Original article from: CNN
At the end of a rancorous and chaotic debate — in which President Donald Trump tried to bulldoze challenger Joe Biden with insults, slashing interruptions and callous attacks on Biden’s family — the President questioned the legitimacy of the November election, refused to say whether he would concede should he lose and declined to forcefully condemn White supremacists.
As Trump was wrapping up a nearly unwatchable 90 minutes in which his interruptions often made it impossible for viewers to follow what the two men were talking about, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump whether he would urge his supporters to “stay calm and” avoid any civil unrest, and would pledge not to “declare victory until the election has been independently certified.”
LEFT VIEWPOINTS
Mail-in voting works, and that why Trump hates it.
- There is a great irony that Trump is planting the idea that the election will be rigged. Republicans are the ones who blatantly rig elections via voter suppression tactics.
- If Biden wins, and if Democrats manage to win control of the Senate and the House, solidifying anti-voter-suppression laws must be prioritized.
- Trump won in 2016 by suppressing the vote, and he hopes to repeat it.
This should scare every American, but sadly, only about half the country’s people recognize the threat to democracy Trump represents. There is a great irony that Trump is planting the idea that the election will be rigged. Republicans are the ones who blatantly rig elections via voter suppression tactics.
If we are going to emerge from Trump’s term as a democracy, we have to focus on fixing the voter suppression problem, requiring expanding democracy. If Biden wins, and if Democrats manage to win control of the Senate and the House, solidifying anti-voter-suppression laws must be prioritized. Unfortunately, that also means reforming the Supreme Court will be necessary. It doesn’t do any good to pass laws that a politicized Supreme Court will remove later. In 2013, the conservative Supreme Court stripped away most of the 1965 Voter Rights Act, paving the way for the voter suppression tactics we see today.
The American voting system needs to be trusted, but Trump is attempting to cast doubt on mail-in voting because he recognizes that more people voting means he will likely lose. Trump won in 2016 by suppressing the vote, and he hopes to repeat it. Mail-in voting puts a kink in the Republican agenda. Expect them to continue to undermine it.