DrLove
Diamond Member
Renowned historian John Meacham raises this very disturbing question, When you think about the downplaying, dithering and non-stop barrage lies and disinformation, IMHO it's a distinct possibility.
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Full:
Opinion | We Can’t Let Coronavirus Postpone Elections
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We need to have these kinds of conversations about the election honestly, rationally, and now. The sooner the better, for chaos could lead to a nightmare scenario: the possibility that President Trump might take advantage of the unfolding health crisis to delay the November election.
Alarmist? Not for anyone who’s paid even glancing attention to the president’s will to power and contempt for constitutional convention. Though he’s recently signaled that postponement isn’t an issue, in the past he’s also joked — at least we think he was joking — about blowing past the two-term limit imposed on presidents by the 22nd Amendment. He retweeted Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s suggestion that Mr. Trump be given two additional years in office to make up for time lost to the Mueller probe. And he has long trafficked in conspiracy theories about unproven voter fraud in 2016.
The good news is that the Constitution so ably defended by Lincoln gives the executive virtually no control over the timing of elections. Anxious about monarchal absolutism, the founders invested Congress, not the president, with the power to schedule the selection of presidential electors. In a 1934 decision, the Supreme Court held that Congress has every “power essential to preserve the department and institutions of the general government from impairment or destruction, whether threatened by force or corruption.” By statute, Congress has set the date — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, every four years — and the power to alter that date lies not with the branch established by Article II, the executive, but with the lawmakers whose authority is rooted in Article I.
Scholars do not believe that even action by the president under national-emergency powers could postpone the quadrennial election unless Congress agreed — which means the Democratic House may be the only bulwark against constitutional chaos come fall.
Alarmist? Not for anyone who’s paid even glancing attention to the president’s will to power and contempt for constitutional convention. Though he’s recently signaled that postponement isn’t an issue, in the past he’s also joked — at least we think he was joking — about blowing past the two-term limit imposed on presidents by the 22nd Amendment. He retweeted Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s suggestion that Mr. Trump be given two additional years in office to make up for time lost to the Mueller probe. And he has long trafficked in conspiracy theories about unproven voter fraud in 2016.
The good news is that the Constitution so ably defended by Lincoln gives the executive virtually no control over the timing of elections. Anxious about monarchal absolutism, the founders invested Congress, not the president, with the power to schedule the selection of presidential electors. In a 1934 decision, the Supreme Court held that Congress has every “power essential to preserve the department and institutions of the general government from impairment or destruction, whether threatened by force or corruption.” By statute, Congress has set the date — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, every four years — and the power to alter that date lies not with the branch established by Article II, the executive, but with the lawmakers whose authority is rooted in Article I.
Scholars do not believe that even action by the president under national-emergency powers could postpone the quadrennial election unless Congress agreed — which means the Democratic House may be the only bulwark against constitutional chaos come fall.
Full:
Opinion | We Can’t Let Coronavirus Postpone Elections
is not 'debunking'.
