Thinking of red states vs blue states is busted. Plenty of good visualizations of this over the years, but this election in particular feels really important to point out “We” did not chose this.
When I say we I mean registered US voters, but even less so citizens, and even less so again residents.
Even of the voters who did vote for the GOP candidate, who can say how many really wanted him or his policies vs they just didn’t want more of the status quo Dems.
The popular vote tallies in this graphic are out of date too, He definitely didn’t win in a landslide the way it can appear with red and blue maps. His win in the popular vote was also pretty small now that more votes have been counted. https://www.thenation.com/…/donald-trump-vote-margin…/
So, what if Biden used broad immunity SCOTUS granted to declare a crisis of democracy - That between massive disinformation campaigns by enemies both foreign and domestic, voter suppression, as well as many other factors, the will of the people can’t be discerned from our recent presidential election. That it would be a dereliction of duty both to the people and to his oath to defend the constitution to hand over power to someone whose clear and declared intent is abuse the power of the office to fundamentally reshape or demolish our republic based on this highly suspect and incomplete result (remember, most people didn’t even vote)
Here is my off the cuff proposal for what to do after that
A new election, everyone must vote. Trump and Harris on the ballot, but each major party must offer 2 candidates, and we’re using Ranked Choice Voting. 1st place gets presidency, 2nd place gets VP.
Biden almost certainly won’t do anything like this. He is clearly a coward with a stupid sense of optimism - a “things will be just fine, no need for any drastic measures” ever, mentality, and despite some rhetoric has shown no signs that he thinks there is anything to actually be concerned about from the party which has veered hard towards fascism. But, hey, a guy can dream.
Can we have an empty podium for president?
Empty Podium 2024!
Edit: Lol I was too caught up on my Empty Podium joke I forgot to even read your post, but your proposal is funny
You know SCOTUS only said presidents and ex-presidents are immune from prosecution?
It doesn’t give the president any extra power, but just says “You can’t do that, but you don’t get in trouble if you tried.”
The president still have to find a yes-man in the government to do his bidding.
Biden doesn’t have any yes-men
And also SCOTUS can still later delare them “unofficial acts” so if Biden tries and fails to assassinate SCOTUS, he can actually end up in prison.
being immune from prosecution not being extra power, is for some a distinction without a difference.
Biden: Hey, it’s the POTUS. Your state needs to repeat the election. Make sure they use RCV, and I want you to tell the police to arrest nonvoters.
Governor: No.
Biden: But I’m immune from prosecution
Governor: Still no.
Biden: I’ll come down there and kill you with my bare hands!
Governor: I don’t think so.
Biden: I’ll send Seal Team Six to do it, and then pardon them!
Governor: They know you can’t pardon state murder charges.
Biden: You know immunity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Since this isn’t some super serious scenario I am trying to iron out all the details on at least use your imagination a little bit. Re-running the whole election? no, and not what I suggested. Re-running the presidential election, one ballot for a federal office, why do the states need to be involved much at all? I mean if we’re doing something drastic like this it isn’t like we would still use the electoral college system.
Presidential elections are run by states. They keep track of who is registered to vote, they run polling places, they print ballots, they own the machines that are used to cast and/or count votes, and every election worker ultimately reports to - and is paid by - their governor.
The president has no role, at all. He can’t hire election workers, can’t access polling places, can’t look at voter registries, and has no voting machines. Intentionally, to avoid schemes like yours.
So to extend the dialog:
Biden: Hey, all the governors flaked out so I’m hiring people to rerun the election myself. I’ll pay you $10,000. Bring 699,999 of your friends, we gotta build a whole new bureaucracy from scratch.
Passerby: Is that even in your budget?
Biden: Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll pay you $100,000! Also, order a voting machine on Amazon. I’ll reimburse you later.
Passerby: I’m never getting paid, am I?
Biden: Are you helping me or not? Also I need your home address, it’s gonna be a polling place. I’ll throw in $200,000 for your legal fees if you’re arrested for election fraud, like those false electors in 2020 that you bear no resemblance to!
Passerby: No thanks.
Biden: But I got immunity, baby! Immunity!
Big difference.
That court ruling is more useful for republicans since democratic-leaning officials are less likely to do stuff like assassinating SCOTUS.
Meanwhile once trump gets into office, he’ll order the military to, say, shoot protestors on sight. Refuse? Fired. Next in line, same orders. Keep firing until you find someone. The military generallt leans right wing. Eventually he’ll find a Magat.