Until I read about what is happening in Portland, I would have ridiculed this suggestion. But what if Homeland Security agents descend en masse into Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee to prevent people from voting? Scotus has shown 0 interest in securing voting rights. Can anything be done?
Nothing stops him from doing this except the Constitution…but only after the fact. While it is being done teeth will knash, brows will furrow, threats will be made…but with the lips of the VP and Congress glued firmly to his ass nobody who might be able to stop him from giving such an order will actually do so and, as seen in Portland, he will have enough troops to hit the the spots necessary for him to squeek through.
How do you envision this working? Some kind of curfew ostensibly to main public order? If it were a very transparent attempt to stop people voting, I think it would backfire in a big way - starting with a lot of federal agents simply refusing to comply with an illegal order. Some of the voter suppression we’ve seen in the past has been pretty blatant, but I think it would be counterproductive (from Trump’s perspective) to use methods that are too explicit. Messing with the USPS might be one of the more dangerous prospects in the current environment.
The concern here is that the federal security agencies have proven themselves disturbingly ready to obey orders.
They would be sent in to “protect” polling places from “anarchists”(those on the left).
That bit about refusing to comply with an illegal order? Cold comfort, as JRDelirious has pointed out.
Will he also be preventing the state legislature from convening to appoint electors?
Remember, all he has to do is “protect” those areas that will be “threatened by anarchists”, leaving areas that aren’t “threatened” to vote to their heat’s(and party’s) content.
Federal agents are not robots. They wouldn’t comply with such an order. This is like people asking, “What if Trump decides to order a nuclear launch for no good reason?”
Been to Portland lately? Federal agents will beat the shit out of someone and tear gas them directly in the face for asking a question while standing still with hands down to the side. Federal agents with no departmental patches or name tags will abduct people off the street that are nowhere near federal buildings those agents are supposedly there to protect, refuse to answer questions from those nearby, stuff those people into rental vans and take them to undisclosed locations, then release them when people ask for a lawyer. What the fuck Federal Agents are you referring to?
There is a fine line between “no good reason” and “a spurious reason that I have decided is good enough.”
Doesn’t need to be so complex,
simply announce that for public safety temperatures must be taken at polling stations, contact tracing information recorded and that the polls have to close at 6pm (or whatever time) regardless of how many in the queue.
Czarcasm has fully answered my question.
He will do it but he has to have some thin reed of an excuse and there will be one.
IMO, he didn’t completely answer your question of if anything can be done, depending on how technically you read the response. If he truly was saying nothing can be done, well, I don’t know what to say that would make you feel better or convince you otherwise. Maybe vote for Trump to show loyalty towards the incoming eternal regime?
I said that nothing could be done beforehand to stop it, considering the current Congress and VP .
Well, that’s part of what I meant in how technically your response is read; I wasn’t entirely sure if you were saying that no one could stop it from being tried or that no one could stop it from succeeding.
Trump deployed federal forces to the streets of Portland, Oregon. Trump claims it was needed to quell the ongoing demonstrations and violence instigated by the death of George Floyd. The Governor of Oregon requested no federal “assistance.” The Mayor of Portland requested no federal “assistance.” Instead, both local officials are demanding these federal forces stand down and leave. Both local officials are saying these federal forces are making things worse.
This past weekend a Portland City Commissioner went on the public record stating Trump’s uninvited and heavy-handed federal deployment in Portland is a test. She said it is a prelude for intervention in cities across America to strike fear with the citizenry and disrupt the fall election.
Today, Trump announced the upcoming deployment of federal forces to Chicago. There is no ongoing civil disruption in Chicago akin to the demonstrations in Portland. As I write this, there is no public information the Governor of Illinois requested federal “assistance.” As I write this, there is no public information the Mayor of Chicago requested federal “assistance.”
At this time anyone claiming to know what Trump will or will not try to do to “up his ratings” is blowing smoke up our asses.
It had been discussed with the matter of the DC demonstrations, how bringing in CBP or Bureau of Prisons SWAT (or even “contractors”) to “pacify the streets” means bringing in entities that are used to not having to care a damn for the welfare of those they are confronting. Bodies used to seeing the other as someone who needs to be taken down in such a way s/he never dares do that again; and who do not care what comes after.
The real military is not to be relied upon for this. It has career officers and NCOs who have been observing Rules of Engagement for decades and can say “my job is not clobbering our own civilians”. Even regular police are not consistently reliable for that, as each will have its own approach, and many will rather let things simmer at a slow heat until folks get tired, instead of wanting to land a smashing blow and risk seeing the city burn.
So instead we have this force, whose job is to put people in their place and who cares who complains. And who apparently are entirely willing to do so w/o asking questions.
There’s gonna need to be a whole lotta defunding goin’ on…
Another thing I worry about. Did you have to remind me?