Today’s edition of Electoral-Vote starts off by talking about Donald Trump’s attempts to steal the election (as talked about in my post yesterday). But then they ask “But will it work?“. And EV thinks that there are good reasons why Trump’s plans will fail. I sure hope so, but I’m not as sure as they are.
The question everyone is asking is whether Trump will be able to steal the election. Perhaps Trump will fail, whether that is because of his (and his campaign’s) incompetence, or just because Joe Biden will win in a landslide (I hope, I hope!) that will make a theft too difficult to pull off.
I want to present another alternative ending to this that I have not seen anyone discuss, and which I think might be the most likely. I think Trump will lose, but he is setting himself up so that he can spend the next four years questioning the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s presidency (the same way he did against Obama, questioning his birth certificate, etc.) and giving himself a soapbox where he can get the attention he so craves, along with a source of income, and a large number of followers who will probably turn violent.
You may respond, what about all the crimes Donald Trump has committed, won’t he end up in jail? Well, maybe he will, or maybe he won’t, but either way he will still be in a position to continue tweeting and causing chaos in this country.
The only thing I know for sure is that no matter what happens, Trump will claim that the election was fraudulent. If he loses, he will claim that it was stolen. And of course, if he wins, he will still claim that the election was fraudulent, saying millions of illegal votes were cast, or some other reason that is bereft of evidence.
Even if Joe Biden wins by a clear margin, we will still have a big fight on our hands to save our democracy.
UPDATE: Heather Cox Richardson points out that Trump is attempting to distract the voters from reality and establish a fiction that he has the authority to remain in office because of (nonexistent) voter fraud, (peaceful) protests, and because Democrats are socialists bent on destroying our country. He does not.
It is up to us to reject Trump’s fictions and reclaim the national conversation from the anger and hatred and fear Trump is stoking.
4 Comments
I think Trump objective is win-win for him in one of following:
1. Either manage to stay in power
2. Negotiate his way out by holding country hostage to have all his crimes forgiven. (the democrats will crave easily on this).
I am inclining more towards second, he will lose, whine a lot, then would pretend to leave for sake of country, start a show on OAN, and also have all charges past and future dropped for him and his family.
Personally, I see your scenario as the most likely. I don’t know if Biden will win in a landside, but I do expect it to be decisive.
If things follow the course you suggest, it will be a continuation of Trumps pattern, namely exploiting weaknesses. My fear under this scenario will be that he succeeds in cowing enough Democrats into not holding him and his associates to account. So far, Trump has proven to be the exception to the theory that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Allowing Democrats to pursue the goal of uniting the country by giving Trump a pass will be as successful as Obama’s efforts to strike deals with Republicans. It will only embolden far more severe future abuses. Whatever the short term cost, Trump must be dealt with firmly, transparently and without mercy. Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddaffi and Osama Bin Laden were all executed – that would be too good for Trump: He must pay, be seen to pay and not be allowed to profit or pass on profit to his heirs for his decades of crime and abuse.
JM,I agree. No mercy. I read where Biden is against packing the court. Wish we could slap him upside the head. There will be no balance in anything in this country for decades without some court packing. I’m not saying we need to go overboard, but we should get a judge in for every judge they have put in over the last decade or so.
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