THE NATION'S FUTURE

I hate to be hyperbolic, but the next two days could be completely game changing for the future of our country.  While every presidential election is, of course, important, this one is especially significant.  The best case scenario is obvious: Joe Biden wins the presidency by a wide margin, with most of the swing states going his way.  President Trump would almost definitely try to cry foul, but if Biden's victory is a landslide, even the Republican party that has meekly supported or ignored every insane tweet or statement the President has made in the past four years would have to concede.  And then, on January twentieth Trump would step down and Biden would begin the job of repairing the country's image.  And while the danger of violence on the part of some of Trump's supporters is possible, I think for the most part they would just retreat back into the corner they held during the Obama years. Sanity would return, and Biden would be a safe, dull president.

It's the other alternatives to a Biden landslide that get frightening: although Biden's lead looks strong, it's entirely possible that Trump could still eke out a victory.   While it appears that Trump can't possibly win the popular vote, he could once again get just the right number of votes in the right number of states to pull out a win in the Electoral College.  If that proves to be the case, he would be the first president in history to lose the popular vote twice and still serve two terms.  Even worse, it would be a slap to the face once again to the majority of voters.  It would somehow mean that the Republican party, who have had only one presidential candidate win the popular vote in this century (George W Bush in two thousand and four), would hold the White House for another term.  Even worse, it would mean an extension of the extremist policies of the past four years, with the revitalized Trump administration going even harder against immigration and environmental degradation.  In out deeply divided country, there is often talk of some kind of division, with states splitting off somehow from the rest of the country.  While most of this seems crazy, if Donald Trump does pull off another win tomorrow, it is understandable that the people who live in a blue state like California might wonder why it needs to be anchored to a country that constantly seems at odds with their values.  While I don't see such a separation happening, I am sympathetic to the appeal of it to people who see a corrupt, extremist right wing president hold power despite being opposed by a majority of the voters.

Another nightmare scenario is that Biden at first appears to be losing in swing states, and then starts to pull ahead as mail in votes are counted.  Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims of possible widespread voter fraud going against him from mail in voting.  It is entirely possible that he may declare an early victory in those states before the votes are all counted, and then scream fraud when those late votes go against him.  This could lead to lawsuits and counter lawsuits on whether those votes should be counted.  The ensuing legal mess could wind up at the Supreme Court (three of whom are Trump appointees), which could result in Trump winning a completely corrupt  election entirely through legal machinations.  This would essentially bring an  end to democracy in this country, making us no better than a third world dictatorship.   Trump would become the full on fascist leader that he's always wanted to be, and knowing him, would start working on appointing himself leader for life.  The upswell of anger from the people at this could result in real violence, with both the right and the left energized and enraged.  While I think a full on civil war is highly unlikely in such a scenario, the fury at the utter corruption that Trump may bring to maintain power means that it is possible.

Donald Trump has spent the last four years basically testing the limits of the presidency seeing how much he can get away with: from refusing to release his taxes, to running businesses while in office, from appointing unqualified family members to important positions of power, to pardoning former campaign advisor Roger Stone for crimes that Stone committed on Trump's behalf (a move that the New York Times said pushed him beyond Richard Nixon's level of corruption).  And time and time again he has gotten away with things no modern president has ever dared to try.  Stealing a close election would just be the icing on the cake for an egotistical psychopath like our president.  Here's hoping that he can't.