Trump’s Plan: “Get Rid of the Ballots”

Trump is very clear. He says he wants the Supreme Court vacancy filled before Nov. 3, because he sees the election being decided by the court (not voters). He refuses to pledge an orderly peaceful transfer of power.

His actual quote: “Get rid of the ballots and we’ll have a very peaceful . . . There won’t be a transfer, frankly.”

He’s referring of course to mail ballots. Covid concerns mean they’ll be utilized this year far more than usual. Democrats being more serious about Covid, The Economist projects up to 80% of mail ballots will be for Biden.

Before they’re counted, Trump may seem be winning. So he opposes counting all those many millions of mail votes, claiming they’re a fraud, a “disaster,” a “big scam.” Fact: mail voting has long been part of our election system, with virtually zero fraud. Trump says ballots are being indiscriminately sent to people not entitled to vote. Another ridiculous lie. Likewise foreign agents sending phony mail ballots. No way they could get counted. (The main foreign election meddler is once again Russia, supporting Trump.)

Watch for him to send armed federal officers to polling places (unprecedented), supposedly to keep order (unnecessary), but really to intimidate and scare off voters. Black ones, that is.

After November 3, Trump will try to disrupt mail vote counting, with lawyers besieging election boards challenging every ballot, and flooding the courts with ballot litigation — anything to delay resolution and muddy the waters. To prevent key states from completing their counts by the December 14 deadline. Thus creating a pretext for nullifying the popular vote entirely in those states and having their legislatures (mostly controlled by Republicans, thanks to their gerrymandering) appoint presidential electors.* That’s the plan. “Get rid of the ballots.”

Our system has always worked before, based on participants’ responsible good faith respect for the process, the concept of democracy, and voter sovereignty. But now Republicans are bent on keeping power by any means possible. “Get rid of the ballots.” Things will go so much smoother. “There won’t be a transfer, frankly.”

If they succeed in getting rid of the ballots and prevent the true election winner (Biden) from taking office, that will be the end of America’s democracy and the onset of fascist dictatorship. Following the standard autocrats’ playbook — as in Hungary, Venezuela, Turkey, Belarus, Russia, etc.  Manipulating enough people, at least, into voting for such authoritarians. A facade of democratic process while all opposition is neutered.

An international panel that assesses countries, on numerous measures, for democracy versus authoritarian government, finds America already far down the latter road. Look how Trump has flouted laws, norms, and the Constitution, and disregarded Congress. Once past the election, nothing will restrain him.

Certainly not Republican officialdom. He’ll issue executive orders to stop vote counting, despite having no such power, and some Republican election functionaries will cheerfully obey. Republicans in Congress will endorse electoral votes submitted by state legislatures in defiance of actual popular votes. “Get rid of the ballots.”

Trump-and-guns cultists and QAnon-type conspiracy lunatics will come out supporting this with weapons loaded. Though who exactly will they shoot? They might imagine police and the military on their side. They’d be wrong (as with everything).

My contacts with the Biden campaign give me confidence that they’re well prepared to combat Trump’s putsch attempt vigorously and effectively. I also hope Biden’s vote margin will be large enough to be beyond disputing. Though that won’t stop Trump from throwing up as much chaos as possible, if only to hide, from his own diseased psyche, the humiliation of defeat.

After 2016, Republicans jeered — falsely— that Democrats did not accept the election outcome. This time Republicans will go berserk in refusing to accept it. Trump has revved up his cult to believe a Biden presidency will be the apocalypse and can only result from fraud. They’ll imagine themselves the victims of an anti-democratic putsch. Long will they cling to this grievance — like the South after the Civil War, creating an enduring “lost cause” mythology.

Meanwhile, even if our democracy does prevail — by the skin of its teeth, this time — public confidence in the legitimacy of its processes will have suffered a severe blow. Our democratic culture may have been mortally wounded by the long-run damage Trump has done. Saving it is what this election is really about — far transcending any conventional issue or policy concerns.

“Get rid of the ballots.” After everything else, it is this, above all, that makes voting for Trump now completely insane.

* Electoral votes will be counted by the newly elected Congress in January. To throw out a state’s votes, both houses must agree. The House of Representatives will be Democratic; the Senate may be.