I've read two columns in the past two days devoted to the issue of the US's potential unraveling in the case of Trump losing the election and disregarding the results (Paul Krugman's column today in the NY Times and a column yesterday by Edward Luce in the Financial Times). It's virtually unimaginable for him to concede defeat, and it's hardly beyond the perfidy of the Republicans and of Fox News to support him in this. Assuming Republican senators also lose they may be even more willing to make absurd claims of voter fraud and dispute the results. What do you think happens then? Will it be settled in the streets? Mattis's statement the other day seems to ominously forecast an event where US troops will have to disobey en masse the commands of Trump. Does the military settle it?
Trump doesn't really love the Presidency---not as much profit in it as he might have hoped for. He'd rather be golfing. Also, he has no real ideological stake in any traditional Republican policy position. Should he lose the election in 2020, he will ofcourse contest the result, but that's merely out of spite. And vast as the scope of Trump's spitefulness might be, I do not believe it sufficient to risk a full-blown tribal revolution---it would be bad for business.
I've read two columns in the past two days devoted to the issue of the US's potential unraveling in the case of Trump losing the election and disregarding the results (Paul Krugman's column today in the NY Times and a column yesterday by Edward Luce in the Financial Times). It's virtually unimaginable for him to concede defeat, and it's hardly beyond the perfidy of the Republicans and of Fox News to support him in this. Assuming Republican senators also lose they may be even more willing to make absurd claims of voter fraud and dispute the results. What do you think happens then? Will it be settled in the streets? Mattis's statement the other day seems to ominously forecast an event where US troops will have to disobey en masse the commands of Trump. Does the military settle it?
ReplyDeleteTrump doesn't really love the Presidency---not as much profit in it as he might have hoped for. He'd rather be golfing. Also, he has no real ideological stake in any traditional Republican policy position. Should he lose the election in 2020, he will ofcourse contest the result, but that's merely out of spite. And vast as the scope of Trump's spitefulness might be, I do not believe it sufficient to risk a full-blown tribal revolution---it would be bad for business.
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