As I watched Chris Hayes tonight, a question arose in my mind....

[lastlib]

one that I couldn't answer. So I turn to pose it to the DU brain trust, with hopes I can get an answer that will help me (and all of us) focused on what's ahead this election year. My question is:

What can tRump/allies do between now and November to fuck up the election in a way that guarantees that he wins?

Obviously his Ukraine gambit was one step; his "Obamagate" tirade is another; I'm sure that everything he does or doesn't do regarding the pandemic is calculated to help him (victims and society as a whole be damned, of course) win. Voter suppression (including fighting vote-by-mail among other things) is on his list.

Will he start a last-minute war? Is he already enlisting Russia or other countries to help him? What (specifically) will they do? Hacking/wreaking havoc on voter databases? Monkeying with voting machines, twiddling vote totals at state election offices? Sabotaging Biden's campaign? (Maybe his pandemic non-response is part of that). Declare martial law? What else are we not thinking of that we need to head off before November?

Let's brainstorm this and prepare ourselves and our candidate before it's too late. We have 174 days til the election. Let's use them to maximum effect. I want to see the basturd buried in a historic FDR-size landslide!

[Dan]

1. Very simple answer for you....

Who counts the ballots?

[abqtommy]

3. and "Who is allowed to vote?"

[Dan]

6. Doesn't matter who is allowed to vote

If I count the votes.

[abqtommy]

7. Ya got me there!

[essaynnc]

2. all of the above

They will throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks. Everything you mentioned and a whole lot more. Last election there wasn't one thing that won it against Hillary, it was a myriad of things and every little bit helped.

[dawg day]

4. Trump can just delegate to Putin,

who is much more efficient at f-ing things up.

I think a few more bad polls, and Trump is going to fire his campaign guy Parscale and hire back Corey Lewandowski, which should be amusing.

[rampartc]

12. trump leads a totally deplorable troll army

and with the usa and cnn paying paying his travel and media campaign expenses he can buy as many bots and rent a trolls as he needs.

lewandoski us a nasty perce of work, but so is parscale. he will keep them (as well as bannon and wohl and stone and manafort) on the payroll.

[BamaRefugee]

14. He already has Karl Rove on board.

[dawg day]

21. Karl Rove wasn't content with the amiable idiot

...he abetted in 2000-2008. He looked at Trump and said, I got to get in on that!

He's the one who astutely pointed out that if you get elected with a minority vote, you aren't beholden to anyone. That became the GOP strategy.

[bobbieinok]

5. Obviously kill the postal service!! That eliminates vote by mail!

Trump has made it clear that's what he wants/intends to do!

[budkin]

8. War against China?

Because "you don't change horses in midstream!"

[BamaRefugee]

9. It will be even EASIER for them in 2020 than in 2016. They only have to concentrate on 5 states

or so. They know now there's no need to waste an ounce of energy and resources anywhere else.

And they've had 4 years of non stop testing and fine tuning the techniques they're going to use to win those swing states.
I always read here on DU that all we have to do is GOTV, but it's not true...if EVERY SINGLE VOTER in California, New York, if 100% of voters , regardless of party, in state after state miraculously voted for Biden, but the votes in the most important states went the other way, even by the tiniest of margins, all we're going to have is a landslide popular vote for Biden and a new inauguration being planned for Trump.

I don't know if our party has what it takes for the knife fight we're going to be in. Dirty, nasty, obscene lies are going to be spread 24 hours a day against our candidate. Those are going to hurt, eventually. Hillary "lost" just because of some vague "emails" mantra. John Kerry, a certified war hero, was brought down by lies. Al Gore was the VP of a super popular President (does this sound familiar?) and they found a way to deny him the Presidency. What's going to be thrown at Biden will be a thousand times worse.

We can tell the dirty, nasty, obscene TRUTH about trump and it won't make one bit of difference, people have seen and heard the utter degeneracy of his administration right in front of their eyes for 4 years, and what, 47% of them(?) COULDN'T CARE LESS, and can swing the election to him.

I am all for decency, and the right way to do things, and honor and fair play. But I am also for the survival of the United States of America. And I don't believe, unfortunately, that all of the integrity we can muster can overcome the sinister forces of half of Americans allied with a powerful Russian dictator. We honestly may have to get our hands dirty and our hair mussed if we're going to have a chance.

