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I know it’s a news avalanche but I don’t think elections being postponed in the US is getting anywhere near the coverage it should. It is a BFD.
Gonna make this a thread to try and keep track. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/doj-suspend-constitutional-rights-coronavirus-970935/
This one covers how all this advantages incumbents, especially down ballot. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-campaign/608713/
Not unrelated:
https://twitter.com/emilypawley/status/1243352856012509184?s=21 https://twitter.com/emilypawley/status/1243352856012509184
https://twitter.com/emilypawley/status/1243352856012509184?s=21 https://twitter.com/emilypawley/status/1243352856012509184
“...such groups are using the pandemic to sharpen their condemnations of “the system”, and encouraging people to lose all hope in normal political processes.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/us-far-right-seeks-ways-to-exploit-coronavirus-and-cause-social-collapse
I’ve neglected this thread because news avalanche, but here’s another for the list: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/12/trump-foreshadows-how-he-could-undermine-presidential-election?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://twitter.com/lindamottram/status/1261131278826434560?s=21 https://twitter.com/LindaMottram/status/1261131278826434560
At the same time, in Michigan, a state legislative session has been cancelled because of the threat posed by armed “protest”. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-14/michigan-cancels-legislative-session-to-avoid-armed-protesters
Just to underline this: the democratic process is being successfully disrupted by threats of violence. BFD.
And another one. Though it’s worth noting Kemp probably would have done this whatever else was happening. He’s got form. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/19/21262376/georgia-republicans-cancel-election-state-supreme-court-barrow-kemp-blackwell
The idea that Trump will “delay” the election (whatever that means) is already becoming totally normalized. And the NYT is 100% going to both sides it.
Again, this is not a new phenomenon. But. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1270433009033007106
In which the presumptive Democratic nominee--who could hardly be described as a radical--worries aloud that should Trump lose in November he might refuse to leave the White House, forcing military intervention. https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/joe-biden-fears-trump-to-steal-this-election-20200612-p551un.html
“We’ve already passed the point of catastrophic failure.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/12/us-presidential-election-fiasco-voter-suppression?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I spoke about this little thread on the @TheTodayShow this morning. https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow/status/1271603197069725696
“The president has been advancing untrue claims about mail-in balloting for months, fueling concerns he is laying the groundwork to contest the results of the 2020 election.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/22/trump-mail-in-voting-fraud-claims?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Meanwhile, the Kentucky primary is happening in a state that has gone from 3,700 polling places to 170. Louisville, a city of 600,000 people, now has 1 (one) in person-polling venue. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/politics/kentucky-poll-locations/index.html
'...Wallace pressed Trump to “give a direct answer” on whether he would accept the Nov. 3 election results or not. “I have to see. Look, you — I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say no and I didn’t last time either”...' https://time.com/5868739/trump-election-results-chris-wallace/
In Portland, "Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off." https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr
https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr
“A secretive, nationwide police force — created without congressional input or authorization, formed from highly politicized agencies, tasked with rooting out vague threats and answerable only to the president...should not exist in a democracy” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/opinion/portland-homeland-security.html
“The law is essentially ... it’s almost helpless against a president who’s willing to ignore it.”
(I’ll be on The Signal podcast later this week speaking about exactly these scenarios, and their historical context). https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/25/nation/bipartisan-group-secretly-gathered-game-out-contested-trump-biden-election-it-wasnt-pretty/
(I’ll be on The Signal podcast later this week speaking about exactly these scenarios, and their historical context). https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/25/nation/bipartisan-group-secretly-gathered-game-out-contested-trump-biden-election-it-wasnt-pretty/
As Australians head to bed, POTUS is once again floating delaying the election, while the US media ties itself in knots explaining that he’s not allowed to. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/trump-delay-election-no-authority/index.html
“Nobody...had any real idea... how to apply a sober, careful lens to the wild allegations — rigged voting machines, mysterious buses of outsiders turning up at poll sites — that surface every election night, only to dissolve in the light of day.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/business/media/election-coverage.html
Among other things, this article suggests that there may not be a result until Thanksgiving. Which is on the 26 of November.
Looking at this thread, I’m reminded of Jill Lepore’s “These Truths” on the decade before the Civil War: “...over the United States in the 1850s, a sense of inevitability fell, as if there were a fate, a dismal dismantlement, that no series of events or accidents could thwart.”
