Trump Sows Doubt on Voting. It Keeps Some People Up at Night.

[dajoki]

Trump Sows Doubt on Voting. It Keeps Some People Up at Night.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/us/politics/trump-2020-election-voting-rights.html?

In October, President Trump declares a state of emergency in major cities in battleground states, like Milwaukee and Detroit, banning polling places from opening.

A week before the election, Attorney General William P. Barr announces a criminal investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

After Mr. Biden wins a narrow Electoral College victory, Mr. Trump refuses to accept the results, won’t leave the White House and declines to allow the Biden transition team customary access to agencies before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Far-fetched conspiracy theories? Not to a group of worst-case scenario planners — mostly Democrats, but some anti-Trump Republicans as well — who have been gaming out various doomsday options for the 2020 presidential election. Outraged by Mr. Trump and fearful that he might try to disrupt the campaign before, during and after Election Day, they are engaged in a process that began in the realm of science fiction but has nudged closer to reality as Mr. Trump and his administration abandon longstanding political norms.

The anxiety has intensified in recent weeks as the president continues to attack the integrity of mail voting and insinuate that the election system is rigged, while his Republican allies ramp up efforts to control who can vote and how. Just last week, Mr. Trump threatened to withhold funding from states that defy his wishes on expanding mail voting, while also amplifying unfounded claims of voter fraud in battleground states.

“In the eight to 10 months I’ve been yapping at people about this stuff, the reactions have gone from, ‘Don’t be silly, that won’t happen,’ to an increasing sense of, ‘You know, that could happen,’” said Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor. Earlier this year, Ms. Brooks convened an informal group of Democrats and never-Trump Republicans to brainstorm about ways the Trump administration could disrupt the election and to think about how to prevent it.

But the anxiety is hardly limited to outside groups.

<<snip>>

[Newest Reality]

1. It is simple...

This is what dictators do, not Presidents. Dictators want to dictate.

Attila The Don wants to solidify and build his regime. That is his number one priority without a doubt. Nothing but complete control and absolute power will satisfy him. That should be clear.

When we are fully cognizant of his motivations and intents and give some of the test marketing and sensationalist, reality TV show circus material less priority, we then have to grapple with that and the clear and present danger it portends for our democracy and the future of this country.

[Girard442]

2. The only way Trump stays in the White House is if people with muscle make it happen.

The American people have to keep a close watch on the Trumpians to head off any attempts to recruit coup allies within law enforcement and the military. Failing that, they got nothing.

[Renew Deal]

3. I think Trump being removed by the 25th amendment after the election is possible

[Laelth]

4. That might be ideal, truth be told.

-Laelth

[sop]

6. Trump will quite literally go berserk when he loses, the 25th may be only remedy at that point.

[beachbumbob]

5. not going to happen, all this is just noise

[Chainfire]

8. This is just the kind of mistrust, fear and division that

our enemies love to spread.

Such a coup would bring the people into the streets with their pitchforks; it is something the ruling classes will avoid. The powers that keep Trump propped up will abandon him in a heartbeat if they think that his actions would endanger their real agenda. Trump is a symptom of our problems, not the disease.

[beachbumbob]

9. bot driven and media obsessed for viewership

nothing under the constitution allows a delay of federal election and would take a massive change in Supreme Court outlook on "constitutional rights" which I NEVER see John Roberts doing.

[struggle4progress]

7. meh. let him try it. nobody will listen, and it'll destroy the gop forever

i think i need to commune quietly with honest abe a while

with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan --- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. Kick