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The purveyors of crushing morosity at the COMMENTARY podcast get really morose with this one. Donald Trump’s suggestion that the election should be postponed is an assault on the American civic compact and illustrates his lack of fitness for the office he holds. Also, how the arrest of a transgender teen in New York City exposed the mania of the talker class.
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A notable occasion when Republicans had reason to believe an election was stolen due to irregularities was the 1960 Presidential election. Very tight with very suspect late results out of Texas (LBJ’s state) and Illinois (the Daley machine).
Nixon didn’t complain. He conceded for the good of the country.
Perhaps we’ll see if Trump will be outclassed by Nixon here.
if you think democracy is at risk if an election is delayed what to make of the democrats using ballot harvesting by paid operatives to provide their side with a guaranteed electoral majority? Mail in voting is the death of democracy. Democrats have the funds to individually bring a ballot to every voter, hover over that voter as they fill it out, then deliver that ballot to the polls. Which is clearly coercive and intrusive.
Couple this electoral super majority with the power to seize assets thru the tax system, selectively prosecute without oversight at the local thru federal level, and the authority to withdraw police protection. Yeah, I would say the US democracy does not have a chance.
So what’s past crushing? Atomizing morosity. anyone?
Trump says stupid things. He can’t delay the election. Not as stupid as Podhoretz’s over the top comments. Democrats tried to overturn Trump’s election from day one, with constant attacks, and by weaponizing the DOJ. This doesn’t seem to upset this crew much. And Trump is the threat to the rule of law?
As Rumsfeld said “you have to go to war with the army you have.” In this case Trump and feckless Republicans. We are at war with the radical left. These “conservatives” don’t get it.
I don’t see that President Trump thought though his election delay tweet. Consistently, Trump just tweets whatever pops into his mind. There is no reflection, or research in what he says. It was politically bone headed. He cannot change the date, and it just plays into the fevered fantasies of his most adamant opponents.
That having been said, there are serious problems with the drive to increase absentee/early voting this year. Counting absentee votes is more time consuming and takes more planning in the local election offices. Most of the election staff are not going into the office, which makes it even more difficult to implement a new or expanded form of voting. When voting by mail, people are much more prone to making errors in filling out the application, or the ballot itself. With in person voting, these errors are usually quickly fixed. With the mail, there are delays in fixing problems. Sometimes even local mail does not move quickly. There will likely be delayed announcements of results because the local election offices will take a long time to count absentee votes. So instead of a long election night, there will be several very long days of waiting for the initial results.
Network election night results are often not based not voting, but on election day polling. This will be much less accurate, or nonexistent, this year.
There are serious ballot security issues with absentee voting, especially unsolicited absentee applications, or ballots are mailed out. Millions of people are still registered in their former residences. To have millions of applications and ballots floating around outside of the hands of the intended voters is asking for trouble. This year’s expanded mail in voting is being used by some advocates to make it permanent.
While this does give fodder to Trump vociferous opponents, they are already highly motivated. I don’t see where this additional issue will make much difference.
This contributes to the growing distrust in the election process. Before Trump, it was mostly Democrats trying to stir distrust with complaints about the 2000 Florida vote, claims that election security is voter suppression, and saying that the Electoral College is illegitimate. Now Trump is building on this.
But this will likely hurt Trump. Some Trump supporters will take from this that the election is rigged and so there is no point in voting. This will also hurt down ballot Republicans. In close elections this can make the difference.
This President is like a child. He has no self control, or self reflection, or knowledge of history, or knowledge of how things work. He likes getting applause from his supporters. That having been said, he’s still better than Hillary or Biden. Since Trump has mostly good appointees, Trump policies are mostly good. The same would not have been said for Hillary, and will not be said for Biden.
Trump’s tweets drove the Left and the never-Trumpers crazy as intended. I would say they drove the Commentary nitwits crazy, but it’s clear they lost it the day he was elected. John should go home and have a good long talk with his obviously more wise, talented, and mature father. Noah should go back to his corner and suck his whiny thumb.
I guess they still don’t understand that Trump says stuff to get people to react then he nails them. This is designed to get them on record and tied to the date, which hurts the mail-in voting which is election delay.
What is this, example # 387 of him doing this, and they keep falling for it. So amazing.
Please tell us how Jeb! would never have done such a thing. That would make it even more hilarious.
This was so over the top that I think the question of fitness should conclude that Podhoretz is unfit to comment.