At a recent campaign rally, Donald Trump said this about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer: "Maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't."
Never mind that a right-wing militia group had planned to take the first-term Democrat hostage and put her on trial for treason in their own kangaroo court. Among the Governor’s alleged crimes against our nation were ordering masks to be worn in enclosed public spaces and limiting restaurant capacity to 50% in the midst of a pandemic. The state’s conservative Supreme Court, in a predictable 4-3 decision, eventually ruled that the Governor’s restrictions were illegal. Oh well, at least they didn’t convict her of treason.
Trump's hateful remark about the kidnap plot brought to mind his revolting, “"There were some very fine people on both sides,” assessment following the "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville. That was where a Nazi sympathizer drove his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one and injuring 19.
America Is on the verge of a seismic moral and ethical reckoning. Two things are certain: The first is that Trump will lose the popular vote by millions, which means absolutely nothing in our arcane and broken electoral system. The second is that if Biden wins, Trump will engage in a fusillade of lawsuits contesting the result with the intent of being anointed by the Supreme Court.
Have no doubt: Even if Biden defeats Trump soundly by sweeping the rust belt and winning Georgia and Texas, the orange autocrat will contest the election. He will not, under any circumstances, concede defeat. Trump's façade of imperviousness makes him an exceptionally formidable and feared incumbent.
Should Biden declare victory, Trump will inform his 87+ million Twitter followers that the Democrats have STOLEN THE ELECTION and that a Biden presidency, like Obama's, would be illegitimate and illegal. No wonder the country is on edge. If Trumps wins, he remains in office. If Trump loses, he might still remain in office. It’s unpresidented.
In the Supreme Court, the table is set for Trump: Three of the current nine Justices, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barret, and Chief Justice John Roberts, were on the Bush legal team in 2000. Clarence Thomas was among the five Justices who handed the presidency to Bush. There is no reason to believe that Neil Gorsuch or Samuel Alito (aka Scalito) would see things differently than their hero Anton Scalia, who in 2000 decreed that counting the 61,000 ballots the voting machines in Florida had missed would cause “irreparable harm” and “cast a needless and unjustified cloud” over Bush’s legitimacy.
Regarding swing states: Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are controlled by Republican legislators. The Governor of Florida, where it all could conceivably come down to once again, is a Trump lackey.
It is true that it may be considerably more difficult for Trump to steal the election than it was for Bush because there will likely be more contested states now than there were 20 years ago. That said, it hardly strains credulity to envision the Supreme Court, with whatever tortured reasoning the conservatives conjure up, handing the election to Trump.
If the electoral count is lopsided in Biden's favor, perhaps the Supremes will let the vote stand. Perhaps. But that would require at least two conservative justices to join the three liberals on the Court. Chief Justice Roberts has already demonstrated his independence. But there is no reason to feel confident that any other justice would vote against Trump if his presidency was on the line.
Trump can remain in office legitimately or illegitimately, and I'm not sure which would be worse. If Trump wins fair and square, it means that American will have doubled-down on delusion, ignorance and isolationism. It would be the triumph of darkness. If Trump loses but is saved by a combination of the Court and corrupt state legislators, it will signal the end of American democracy.
I find myself bracing for a storm and seeking words of comfort. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, that great American folksinger, Arlo Guthrie wrote the song “In Times Like These,” which included this couplet:
When leaders profit from deep divisions
When the songs of friends remain unsung
In times like these, it’s good to remember
These times will go, in times to come
It is assuring to be reminded that both Trump and Trumpism will eventually vanish. However, that will be on the other side of a storm, the intensity, duration and course of which are currently unknown.