If there’s one thing to be said about the Trump mis-administration, it’s that we are all getting a refresher course in basic constitutional law and election procedure, or hearing it for the first time. Now, I’ve been accused of panicking myself, however, I will say that it’s better to be forearmed than be taken by surprise. My motto is prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and don’t be surprised by anything that changes the game.
A number of articles have come out describing how Trump is planning a coup d’etat. The latest wrinkle is that Trump wants to bypass election results and appoint electors loyal to him, in battle ground states with a Republican legislative majority. That is enough to cause a freak out, in a political maelstrom where freak out is rapidly becoming a daily occurrence, no different than sunrise or sunset.
But we do have options.
1st, Electoral College reps, Members of Congress, governors, & Defense Department leadership can pledge to abide by election results regardless of any single candidate's claims otherwise.
I called for this in Feb. 2019 via @CNNOpinion. /2 https://t.co/HmkbuiMaL3
— Joshua A. Geltzer (@jgeltzer) September 24, 2020
3rd, the idea that Trump-friendly state legislatures can sub in their will for that of the voters can be reduced.
States can clarify deadlines for vote-counting to ensure Election Day can't be deemed "failed."@tribelaw @jentaub & I in @TheAtlantic. /4 https://t.co/6n4C8v7rxk
— Joshua A. Geltzer (@jgeltzer) September 24, 2020
Bottom line: yes, Trump's refusal to commit to fundamental norms about accepting election results & ensuring a peaceful transfer of power is appalling.
But don't think that we're powerless in the face of it.
There are things to do NOW to thwart Trump.
Let's get to work. /END
— Joshua A. Geltzer (@jgeltzer) September 24, 2020
Now here is where the battle lines are drawn: Trump is creating a mental challenge more than a legal one, but this is politics and perception is everything. He’s attempting to gaslight the country so that he can steal the election. A lot depends upon Republican decency, unfortunately, and that’s an oxymoron and a non existent quality in this day and age. The good Republicans have joined the resistance. But it is the nature of peoples’ fear, and it is legitimate, that Trump’s GOP enablers will sell out America to stay in power.
The bottom line is that either we, meaning sane and decent Americans, outnumber and can outvote the crazies, or America is the crazies and the same and decent people are the minority. I don’t want to think that ever, but I have to say that late election night 2016, my perceptions shifted. I realized that the America I grew up in no longer existed, because that America could never have elected this fringe TV performer. But the America of 2016 could.
So let me be clear: I believe that we will win. I believe that Trump is toast. But I am looking in the rear view mirror, side view mirrors and through the sun roof, to see everything that’s out there, coming our way, because Election 2020 is a Cat 5 shit storm. All I’m saying is beware, and look at everything. And Get.Out.The.Vote. Our first, best, and possibly only defense against Trump is a resounding Biden/Harris victory, that Trump cannot challenge.
Yes, that’s my take on this whole thing too. He an try but it won’t work.
He won’t even try. He’s just trying to control the conversation and the media coverage, steer it away from Biden. And he’s succeeded.
In right-wing sites, I (among others) have been using his comments to steer the conversation back to Biden.
These suggestions seem to require Republicans do something ‘GOOD’. I have never seen that happen. Goldwater went to Nixon not because he was GOOD, but because he didn’t want Republicans to have to endure the spectacle of a Senate trial.
Conversely, it’s a mistake to equate EVIL and SMART when it comes to this crowd, Blue.
I want to know who that anonymous “legal adviser” is – because they should be named, shamed, and if possible sanctioned.
I’d guess a fat slob who looks like an Ewok.
*smirk
Nah. Ewocks are cute and by nature good. Hutt’s (Jabba for example) are gross and evil by nature. Take another look at the guy. He not only looks, but acts like Jabba’s (more) evil twin!
If there really is an “anonymous legal adviser”….
Thanks, Ursala, for pulling me out of the quicksand of discouragement.
The problem with these doomsday predictions via those articles you cited, Ursula, is that they’re not ACTUALLY meant to inform. Their main purpose, above all else, is attention, which drives clicks, ad revenue and continuing justification for the writers to hang onto their jobs. While I’ve no resentment against the motives behind such tactics–we’ve an imploding economy, after all–watching the abject panics they cause makes me absolutely believe that the current revisionist history on Welles’ War Of The World is just a way to hide how gullible Americans have always been.
Bill Palmer says this all the time: politics is not governed by magic wand. And not ONE scheme this crew has launched this year has helped them. So we keep voting, volunteering, phone banking and everything else to get that SOB OUT. We only lose if we quit.
