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The concern about whether 45 leaves office is disturbing. How shocking is it that just yesterday, the Associated Press noted that "Top General Says No Role for Military in Presidential Vote" (https://nyti.ms/2YJl2YY)? How frightening is it that it is no longer a question of if but to what ends will Trump claim fraud?
This is no longer a scenario of our darkest dreams; it is actively being discussed and anticipated.
RustyShackleford offered the simplest reason to vote:
"We vote because we need a legitimate claim for his removal. If you let him have it, then we are really in a dictatorship."
I like this because it distills the stakes of the election, and underscores the recent point that leftists are of the "mistaken belief" that if Biden/Harris lose they'll ever get a shot at electing a more left-leaning candidate.
But there are still a few things to parse:
- Is the core assumption that, with a 70/30 split for Biden, various stakeholders (courts, electors, military) will be thus compelled to honor the vote and remove Trump from office (should he refuse to concede)?
- If we have grave concerns about the commitments and ethics of many of these electors, court justices, and so forth, on whom and what else can we rely to preempt a take over? Aside from Biden refusing to concede, in other words, what else is there? Who else is there?
- (My sense is that the answer is us--the people in the form of a general strike--but that just disrupts relations of production/consumption, without necessarily disrupting accumulation through the stock market, thus without necessarily producing the kind of capital strike that might also be an unfortunate ally against dictatorship. Are we then talking about the people forcing the hand of law enforcement to decide between obeying their king or mowing down the people, [ala Tianmen square]?).
- Is voting not only critical for the reasons Rusty mentioned, but also because it endows in us, as the people, the right to refuse to be governed illicitly and illegally? And to follow through on that right by any means necessary?
been meaning to read this article, thanks for the mental bump.
surreal for real, but my big takeaway is:
Some have speculated that the military might be called upon to get involved, either by Trump trying to use it to help his reelection prospects or as, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has suggested, to remove Trump from the White House if he refuses to accept defeat. The military has adamantly sought to tamp down that speculation and is zealously protective of its historically nonpartisan nature.
...nobody´s going to march this sack of **** out of the Oval Office if he goes full bigly?
we´re really still hoping for normz??
actually I feel worse after reading this, I´m taking my rep back.