What Next?

I wonder whether perhaps it is beginning to be easier to determine what Trump is going to do next to corrupt our democratic system of government. Over the past three plus years, we have become accustomed to Trump going on rants about something that the Dems are planning, or that Joe or Hunter Biden are doing/planning to do.  Almost invariably it turns out that, when he starts yelling about something crooked, he is either already doing it, or this is a signal that he plans to do whatever he is yelling about.

Recently, we are becoming used to Trump yelling about mail-in voting. Now this one is really curious.  First, despite all his yelling about fraud in elections, no one has been to produce any serious evidence of fraud in elections generally, or in mail-in voting in particular.  Virtually no evidence at all has been gathered showing any serious level of fraud.

Now the second curious thing about his claims that all mail-in voting is fraudulent, is that Trump himself routinely has used mail-in voting.  Yeah, he never shows up at the polling places, instead relying on mail-in voting.  So, why is he yelling that the system he uses is subject to fraud?  Well, likely because he is planning on defrauding that very system.  And how might he plan to defraud the voting system? Well, I might imagine he might:

1.       Try to eliminate the US Postal Service before the election, so that voting by mail is impossible, because there is no mail system.  He has discussed openly his disdain for the postal service and suggested that they either need to begin charging customers (especially Amazon) more, or perhaps even just privatizing the entire system.  But should he embark on a restructuring plan, perhaps leading to privatizing the system, he could well interfere with the mail-in voting system this year.  We know that the main reason Trump goes on about the mail-in voting system is that he understands that the system, if used extensively in an election, would cost him the election, and he has stated that a large mail-in system would mean that republicans would likely never win another election.  So, his opposition is entirely clear and it is entirely based on the threat to him personally.  And since he is the Compleat Narcissist, all of his actions are and always will be based on enhancing his present or future status.  So, look to Trump trying to reduce or eliminate the Postal Service before the election.

2.       Reducing polling places throughout the country. The republican party has already succeeded in increasing the difficulty folks experience in actually going to a polling place and voting in person.  In various places, they have closed polling places, thereby increasing the lines at the remaining places, sometimes causing many hours of delay in actually casting a ballot in person. Given the pandemic and the fears the public has in  being in or near long lines of people, many of whom would likely not be wearing masks, any reduction in the number of polling places will certainly lead to a reduction in in-person voting. Arguably, this could be managed with an increase in vote-by-mail systems. However, as noted above, Trump may well create stumbling blocks to any increase in the mail system for voting.  Also, even if they do not/cannot eliminate the US Postal Service before the election, it is known that any serious increase in a vote-by-mail system will need to be accompanied by serious efforts by each state to guarantee supplies of ballots, suitable envelopes, and staffing to handle the incoming mail, systems not currently available in all states.

3.       Deployment of Federal troops. Trump’s deployment of Federal troops in Portland, and his threats to deploy them elsewhere, e.g., Chicago, at least suggests the possibility that Trump will attempt to use Federal troops to actually interfere or create chaos at various polling places, perhaps in states, or regions that are hotly contested.  With long lines likely, he could argue the need for Federal troops to “safeguard" the polling places, leading perhaps to troops actually making the voting lines even longer.  And any increases in the logistical difficulties in voting could well lead to people simply giving up and staying home, or leaving before they have voted.  And Trump would then be yelling that he has safeguarded the system from attempts to overwhelm it with fraudulent voters.

4.       Dumping ballots.  If Trump can gain some semblance of control at key ballot stations in hotly contested regions, he could well resort to simple fraud. Perhaps, for example, he could have his minions collect and destroy mailed-in ballots because they were “flawed” or “obviously fraudulent”. Or he might dispatch people to collect ballots from folks’ homes, with the promise that they would be delivered safely, when instead they would be dumped in the trash.  One can imagine a wide variety of methods being used to stop ballots from actually flowing into the legal systems of ballot collection.  And then, of course we have the computer systems used to count the ballots and record them into the systems.  If Trump has control, one can easily imagine ways to corrupt those systems, including having them hacked by his Russian colleagues, as was done in the past.

5.       Contesting the Final Election results. Trump has already suggested the possibility that he might not accept an election result in which he is the loser. When asked by Chris Wallace in a recent interview, Trump refused to promise to yield and accept his loss.  It is by no means clear that Trump has any serious legal channels he might deploy, but we should be prepared for him to argue that an election loss was fraudulent and that he will fight the result all the way to the Supreme Court, which he believes he controls due to his appointments. He might even, one imagines, threaten to deploy the US military to enforce his decision that the election was fatally flawed and he must, for the good of the country, remain in office.  I can easily conjure up in my mind, a speech from the Oval Office in which he attempts to convince the American people that he, Donald Trump is the only responsible person left to protect them from the Left Wing conspiracy that produced the election result.  Can’t you hear him now?

So, I would urge all agencies of the federal government, including certainly all military agencies, to begin preparing for how they will act to either support or eliminate such a Trump coup-d’etat, for that is what is coming.   Think of it. Our very first official Coup d’etat, inspired by arguably the stupidest and most corrupt human in America. If he succeeds, then America is finished. It would fall into a gangster-state.  

Let us hope we are both smarter than that, and perhaps even more civilized. 

Are we?