The decline and fall of the GOP
The story of 2016 was tycoon businessman Trump running against Dem nominee Clinton whose appeal I could personally never work out. Neither could the voters that mattered in the rust belt, so Clinton lost albeit by a small margin.
4 years on and the USA looks very different. In the midst of a global pandemic, Trump and Mitch McConnell have built an unholy infrastructure which threatens the very existence of the USA’s democracy.
The courts
Trump and Mitch McConnell have stacked the courts in their favor. Some of the recent judgements concerning the election have been nothing short of outrageous, with the various rulings always somehow to favor suppressing the urban and heavily mail Democrat vote. The application ( Filed by someone who is running for a judge position ) to rule 100,000 votes in Harris Country TX because of the manner they were cast was perhaps the worst, and the rot has gone right to the top with Kavanaugh’s opinion on the Wisconsin case.
The 5th Circuit noted “the failure of the plaintiffs and the district court to assert that voting—or, for that matter, voting by mail—constitutes a liberty interest,” in a ballot curing case which shows where they’re at. The concept of natural justice seems far away from many of their decisions certainly.
The Postal Service
The Postal service run by Trump lackey Dejoy was gutted for the election. Combined with the aggressive litigation to enforce date of receipt deadlines by the GOP the undoubted intent is to disenfranchise Democrat voters who are using VBM due to Covid concerns far more than Republicans.
Dems have tried to get round this with dropboxes (Where only mail ballots are put and collected to the clerk’s office) but GOP Governors have succesfully sued to limit their use in places such as Texas in matters litigated on by stacked GOP courts.
This has led to last minute outrageous decisions such as those in Minnesota to change ballot deadlines 120 hours from the deadline (With a known slow mail service) have taken place. You’re constantly wondering what horrors of jurisprudence they have in store next.
The police
My late uncle was murdered whilst serving in the police force since before I was born, so I’m inclined to give the police a generous amount of doubt in the difficult decisions that have to be made quickly in the line of duty
And the US police force undoubtedly have a difficult job. Policing a country where guns are extremely prevalent, and mental health services are sorely lacking can leave officers with difficult split-second decisions to make. Errors will be made, and decisions that look like errors may not in fact be.
There is however definitely a streak, and it seems to be growing and growing more overt with Trump of a fetishization of a police state. The black and blue bacterization of old glory is a particularly concerning trend, as is the police proclaiming overt support for Trump whilst ON duty (Not dissimilar from some of the judges for that matter)
The most worrying part is that Trump’s vote within his own party is at around 85% according to the latest opinion (Which are now functioning as partial exit polls) and would be 95+ were it not for Covid. He retains a staggering amount of Republican support for someone who is, in plain sight, quite literally attempting to tear down democracy. Heck he’d probably be on track for re-election were it not for Covid.
The GOP in the USA looks to my eyes to be heading quite literally toward FASCISM, words I never thought I’d use about the party of Ronald Reagen and a democracy that includes presidents such as JFK, Lincoln and Roosevelt.
Despite the hurdles and chicanery Biden’s still worth a bet. He’s doing well in votes already cast, and female voters look to have seen through Trump in particular. If this was closer the thumb on the scales would likely tip it to Trump though.
Anyway here’s a short clip from Ruth, she’s seen a few elections in her time and knows what’s at stake here.
Pulpstar
Pulpstar is a longstanding PBer and even longerstanding gambler