They could just as easily write stories about how Trump is burned toast, but no, they choose to do stories about the opposite. These kinds of stories can really depress people, and make them think their vote doesn’t matter. We don’t need that kind of crao right now, with 42 days to go. Daily KOS has gone freaking nuts. Many are all in with trump is a master of strategy. Ridiculous. He and his stupid team couldn’t strategize their way out of a paper bag. I mentioned in a comment that Joe Biden said months ago, that Trump might try to steal the election. I bet he hasn’t been sitting on his hands.
The people going nuts are the ones who are always down and always wrong. (I don’t read some of them, ever. Even when they’re front-paged.)
I try not to, as well.
Indeed not, Cmae. Joe’s people have been ready since before he sewed up the nomination, I daresay. The depressing thing to me about the DKos folk is how they’ve become every bit as obvious, childish and flat-out stupid in their outlook, which is basically a mirror image of Trump. The implications of such are unpleasant to consider.
Yeah, the writing there is now mostly about how Trump is a mastermind. Disappointing.
Trump is controlling DaiyKos like they were a marionette.
I agree, Mae. We know that as a contender for the office, Biden gets intel just like tRump. Plus Joe has many friends on both sides of the aisle and all throughout the Federal Government. I’m sure they’re exploring worst case scenarios every day!
This being a mind game, I am sure the goal is to discourage us. So, like you said “we only lose if we quit”.
It’s all they have left at this point. And it’s not enough.
It’s Himself trying to convince his followers that he’ll win.
I’m calling for the Democrats again tonight. VOTE BLUE!
PBS is running a series called “Hacking Your Mind” about your observation, Bareshark. Worth checking out.
Might give it a look, Brakester. Thanks!
A. I never panic. B. I never panic. And, C. I never panic. D. I am always optimistic.
Trump isn’t “planning” anything. The Atlantic story was a farfetched proposal that would be impossible to pull off as well as illegal and unconstitutional on every level. It was obviously planted by Trump’s advisor to create chaos and to demoralize and panic Democrats — and it succeeded brilliantly.
Trump nattering about throwing out ballots so there can be a “continuation” is more of the same. No arm of the federal government has any power to decide what to do about ballots or how and when they are counted; the Constitution reserves that power for the states. No, I don’t buy into the idea that he’s so brilliant, strategic, disciplined and deeply knowledgable about how government works and has a large team that is the same that he could actually do this.
What he DOES do is steer the discussion away from Biden’s growing poll lead and in fact ANY coverage of what Biden is doing and saying so lots of Democrats start grumbling and saying “Why isn’t Biden talking about ….?” He is but the media is busy covering Trump’s far more exciting claims that he will install himself as dictator. He won’t, but he controls the conversation.
I’ve noticed this week that Brian Williams has gone heavily into ‘are the Dems/Joe doing all they can do, are they up for this’ and some of his other anti-Dem BS in an apparent effort to sow doubt. Most of the guests he poses these questions to seem to have figured out his schtick and don’t buy into it. He’d moderated this crap once the Covid numbers started going up so much, but now he’s regressed.
Fortunately, he’s gone till Monday so there’ll be less of it. After that, I’m back to watching PBS after Lawrence.
The problem is his natterings are indicative of his decades-long mindset. https://thebulwark.com/the-strongman-cometh/ He is not brilliant, strategic, disciplined or deeply knowledgeable about anything, but he does have enablers. Although a number of his gambits have failed over the last four years, with the help of his enablers, he has already succeeded in doing a lot of damage that will need to be repaired by the Biden administration.
It is not strategic to discount or dismiss possible threats. IT IS strategic to game out threats (just as the Obama administration gamed out pandemic contingencies and left plans) and be prepared with well-thought out contingency plans.
The Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida 2000 and thus installed Bush. Don’t discount the possibilities for ratfucking, if he gets his new justice installed before or right after 11/3.
No dictator wannabe anywhere in history has ever broadcasted so loudly his plan to pull a coup. The next 3 months will define the future of America. If everybody everywhere does everything they can we may remain a democracy.
My client, Greg Palast, the great award-winning Guardian, and Rolling Stone journalist says he can invoke the X11 Amendment and solidify an electoral victory.
Awards aside, your client is a moron on this, provided he actually believes it.
Your gonna need a link for that assertion. Near as I can tell, Palast is claiming that Trump has already won 2020 because 17 million voters were purged from the rolls.
“At least 17 million voters were purged nationwide between 2016 and 2018, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice. The number was basically unchanged from the previous two-year period. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/01/voter-purges-us-elections-brennan-center-report ” However, either the vast majority of them reregistered or the purges were called for (dead,moved). “That trend has continued, the watchdog said, with the disproportionate purging of voters resulting in an estimated 1.1 million fewer voters between 2016 and 2018.”
I am uncertain what “invoking the 12TH Amendment” means since the amendment describes how the Electoral college works in every presidential election.