Stolen Election or Color Revolution? The Healthy State of American Democracy

As we approach the 2020 election, it is becoming more and more obvious that the state of American democracy is perilous. From the Left, many are convinced that Trump plans to steal the election through voter suppression or just stay in office. 

Of course, Trump hasn't helped this perception by refusing to say whether he'll commit to a "peaceful transfer of power" if he loses. But then, I can understand why I would not want to answer "what if" questions about losing if I were running for reelection. 

Then there was that whole UPS fiasco which was wildly overblown (although, with Trump's own words helping to make it so.

Trump's own words cause endless problems. Indeed, his complaining about election fraud this time around sounds like when he was complaining about it in 2016. And while some studies showed there may have been a large number of illegal immigrants who voted (or one that showed 5.7 million registered in 2008!). I mean, California elected two illegal immigrants to city commissioners for crying out loud!  

Even still, Trump never proved this was widespread (and it probably happens mostly in heavily liberal states that don't affect the Electoral College) so his own administration dropped it. So it rings hollow now. 

And while Trump's jokes about staying in office for decades and unwillingness to commit to a "peaceful transfer of power" are concerning, it should be noted that Al Gore didn't accept a "peaceful transfer of power" right away in 2000. He sued. So likely that's what Trump is thinking. Furthermore, Trump and the Republicans accepted the 2018 Congressional losses with nary a whimper. I think he will leave if he loses.

The other side concerns me a bit more to be honest. 

Yes, I think Biden will win. He's leading in all the polls and while the polls were wrong in 2016, they were only a little wrong. Trump's margin of victory was at the edge of the margin of error and came down to winning key states (he lost the popular vote). But if Biden doesn't win. If this "October Surprise" regarding Hunter Biden really blows up, then what?

While everyone is talking about The New York Post article on Hunter Biden and whether it was legitimate, a previous article is more concerning. It regards an anonymous insider talking about ho whe committed voter fraud on a massive scale easily. Now I'm no fan of anonymous sources, but still, this was troubling,

He would have his operatives fan out, going house to house, convincing voters to let them mail completed ballots on their behalf as a public service. The fraudster and his minions would then take the sealed envelopes home and hold them over boiling water.
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“You have to steam it to loosen the glue,” said the insider.

He then would remove the real ballot, place the counterfeit ballot inside the signed certificate, and reseal the envelope.

“Five minutes per ballot tops,” said the insider.

Or why not just destroy ballots from people who are likely to vote against your guy?

The tipster said sometimes postal employees are in on the scam.
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“You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he’s working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold … He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage.”

When you read this and then look at The Heritage Foundation's database of 1285 cases of known mail fraud or just unintentional messes like the 84,000 mail-in ballots that were disqualified in the New York primary this year, it makes it hard to believe the constant statements that mail-in voting is completely secure. I mean, Twitter fact checked Trump's tweets, so it must be so!

Still, if that happens it will probably be mostly in very liberal states. Maybe the Electoral College exists for a reason.

But lastly, there is the term "color revolution" which various conservatives are throwing around. These were basically anti-authoritarian revolutions in Eastern Europe that were funded by Western governments and NGOs (such as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and Rose Revolution in Georgia). Most recently was the "Revolution of Dignity" in Ukraine in 2014 (really an American-backed coup). The film Ukraine on Fire gives a pretty good overview of those events in my opinion.

Anyways, are these tactics coming to the United States? Civil unrest is a big part of them. A weird combo of establishment liberals like George Soros and NeverTrump Neocons like Bill Kristol have established the Transition Integrity Project, which foresees trouble.

A landslide for Joe Biden resulted in a relatively orderly transfer of power. Every other scenario we looked at involved street-level violence and political crisis.

The thing is... that kind of sounds like a threat.

And it shouldn't be a surprise that some in the government would not accept a Trump victory as they did not accept a Yanukovich in Ukraine in 2004. The conservative site Revolver has an interesting take on this possibility.

I think this is a long shot and likely, Biden will win and Trump will step down. But that's by no means for sure. Given that both sides seem convinced the other will cheat and is, effectively illegitimate, it's hard to believe the United States' democracy is in anything other than a dire condition.

Indeed, one poll found that 61 percent of Americans think another civil war is imminent!

We really should take Michael Malice's advise and look to break up the country before such a war comes to pass.