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Hysteria Over Trump’s Election Delay. Wait! What?
I think it was Thursday, yes, definitely Thursday. Tuning in my favorite podcast I was greeted by the news that Donald Trump had declared war on Canada and missiles were being launched that very moment. But seriously folks, judging by the reactions of the host, it seemed that serious. This of course, was the suggestion made by Mr. Trump that the elections should be delayed. When considered soberly, this is an innocuous idea that would go nowhere. Not gonna happen, but in the meantime, it was the apocalypse.
The host was not alone in condemning the idea. All across the commentariat, pundits were rolling on the ground, grasping their knees and grimacing in pain like a bunch of European football players, and about as believable. Trump had broken the camel’s back. He was the most horrible person in the universe. His suggestion would spell the end of the republic. It might even mean the end of $5 chickens at Costco. The horror.
Take up the idea first: Trump did not sign an executive order, send troops to the polls, tanks in the street, none of that. He made a suggestion, for whatever reason, that carried no authority. The idea will go nowhere, first because time is short, and unless the Constitution is amended, the date cannot be changed enough to be of any benefit. His balloon popped almost as fast as he uttered the words.
That should be the end of it. Yet it was met hysterically by people who ought to know better. Along with the public flogging of Attorney General Bill Barr, it dominated the news cycle for at least fifteen minutes. And the ugly little secret that shone through the facade was that they were all looking for something, anything to confirm their distaste for Mr. Trump.
Meantime, the very next day, the sainted ex-president Barack Obama, used his eulogy for Representative John Lewis to push for ending the filibuster, statehood for Washington D..C and Puerto Rico, and more. It did not go unnoticed but the response was far more muted than that for Mr. Trump. So which of them is the greater danger? Mr. Trump made a suggestion that was at best impolitic and which will simply not happen. But let the Democrats achieve the electoral blowout in November that they fervently desire and you can be sure that filibuster, statehood, Supreme Court-packing, and much more will be on the agenda before sunrise on the day after the inauguration.
All of this hysteria concerning Trump’s proposal came, not from the left, but from the right. It would seem that these folks ought to concentrate on the facts that, in the end, it is a binary choice in November. The consequences of a Republican loss will be far-reaching with lasting damage. It is time to pay attention to the future.
Published in Politics
I believe the date of elections is statutory, rather than Constitutional.
Amen and amen!
Wait, I thought this was a nothing burger but you say the $5 chickens are going away at Costco? Dump Trump!
If we keep Trump, they’ll go down to $3.
It appears that the election date was set by the 28th Congress in 1845, Statute II, Chapter 1, with the provision that, if said election was postponed for any reason, “electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the State shall by law provide.”
I don’t think that’s a door Trump wants to open.
I can’t speak for all of the right, but I can speak for my part of the right. Trump’s “suggestion” (with question marks to follow) plays into the hands of the left’s ability to portray him as some type of dictator in waiting. It doesn’t matter whether that’s a rational approach; it only matters whether it sells. Some of the reaction was over the top–I posted about John Podhoretz’ comment that it was “horrific”–but that doesn’t mean it should be above criticism.
I am worried that we are in thrall to a great deal of emotionally unstable nitwits that can’t treat an obvious rhetorical question as obviously rhetorical.
The $5 chickens may go away, but the nothing burgers will stay the same price.
It is statutory, but the term of office is constitutional. To get any meaningful delay, that would have to change and that requires amending the date.
That’s good, cause my doctor has recommended I have more nothing burgers in my diet. Got to watch my girlish figure!
The hysteria was just that. The easily excited should not read Trump’s tweets. (Really, no one should. Can’t Ivanka wrest that phone away from him?) But can’t we admit it was a dumb thing for the president to say?
This is correct.
Trump is the master of trolling his critics on Twitter Corporation’s platform. Any so-called pundit who allows himself to get continually trolled by him should never again be considered any kind of serious thinker.
As was the remainder of the comment.
We can agree to disagree about that. The main thing about Trump’s tweets is what they reveal about other people. I think they are beautiful for the light they shine.
There are tweets that are clearly trolling, as CJ noted above, and there are tweets that implicate serious matters of substance that say more about the sender than the reader. You can tell that I view this as being in the latter category, and agree with Suspira’s measured criticism of this one as “dumb.” Three months out from an election that he may be losing is too late for “Oh, he’s just trolling his critics.”
Imagine that Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, she was running for re-election, and the poll numbers were looking pretty bad for her. If she made an off-hand comment that maybe the election ought to be postponed because she thought that the opposition party was going to steal it, would we all be saying “Aw, she’s just talking. She doesn’t have the authority to do anything about it, so we shouldn’t even be discussing what this says about her thought process.”
Yes, I kind of agree, but the beauty to me is the transparency of the man’s thought processes. He may be the most honest, and therefore most impolitic, president we’ll ever have. The man doesn’t walk on egg shells; he stomps on them, with bare feet!
His ability to shoot the bull makes it almost seem like he’s one of us. I mean, honestly, if we were sitting around talking about the disaster that is 2020 and having to top if off with an election that Democrats are trying to steal — as usual — would we think it outrageous to even talk about a delay?
I get that the President is “special,” unlike the rest of us BSers, but it’s kind of refreshing that this one isn’t.
I can’t imagine. Sorry. Poll numbers looking pretty bad for her?! 😂
Poll numbers looking bad for Trump is pure propaganda. Other candidates who were ahead in July according to polls; President Walter Mondale, President John Kerry, President Michael Dukakis, President Hillary Clinton and second term President Jimmy Carter. Notice a pattern? BTW, Republican non incumbent contenders, Romney, McCain and Dole never led in polls. Is the pattern coming into focus?
WHY AM I NOT AHEAD BY 50 POINTS? You might ask…
Otherwise, your counter supposition holds – except for the Corona virus and demands for mail-in voting and a transparent plan to steal the election. ….And the fact that the media will go after anything Trump says. Not to forget, they are perfectly capable of making up things out of whole cloth.
Except that’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying that if we’re going to change procedure in response to covid then postponing an actual in person election day would be better than mail in voting. His suggestion is not unprompted or in a vacuum. This is all in context of pre battle field prep. It’s bad to postpone election day you say? Well that’s exactly what would happen with mail in voting, only with much less efficiency or oversight. So let’s stick with in person voting on the appointed day.
If it’s not dumb to not only contemplate shutting down normal activity including Church out of fear of a pandemic, then merely talking about postponing election day is not dumb. It’s as rational as any of the other covid responses have been.
It’s amusing that, for all the angst about Trump’s comment about the election, I see no mention of the semi-serious mention by a Democrat elder that, if the vote counting of mail-in ballots is prolonged beyond January 20, 2021, Nancy Pelosi becomes president.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/03/26/coronavirus-pandemic-trump-cannot-cancel-2020-election-
column/2898418001/
That’s a very interesting observation.
Drive through voting. Williamsburg, Virginia solved this one in an eye blink and has already held two elections using it. It’s healthy and it’s a secure as indoor polling places. Mail-in voting is a tool of one-party jurisdictions that consolidates power in an anti-democratic fashion wherever it is used. It is no surprise finding a more elegant and trustworthy solution in Williamsburg than in Washington or New York City or Seattle or Portland or Los Angeles or San Francisco. No surprise at all.
As Heinlein wrote: Take back your government!