President Donald Trump on Wednesday would not commit to providing a peaceful transition of power after Election Day, lending further fuel to concerns he may not relinquish his office should he lose in November.(Via Joe.My.God.)"Well, we're going to have to see what happens," Trump said when asked whether he'd commit to a peaceful transition, one of the cornerstones of American democracy.
This isn't the first time he's said it, but I started thinking about all those pieces:
1) Railing against voting by mail, since, because of the way he's bungled the federal response to the pandemic, it's going to be the only real option for millions of people.
2) Gutting Post Office operations, because #1.
3) "Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!" While pointing at Democrats. As it turns out, the very few cases of voting fraud and election tampering that have been discovered are almost all committed by Republicans.
4) Threatening to send federal troops to "protect" polling places.
5) Rushing through his nominee, either the Handmaid or the kiddie porn sympathizer, to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court, because he's covering all his bases: if he doesn't win, he'll challenge the result, with pictures of Bush v. Gore dancing in his head. And don't be surprised if Moscow Mitch dispenses with hearing and debate and just calls a floor vote: time is of the essense.
6) And the latest wrinkle, having state legislatures bypass the voters and appoint electors directly. Someone pointed out that this will only work in states that Trump would likely win anyway, but given the way his approval ratings have been dropping, even in so-called "battleground" states, I'm not sure that's the case.
7) And of course, there's always the white supremacists, neo-nazis and other assorted lowlifes to call to arms, just in case.
And the "free, independent, adversarial press" is not calling him out on any of it.
Good-bye, America. It was nice while it lasted.
Footnote: Under the heading "Great Minds. . .", this post from Mustang Bobby.
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