”)
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Trump has already done many of the things once thought unthinkable and had violated countless generations-old laws & norms of the office.
Will he try to cancel the election entirely? Not the most likely scenario maybe, but a possibility we must be prepared for.
Will he dispute the results of the election if he loses? We’d be naive to assume the answer is “no.”
Will he use all the power and influence at his disposal to influence the election, including massive voter disenfranchisement and inviting further meddling from foreign powers like Russia? Undeniably.
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If you think a pet stash of full-auto-converted AR-15s is going to do a goddam thing to stop The United States government from doing something you don’t like, you’re delusional. How many Nimitz-class carriers do you have under your pillow at night?
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You think the bulk of the citizens would stand to have the full might of the military thrust upon other US citizens? And you think all of them would comply with that command? You’re delusional.
That said, we are still waaaayyyy off from something like that. The Feds have been using much tamer tactics since the lessons of Ruby Ridge and Waco. It is very unlikely to come to pass.
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You cannot have mail-in voting without a Postal Service.
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I don’t think the most likely scenario for mass violence is “Federal troops march into cities across America in bloody coup to oust opposition in state & local governments.”
I think the most likely scenario for mass violence is “Trump supporters across the country start carrying out acts of terrorist violence and Federal government does fuck-all to stop them.”
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I did in fact consider Bush v. Gore. The difference is that in 2000 the election still happened, as dictated by law, they were just arguing a very close recount in one state. We’re debating something far grander and that is specifically established in the constitution. Like I said, there may be a way to do it, but even conservative legal brains say Trump can’t do it (see below). Congress would have to be involved, and that would be a desperate tug-of-war considering neither party owns both houses.
Key quote, for anyone who doesn’t want to follow the link : “Congress does have the authority to do so if both the House and the Senate pass an amendment to these laws and the president signs it into law.”
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That must be why Dole lost to Clinton
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Mister44, you are trying to warp this argument into a different one that you would like to have. I never said US citizens wouldn’t stand up, nor that the military would or wouldn’t do anything. My point was limited to shooting down (nyuk) the childish notion that the 2nd amendment is somehow defense against a dictatorship of the magnitude that the US would be. This requires imagining some ludicrous future which is the same flight of fancy required by this common power-fantasy interpretation of 2A).
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Ultimately, this discussion is at best a distraction, and at worst, a source of stress that people really don’t need right now. There’s really no point in getting in an argument over a wild hypothetical like this.
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People say things like “Moore predicted Trump” as if he was the only person out there who saw it was possible. There were others, even in the MSM. 538 was consistently saying that the polls were within the margin of error and that he had an electoral college advantage.
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Or as if all his other election predictions came true, which they clearly didn’t.
I don’t fear Trump will do everything in his power to prevent a fair and free election (or dispute the results of such an election) because Moore is predicting it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a scenario we need to prepare for.
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