In a rare public address, former president said US is experiencing ‘dark days’ and urged Americans to vote
Joe Biden has warned that his presidential successor, Donald Trump, will attempt to “steal” the midterm elections, in a rare public address.
Speaking in South Carolina, where he was being honored for his lifetime achievement in politics, Biden also asserted that the US is experiencing “dark days”, in a speech made hours before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.
Reprising a line from the 2020 campaign that saw him defeat Trump and end Trump’s first presidency, Biden told the crowd at the Columbia Museum of Art on Friday that the “battle for the soul of this nation is one that’s never really over”. He simultaneously criticized Trump’s plan to introduce potentially prohibitive voting requirements ahead of the midterms.
What part of “vote in rigged election” is a “viable” strategy?
1964, Presidential Election (LBJ vs Goldwater):
Johnson won 61% of the popular vote. Even if there had been a concerted effort to rig the election against Johnson, it would have had to be so widespread and obvious that it would have been either stopped immediately, or it would have resulted in a new civil war. Getting that many people voting the right way should be the goal; make the margin of victory so wide as to be impossible to overcome via subtle chicanery.
If they still try to steal the election in those circumstances, then there will be violence, which is the only other option for changing government, so we might as well try having the election before the violence.
TLDR:
There have already been extremely obvious attempts to steal US elections. The guy in charge right now tried to lead one. Some were even successful. People weren’t rioting in the street or overthrowing the government when Bush got handed the election by the supreme court, and that’s a much more recent precedent that refers to a successful steal, rather than a failed one.
Did anyone who tried to rig this one election 80 years ago face consequences? Were any measures taken by those in power to prevent another attempt?
2000 Presidential Election:
Popular vote: 50,456,002 (Bush) / 50,999,897 (Gore)
Bush won because the margin was so narrow. He lost the popular vote but eked out an electoral college win because of Florida.
Per Wikipedia:
Nader took 97,488. If less than one percent of Nader voters had gone for Gore, Gore would have won the state, and who knows what timeline we’d be living in now.
Elections can be stolen when the margin is that narrow. When the margin is wide, it’s impossible to steal.