Eight states remain undecided. As of writing, in Arizona Biden leads by 3.4% of the vote with 14% remaining, in Nevada Biden leads by 0.6% with 14% remaining, in Wisconsin Biden leads by 0.6% with two percent remaining, in Michigan Biden leads by 0.9% with six percent remaining, in Pennsylvania Trump leads by 8.1% with 20% remaining, in North Carolina Trump leads by 1.4% with five percent remaining, in Georgia Trump leads by 1.8% with even percent remaining and in Alaska Trump leads by 29.9% with 44% remaining. To make a long story short, it is far too early to declare a victor in the 2020 presidential election.
At two a.m. Wednesday morning Trump spoke at the White House as he continued to trail Biden both in the popular vote and in electoral college votes. Trump first thanked his supporters and his family, before moving on to complain about the electoral process.
“We were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off,” Trump said. “We were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good.”
Trump then falsely claimed he won several undecided states in which he had the lead, as well as Arizona in which he lagged behind. On Nov. first Axios reported that the Trump campaign planned to declare victory before all the votes are counted, and it now appears that they have followed through.
Before Pence took the stage, Trump had one final announcement. The Trump administration planned to take the election to the Supreme Court in order to stop all vote counting after election day. At the time Trump lead in Wisconsin and Michigan which would give him the votes necessary to win the election.
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court; we want all voting to stop,” Trump said. “We don’t want them to find any ballets at four a.m. and adding them to the list.”
Simply put, Donald Trump has promised to start a coup. By attempting to stop voting before all of the ballets are registered, Trump is deliberately undermining democracy in order to maintain his power.
It’s no secret that Trump idolizes authoritarianism. His strategies of harkening back to a once great past, releasing propaganda, anti-intellectualism, denying reality, insisting his own inherit superiority and repeated claims of victimhood all just so happen to be some of the pillars of fascism outlined in the book “How Fascism Works” by philosopher Jason Stanley. This blatant power grab represents a new chapter for the president. No longer are the insane things he says just brief one offs to appeal to his base, he is going to seize a second term by force.
Donald Trump and the republican party are anti-democracy. Whether it’s implimenting a modern day poll tax, sabotaging mail in voting or intentionally misleading the public, the conservative movement has no shortage of dirty tricks to employ in order to prevent voting, all the while gaslighting the public claiming that democrats are the ones trying to steal the election. As Biden continues to lead Trump in the popular vote, it’s also important to note that the Republican “majority” in the senate actually represents less than half of the population. Republican success on a federal level is dependent on voter suppression and outdated systems that do not properly represent the will of the people.
I don’t know what to do. As serious as Trump’s plan is it’s possible that it simply won’t happen, or that the three judges he appointed won’t support him. This entire election cycle has felt like a fever dream and the end is no exception. I would like to be able to confidently say what we can do, and there are things we can do, but given the complete lack of consequences for anything Trump has done I can’t imagine this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We need to stay vigilant, this is happening in front of our very eyes and we can’t go back to brunch when we get too tired. We’re still here, and we need to resist fascism no matter what so that in the future we can say that we prevented an American catastrophe, or at the very least we can say that we tried.
By Jason Yearout