The Election That Could Break America (Trump could easily subvert the results)

[swag]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/

The Election That Could Break America

If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?

Story by Barton Gellman

Excerpt:

...We are accustomed to choosing electors by popular vote, but nothing in the Constitution says it has to be that way. Article II provides that each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” Since the late 19th century, every state has ceded the decision to its voters. Even so, the Supreme Court affirmed in Bush v. Gore that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.” How and when a state might do so has not been tested for well over a century.

Trump may test this. According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires.

To a modern democratic sensibility, discarding the popular vote for partisan gain looks uncomfortably like a coup, whatever license may be found for it in law. Would Republicans find that position disturbing enough to resist? Would they cede the election before resorting to such a ploy? Trump’s base would exact a high price for that betrayal, and by this point party officials would be invested in a narrative of fraud.

The Trump-campaign legal adviser I spoke with told me the push to appoint electors would be framed in terms of protecting the people’s will. Once committed to the position that the overtime count has been rigged, the adviser said, state lawmakers will want to judge for themselves what the voters intended.

“The state legislatures will say, ‘All right, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think the results of our own state are accurate, so here’s our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state,’ ” the adviser said. Democrats, he added, have exposed themselves to this stratagem by creating the conditions for a lengthy overtime.

. . . more

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. It's more than this election.

If Trump gets away with this "democratic" coupe, then Democrats will not be able to win a General Election for the foreseeable future as Republicans will prevent it. Think of the Republicans co-opting the federal courts and USSC. It can be done to presidential elections.

And democracy will die as this nation will no longer be constitutional republic and the minority will decide for the majority.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. I am so sick and tired of reading these doom and gloom articles. Enough of this nonsense. Enough!

[stopbush]

3. Agreed. And of course, it's the Ds fault, as always.

"Democrats, he added, have exposed themselves to this stratagem by creating the conditions for a lengthy overtime."

[hedda_foil]

5. You are badly misreading/misinterpreting this. Please read the full article.

[mzmolly]

8. I'm sick of ignoring

the obvious.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. BS. I can ignore BS if I feel like it's BS. My right to do so.

[mzmolly]

10. You can. But you didn't.

You chose to try and silence those who see what Trump is hinting at, as recently as yesterday.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. I'm not silencing anyone, this is in your imagination. I do have the right to express my

opinion too. Which is exactly what I did.

[mzmolly]

13. It sounded like you were protesting the content of article.

Apologies if I misunderstood.

[SWBTATTReg]

14. No apologies needed and thank you for offering though. I like to think that there are millions of us

who will stand up for what truly right and stand against what's wrong, should someone like the filth in the WH try and steal an election, and I can't believe that some would be so brazen to try and do so, against the wishes of so many millions, millions more I'd think then voted for HRC in 2016, especially now we've all seen what filth rump represents. That voice has woken up, and the beast in all of us will not sit still any longer.

I'd like to think that Mr. Biden, in all of his years of experience, the justice system, and the rest of us, can handle someone the likes of trump and his scumbag cronies.

I truly believe in right and what is just, and not the scumbags that have taken over the WH and are using that sacred office to enrich themselves, one of the greatest crimes to happen in modern times.

The true American spirit, of what it truly means to be an American, what it means to know right from wrong, to know what should stand, and be right, will resurrect itself and will endure.

In short, I have hope, the ultimate hope for all of us in having responsible and caring leaders in the WH and Congress again.

Take care and be safe out there. Thanks again.

[hedda_foil]

4. This is a stunningly important article. Please, please read the full piece. Essential reading!!!

[Celerity]

6. K & R for visibility

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Let us not hedge about one thing. Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede.

Let us not hedge about one thing. Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede. Not under any circumstance. Not during the Interregnum and not afterward. If compelled in the end to vacate his office, Trump will insist from exile, as long as he draws breath, that the contest was rigged.

Trump’s invincible commitment to this stance will be the most important fact about the coming Interregnum. It will deform the proceedings from beginning to end. We have not experienced anything like it before.

Maybe you hesitate. Is it a fact that if Trump loses, he will reject defeat, come what may? Do we know that? Technically, you feel obliged to point out, the proposition is framed in the future conditional, and prophecy is no man’s gift, and so forth. With all due respect, that is pettifoggery. We know this man. We cannot afford to pretend.

Trump’s behavior and declared intent leave no room to suppose that he will accept the public’s verdict if the vote is going against him. He lies prodigiously—to manipulate events, to secure advantage, to dodge accountability, and to ward off injury to his pride. An election produces the perfect distillate of all those motives.

[mzmolly]

12. Who wants to sign up?

This year, with a judge no longer watching, the Republicans are recruiting 50,000 volunteers in 15 contested states to monitor polling places and challenge voters they deem suspicious-looking...

[appalachiablue]

15. *Impt. Update Re Electors:

In PA, the Repub legistlature CAN'T appoint its own electors....
....without modifying the PA electoral code, which they can't because DeWolf would veto it. Same in WI and MI.

Per @NastyOldWomyn on Twitter.
10 https://democraticunderground.com/100214125461

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. This is a useful thread arguing, persuasively, that Trump's bluster comes from a place of weakness.

Aaron Rupar Retweeted

This is a useful thread arguing, persuasively, that Trump's bluster comes from a place of weakness.

Link to tweet