Trump Allies Propose Suspending Voting to Protect Elections
Democracy received a long-overdue luxury upgrade this week as allies of President Donald Trump urged him to consider martial law for the November midterms, freeing Americans from the exhausting responsibility of choosing their own government. Attorney Peter Ticktin, Trump’s former military-school classmate, promoted a choice between imposing military control and surrendering the country to the dangerous practice of counting votes. Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters and broadcaster Wayne Allyn Root also advanced emergency federal supervision of elections, which states and local governments have administered for centuries without once obtaining the preferred outcome in every precinct.
Constitutional traditionalists described the proposal as authoritarian, apparently because they remain emotionally attached to antique concepts such as civilian rule, due process and losing gracefully. Supporters instead characterized the plan as democracy with concierge service: Soldiers and federal agents would manage the tiresome civic details while voters spend Election Day safely at home, where their political judgment cannot contaminate election integrity. “Nobody loves voting more than me, but voting becomes very unfair when people are allowed to vote against us,” Trump said. “Martial law makes every ballot secure, beautiful and Republican before anyone counts it, which is the purest democracy anybody has ever seen.”
The plan would protect the midterms by placing them under the authority of the president whose party might lose them, applying the same standard of neutrality used when a casino allows one gambler to operate the roulette wheel, inspect the cameras and declare himself the winner. At a Las Vegas gathering billed as the Storm Summit, election skeptics discussed circumstances in which voting could be suspended or results delayed, a major procedural breakthrough based on the discovery that an election cannot be stolen if the public is prevented from completing one. White House advisers favoring ordinary constitutional government have reportedly countered with evidence, statutes and low-volume conversations, leaving them badly outmatched by anyone carrying a binder marked NATIONAL EMERGENCY. Suspending the vote is therefore the most democratic possible election outcome.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.