Could Authoritarian Trump use Covid-19 as Excuse to Cancel the November Elections?
Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 19th, 2020
Salaroche


In these extraordinary times, not too many ideas seem farfetched enough to be discarded as fantasy. Just a couple of years ago, conceiving of anything resembling the present Covid-19 pandemic was just a subject for scientific speculation and, just a few years before that, only material for science-fiction, apocalyptic film scripts. Yet, today it is simply the reality that sorrounds us.

Conceiving of a “President” of the United States as someone constantly spewing insults left and right against his own people and his own country’s institutions of government may have also seemed totally unrealistic just a few years ago, yet that is exactly what we presently have.

Faced with such facts, to claim that, even as just a plausible hypothetical postulate, Trump would not try to manipulate the present serious health problems afflicting the US to get reelected in November would be, either ultra-naïve, or just another outright hypocritical, shameless Republican-style Trump-defense strategy.

According to some existing records, back in 1969, Richard Nixon’s administration may have contemplated the idea of cancelling the 1972 elections thinking of using the 41,000 bombs or bomb threats that had occurred during the tumultuous 60s as part of the reason for doing so.

You think Trump would not try to use the present directives to avoid large gatherings as excuse to postpone the November elections "until further notice”, thereby staying in power for as long as possible? Think again.

Nixon’s disregard for the American Constitution and for its institutions of government was quite comparable to that of Trump’s today. For that reason, therefore, it would be very irresponsible to think that what the first one may have thought of doing just a few decades ago, the second one may not try to do this time around.

As a wise precaution, the onus now falls on Congress to start designing highly-encrypted online voting systems and very secured regular-mail channels that may provide for citizens to vote from home in November, particularly as presently there is no foreseeable anti-Covid-19 vaccine that anyone may think of.

To recap, the question of whether it is true that the Nixon administration actually asked the Rand Corporation to study the consequences of cancelling the 1972 elections, is not really relevant today. What is of the utmost importance is the idea that, for all we know, Trump could actually try to pull this year a similar authoritarian trick, and a few others too, in an effort to stay in power for as long as possible.

To read the opinion piece that develops on this subject, which appeared yesterday in “Politico”, an online magazine renowned for their reliable, fact-based reporting, please click on the following link:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/18/could-trump-try-to-cancel-the-2020-election-134349

In the meantime… the beat goes on…

Salaroche