Donald Trump will definitely not win re-election without some extreme and unexpected circumstantial change. He’s barely even competitive at this point. I honestly think it’s more likely that we will see organized violence in the streets between now and then than it is that he will legitimately win re-election.

More likely, conservatives will look for ways to delegitimize the results at any and every level. One possible (example) scenario: liberal cities and states continue to ramp up vote by mail infrastructure, while conservative states do not. Conservatives then use the expanded Democrat vote numbers to claim voter fraud, in a bid to sell the incoming president as illegitimate and justify all manner of obstructionist behaviors. They flood the courts with lawsuits over election results, as well as every policy change and budgetary decision, hoping for some payoff on the judgeships they acquired and on the public’s ability to internalize false claims if they hear them often enough.

civil war after the election...doug and the mrs move to vancouver sooner than planned

How do you not respond to McP's post with a whiskey gif? That's one of the whiskey-gif-est posts I've ever read.

i thought whiskey was only top page now if you have the chance..otherwise there would be too many..one drink per page

right behind you, bro


Dramatization

FIFTY-FOUR FORTY OR FIGHT!

And we mean it this time.

Not exactly bold, but:

States will reopen out of economic necessity/lack of Federal support. Distancing and the ability to work from home will become a pleasure of the haves, while illness and death will become the reality for have-nots (and the ignorant and stupid).

The coronavirus is actually the rapture.

Fauci will be fired no later than tomorrow night. It might happen today, but Trump wouldn’t want to seem retaliatory.

This is an interesting strategy.

i can't take credit for it

Adding to this because the sad thing is, I don’t think we’re going to get our return to normal out of this desperate lunge to reopen.

The more open states are going to end up blaming the more closed up ones for the economy not bouncing back quick enough. The closed up ones will blame the open ones for exacerbating the flames on a second wave.

As the reality of the virus hits home with rural conservatives, the fringe among them will look at places like Seattle recovering and begin to convince themselves that it’s a planned genocide by liberals and China.

The president, dependent upon that group’s loyalty, will nod their way by accusing blue states of sabotaging the recovery. “They’re sabotaging the country,” he’ll say during a rally. This in turn will cycle back and really hit home with those rural folks who lost loved ones and want to see them as American heroes who died to help save the day.

This being an election year, he will also be accusing Democrats of voter fraud, which will lead to claims of “voting for the dead.” And this will be the backdrop you created for the election and potential transition of power. Also you’ll still have a disastrous economy

McP, going back to your original prediction there – – you say that cities will begin ramping up vote by mail infrastructure, but won’t that be happening at the county level in each state (except for those states that opt to execute a state wide mail-in election)?

Missed that one.

Even when the vaccine is created, it will only be partially effective, and as a result a significant number of people will always wear masks everywhere they go in order to self-identify as a dickhead who likes to eat poo

I only framed it that way for shorthand, because the push for vote by mail often centers around cities (see WI, where nearly 70% of Milwaukee and Madison voters say they plan to vote by mail, but only 30% of the rest of the state does...in a pandemic, no less). I didn’t want to dig the weeds on that part, because it was an example of how the prediction might play out....not the prediction itself.

Well the whole reason I'm pushing back on that, just purely based on my experiences here in MT:

I think that because any voting initiatives will be happening at the county level, I'm very skeptical that we'll see widespread cries of voter fraud. Generally speaking, the rural communities here that are part of a county with an urban center understand that they rely heavily on that urban center for tax revenue, and there's an inherent appreciation for the roles that both communities play...

Add to that that, again, at least here in MT, our Republican SoS (who oversees elections) and our Democratic Governor, are generally on great working terms. What I expect we'll see is a limited number far-right state legislators crying foul, with some demonstrations in the extremely right communities like Kalispell. They'll garner an undue amount of media coverage, but I don't think it will in any way be indicative of broad voter sentiment.

But maybe it's one of those things that's unique to MT, or maybe I'm just wrong.

if this work from home thing really catches on, some red states will flip blue when super dense and expensive blue states have a worker exodus to much cheaper red states where they can WFH

WFH as a broad based way forward for the American workforce is a myth. It'll be like 10 people, tops with the rest of the jobs put in the wood chipper.