Thom Hartmann For Buzzflash: Will America Let Trump Get Away With Igniting an Electoral Disaster for Democracy?

July 30th 2020

President Trump Travels to Texas (The White House)

By Thom Hartmann

As an American dies every minute from coronavirus because Donald Trump and the Republican Party refused to do anything about it, they are now trying to use the coronavirus to mess with the election this November.

Trump’s Postmaster General is actively destroying the Post Office and slowing down the mail to create a crisis for people who want to vote by mail, while Republican governors are closing urban polling stations and stripping people from the voting rolls left and right.

Now, to distract from the worst economic news in the history of the United States, from John Lewis‘s message and funeral, and to set up his challenge when he loses the election, Trump is suggesting we should delay the election.

Few people thought he would get away with asking for foreign help to win an election, but he did. A few people thought he would get away with saying terrible things about women and being charged with sexual assault, but he did. Few people thought he would get away with eliminating environmental rules and poisoning our rivers, but he did. Few people thought he would get away with giving a $3 trillion gift to himself and his billionaire buddies, but he did.

Now Trump is trying to set up a situation where he wins even if he loses. By casting doubt around the election, when he loses it he will continue to claim that he is the legitimate President of the United States.

This will almost certainly be a disaster for democracy, both here in the United States and around the world, all because Donald Trump wants to keep himself from going to jail. We can’t let him get away with it.

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of American Oligarchy and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.