Phillip Frazer
America’s presidential election is just 15 weeks away…
Today, the Dis-united States of America – aka world’s ‘richest’ country – has nearly four million cases of COVID-19, and over 150,000 deaths attributed to the virus. More than 40 million Americans are out of work and four out of 10 Americans would be unable to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense, such as an emergency room visit or car repair, with their savings – and that shocking statistic predates the pandemic.
So, the president and a big bunch of Republicans will be voted out of office on November third right? Maybe, maybe not.
Consider a few scenarios:
WAR: Trump could declare war, which always boosts a president’s ratings, such as Reagan’s Grenada attack, or the Bush-Cheney’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) hit on Iraq. Trump’s target of choice would be China, but they have 2.2 million in uniform versus America’s 1.4 million, and they have nuclear, cyber and bio weapons, so if Trump went after China he’d only have a handful of backups; Morrison being its little finger. BeamMeUpScotty just decided to spend $270b on our military to prepare for our ‘more dangerous’ world, led by ‘malicious’ China. China called this ‘stupid’.
In fact, Trump has already started a war – America’s second Civil War – the goal of which is to enshrine unlimited personal enrichment as the country’s overarching principle, along with the disenfranchisement of everyone who doesn’t belong to the current ruling tribe. Trump’s tribe are rich people who look, sound, and operate like him, are dedicated to his personal advancement, secondly to their own, and to everyone else’s not at all.
The number of Americans who still think that Trump’s goal is their goal is shrinking. Polls now have Biden far enough ahead of Trump that even the multi-billion dollars worth of advertising and free media that Trump and his backers will inflict on the population over the next three months is unlikely to swing the votes their way.
BLOCK THE VOTE: this president and his backers have ditched all conventions of electioneering; their main goal is to stop Democratic voters from voting. He/they could, for example, declare an emergency and hand the selection to the members of the Electoral College which, you may remember from 2016, is all you need to win the presidency. Electoral College voters from all the individual states – appointed by their local political dealmakers – would choose Biden, or Trump, and in most cases all the electoral votes of that state would go to the man thus chosen, regardless of the people’s vote.
SHOOT PEOPLE: What sort of emergency? If somebody opened fire on lines of would-be voters outside a polling booth on Election Day, the vote could be abandoned, either by some legal pronouncement or just ipso facto. Even if they reschedule, there’s always another shooter. There’s more than one gun for every citizen in America.
COULD IT REALLY HAPPEN? There are many reasons Trump does not intend to lose; including that he’ll be charged with multiple jailable crimes the second he loses Presidential immunity.
BIGGLY-EST REASON? For Donald Trump, nothing is worse than being a loser. Beyond that, he doesn’t give a fuck, my dear…
Phillip Frazer isowrites in Mullum and isoposts at corrabellridge.com.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
