With a growing sense of alarm
The Boston Globe a few days ago on Trump’s paranoia-stoking.
“It’s one big fix,’’ Trump said Friday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C. “This whole election is being rigged.’’
He saved some of his harshest criticism for the media, which he said is in league with Clinton to steal the election.
“The media is indeed sick, and it’s making our country sick, and we’re going to stop it,” he said.
Mainstream Republicans are watching these developments at the top of the ticket with a growing sense of alarm, calling Trump’s latest conspiracy theories of a rigged election irresponsible and dangerous. They also say the impact of voter fraud or errors on the outcome of elections is vastly overblown.
It surprises me a little that there is apparently no one grown-up and responsible who can reach him – who can sit him down and tell him to take a deep breath, think about something other than himself, and stop trying to burn everything down around him to avenge his defeat. You’d think there would be someone.
While voters have certainly questioned election outcomes, it is unprecedented for the nominee of a major party to do so, historians say.
“What’s really distinct is the candidate himself putting this out front and center as a consistent theme throughout the last part of the campaign, and doing it when there’s no evidence of anything,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University presidential scholar.
Yeah well. Trump is probably the biggest egomaniac in the universe, so nearly everything about his “campaign” is unprecedented.
Trump has recently started encouraging his mostly white supporters to sign up online to be “election observers” to stop “Crooked Hillary from rigging this election.” He’s urging them to act as posses of poll watchers in “other” communities to ensure that things are “on the up and up.”
“Watch your polling booths,” he warned.
His supporters are heeding the call. “Trump said to watch your precincts. I’m going to go, for sure,” said Steve Webb, a 61-year-old carpenter from Fairfield, Ohio.
“I’ll look for . . . well, it’s called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can’t speak American,” he said. “I’m going to go right up behind them. I’ll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I’m not going to do anything illegal. I’m going to make them a little bit nervous.”
The Voting Rights Act includes a provision that prohibits any attempt to “intimidate, threaten, or coerce” a person trying to vote, and there’s a section of the federal criminal code banning voter intimidation as well.
It’s illegal to go right up behind them. It’s illegal to make them a little bit nervous.
So far, Trump has used his position as a leading candidate to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process (by suggesting it is rigged) and the courts (by suggesting his opponent will be imprisoned without due process). Either one of these alone would be a pretty scary precedent. I shudder to think what other bedrock principles of an ordered society he will next decide to merrily chip away at.
He may or may not be a symptom of some greater ill, but his own actions have already done immense damage to his country.
I believe it’s also illegal to “poll watch” in counties you do not reside in in Pennsylvania at least.
Apart from intimidation, what could it even mean? They will go and watch to make sure that things are on the up and up, meaning… what, exactly? They don’t think they’re going to be demanding people’s IDs and voter registration cards, do they?
Well that’s another reason the people actually in charge of monitoring don’t want amateurs helping. Meaning nothing, apart from trying to make people nervous.
They will go and watch to make sure that things are on the up and up, meaning… what, exactly?
Apparently, making sure voters speak American.
Funny how that doesn’t stop them passing voter i.d. laws to suppress minority votes, which they justify by claiming there is an epidemic of voter fraud. They are reasonable only by comparison to Donald.
What’s interesting is that he’s now sounding like a man who knows he’s going to lose. There’s a phemonenon in elections where some voters will back a candidate because they think that candidate will win and (presumably) want to be on the winning side.
As the Republican candidate who better than Trump to know that the election is rigged – as has been every election since 2000 and before. Rigged by Republicans by:
– tampering with voting machines, votes for democrats mysteriously switched to the republican candidates total, more votes cast than people who voted
– no voting machine audit trails so the frauds can’t be seen (the voting machines are provided and programmed by companies whose CEOs are enthusiastic republican supporters)
– voter suppression by stringent ID requirements more difficult for poor, old, black, rural voters to meet
– provision of fewer voting places in poor, black, rural districts
– limiting of voting hours in poor, black, rural districts
– closing of polls while voters were still in line to vote
– limiting advanced voting (for people who can’t afford to lose pay or take a vacation day to go vote because the two hours the law gives is not nearly enough time in poor, black districts)
– limiting or eliminating absentee voting
And now, voter intimidation at the polling place.
Every banana-republic election trick in the book used right here in the USA folks, It should be embarrassing but somehow it isn’t. Go figure
sailor1031 – and don’t forget – signs, especially in minority neighborhoods, reminding voters that Republicans vote on Tuesday, Democrats on Wednesday. I thought those were an urban legend, people making things up, until I saw one myself in Dallas.
@iknklast: ayuh!