I believe there are people in powerful positions who can do things to bend the outcome of the election for the greater good of all of us. But will they have the courage? I don't think a bunch of us naively going into a booth and pulling some levers is going to be enough. I sadly think that is just wishful thinking. My only hope is that we have leaders who can indeed play 3-dimesional chess and win.

We live in interesting times. God help us all.

[rampartc]

13. _+1

[Sugarcoated]

18. The difference is, aside from Clinton, none of those candidates

ran against an incompetent criminal monster/rapist/child rapist/murderer of Americans/destroyer of the economy/daily embarrassment that is crooked Donnie. Even Hillary didn't run against the "seen him for 4 years" version. I'm not so sure Kerry lost because of the swift boating, btw. Hillary lost the EV because she had been demonized for years, misogyny and a perfect storm of events but she always had low likability numbers. Joe is very well liked and folks want the monster out. Sure, the RW machine will go after him like we've never seen but a couple things:

1. Most Americans have seen the crooked lengths Trump has gone to to smear Biden, the corrupt things he's capable of. This will be factored in on any attacks on Biden. People want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

2. They've seen Biden for years, seen what a good man he is. A little too friendly, but he's taken responsibility for that and the guy he's running against is a sexual predator with going on 30 rapes and assaults including a 13 year old child.

3. Joe Biden is authentic. That was, IMO the biggest problem Gore and Kerry had. People want someone that's real, they vote for who they feel comfortable with, who they like as a person more than issues.

4. A majority of Americans want experience, someone to take the wheel and right the ship.

[lastlib]

20. You make very good points!

Some states are called "battleground" states, and for a very good reason. These states are going to be the Democratic Party's "Antietam", and the fight there will be bloody and vicious. We cannot be nice this time. All of our talent and treasure needs to be laid on the line. I hope all Democrats and lovers of Democracy will be all in for the battle.

[lunatica]

10. If you conclude that there is nothing he won't do

then you have to accept the possibility that he will do the most depraved things you can think of. Then if you believe his friends in Saudi Arabia or Russia will help him by doing anything they can to keep him in power, then you have to think of the unthinkable.

Off the top of my head:

He will destroy the United Stated Post Office just because he doesn’t want anyone to vote by mail. He won’t care about all the rest of the damage that would do.

He will definitely kill his perceived enemies. Hell, some of his base would feel honored to do it.

The country will be ruined. Bankrupted, fleeced, and robbed.

Just being a Democrat will become a crime.

If he can easily have children put in cages, is there any doubt he won’t hesitate to put Democrats in cages too? I don’t doubt it.

There would be much more than all the above.

[BamaRefugee]

15. Just this thread alone will be used against us who posted when the show trials begin.

[lunatica]

16. Us and 60% of the population

We’ll be in good company.

[BamaRefugee]

17. Why do you think they haven't used those "FEMA camps" yet? The ones rightwingers moaned about for a

decade?
They're getting them ready for us, of course. < I've learned I have to add that emoji a lot here, but I'm using it only BARELY as a joke

[FreeState]

11. They already have been working on their plan for years n/t

[duforsure]

19. trump is trying to instigate violence and pitting one state against other ones.

So he can by declaration claim the election is postponed. While putin and his people corrupt the electoral votes in trumps favor no matter what the popular vote is. trump is putins and the russian mafia's puppet.

[hydrolastic]

22. I was thinking the same thing all last week

To me the post office is key he wants to get it into shambles so the people can't use it to vote. BUT the biggest item is happening right in front of us he is trying to open everything up in the middle of a pandemic. This will lead to more exposure and an increase in cases. In the fall with an upswing in cases He then goes the opposite way closes everything and delays the vote. IDK how he would go from there but the other thing i bet he does is a Blitz on privatizing education and selling off the infrastructure. Just in case he loses. i mean lets say you sell off the Hydroelectric dams or privatize schools or whatever. Your not going to be able to unsell them later... I have always thought that he is not all about trying to get himself rich. What he really wants is to get his friends richer. Be the top dog in his circle. Hang on! I think he is about to go for the biggest political takeover ever!