It is not healthy for a democracy when both sides of an election believe that the only possible means for the other side to win is if they cheat. It is even scarier when one side happens to be correct, while the other side is cheating, conspiring, and ready to believe the most ridiculous claims.
Last night on Bill Maher’s show, Michael Moore stated that the only way Trump could win is if he cheats.
From The Hill [1]:
Moore appeared on “Real Time With Bill Maher [2]” and warned that Trump may be planning ways to boost his chances against former Vice President Joe Biden [3], the presumptive Democratic nominee, in November.
“The only way they are going to pull it off is if he’s able to cancel the election or postpone it,” Moore said of the Trump campaign. “That is what we’re going to have to fight against because I’m certain that is what is going on in his head right now.”
Given that the same thing was likely going through Trump’s head in 2016, there is no reason at all to think it won’t be going through his head this year. The only difference is that Trump didn’t seem particularly interested in winning last time, only maximizing his exposure and making more money. This time, Trump needs to win for any of a thousand reasons, not the least of which is keeping control of the Justice Department. We might note that usually, only despotic banana republics have “elections” where both sides want the power to throw their opponents in jail. Making it worse is that there are real reasons to throw the Trump regime in jail.
Trump will not worry about getting “more votes” than Biden.
Moore noted that Hillary Clinton [4], the 2016 Democratic candidate, won the popular vote against Trump by three million votes but still lost the election. He suggested that Biden will win by five million, but said Trump could still win the Electoral College with the help of his ardent fanbase of supporters.
We have assumed for four years that the Democrat would win the popular vote and it will be by much more than last time since it is doubtful that anyone in California or New York will vote for Trump at this point, and that’s only a slight exaggeration. We might note that it’s probably not healthy for a democracy to continually have one side get more votes and yet not “win” elections. Indeed you could ask if it’s even a democracy when three of the last four Republican “victories” (if Trump wins) will have come with popular vote losses.
Sigh. Trump is more than ready to cheat. It’s not healthy to have a president so open about cheating in a …
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom