Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Is it too soon to be talking 2020?

14th Amendment gives federal law supremacy over state laws. If Congress passed a judicial-proof Roe v Wade law, states would be powerless to do anything.

But my main point is that Republican's long project to pack the courts with conservative judges is useless if they lose control over Congress and the Presidency in the bargain. And that's just what they have done by supporting Trump. And sure, Republicans could always get back in power and make abortion illegal using the same tactic. But the backlash would be they lose that power at the next House election, and the Presidency at the next Presidential election, and the Senate eventually. Abortion is too popular for any Party to actually ban it.

Well the first "October" surprise is in, the Johnson Report.

I hope Republicans do a better job with the other reports and it appears the vaccine will not be authorized before Nov 3.

The Johnson Report, as one writer said, could have been written by Putin's disinformation/division sowers apparatus. I did not see any evidence of a crime, unless one considers Sec Kerry's lapse of memory (I will presume it was a lapse considering the insignificance of the incident) as a lie. Sen Johnson wrote a report full of innuendo ... there may have been a crime ... did business with shady characters ... did business with Chinese Communist Party. Unfortunately Sen Johnson could have written a report about Mr Trump with the same innuendo and included actual evidence to support some of the claims.

The goal senator was to actually make an impact on the electorate with some electrifying revelations of actual criminal activities which included VP Biden. If I were a teacher, the report gets a D but was redeemed from an F (failure to meet any of stated goals and there was no evidence) because it was written sans grammatical error.

Look you Republican clowns .... you're making me look bad. I was counting on some righteous smear campaign which would move the polling in Mr Trump's direction. I hope it does not turn out to be just as incompetent as the administration.

A opinion piece is out detailing the Trump campaign strategy to win the election and it sounds viable.

Declare the election invalid in Republican states which go with VP Biden and appeal to Republican legislatures to abrogate election returns and select only pro-Trump loyalists as electors and certify as only legitimate electors. This could end up in courts for weeks and if sent to SC the Trump campaign is booking their SC loyalists will vote with Trump.

Someone write this screenplay now!!!!! No one would believe it could really happen. Imagine a coup in broad day light to end democracy in America.

The Constitution does give the state legislature the power to determine how they award their electoral votes. Since 1868 all state legislatures has authorized the awarding of their electors via popular vote. South Carolina in 1860 was the last state where their state legislature awarded their electoral votes with no popular vote.

Since then the popular vote in any state has determine which slate of electors was chosen to cast that states electoral votes. Sure, there has been from time to time a couple of rouge or unfaithful electors who ignored the popular vote results. I highly doubt any state legislature can overturn or abrogate the election results. Unless there is a law in a state that gives the state legislature that power. I know of none, but my knowledge on that is very limited.

Now each state legislature could pass a law taking back the right to appoint or award electors to the state legislature without the people voting. That isn't about to happen. This would have to be done prior to the election.

So I think this is much ado about nothing. Especially since most states have each party on the ballot submit their own list of electors. Which list of electors that cast their votes is determine by the popular vote in their state.

I was a Perot elector in 1996 here in Georgia. Had he won, I would have cast one electoral vote him for president. But since Dole won Georgia, his slate of electors cast Georgia's electoral vote that year.

I see Trump has actually said he is going to get his pick on the Supreme Court to help him keep the office. But I doubt the Justices would do that blatantly, for fear of 1,000,000 people marching on Washington DC and burning their Court to the ground.

People are getting pretty upset, and 200,000+ have already died, no thanks to our glorious non-leader. I wouldn't be surprised if outrage becomes violent. The courts have to leave people with a sense that justice has been done, else they deliver their own justice.

Yikes!!!! Have you heard Mr Trump talk?????

Spaskovsky from the Heritage Foundation has been meeting with Republican state legislators from battleground states promoting the idea of claiming voter fraud, rejecting the popular vote and naming and certifying Trump loyal electors. If the SoS from these states does not certify the popularly elected candidate, I will conclude that group of electors has no standing at the convention of the electoral college.

So why would Spaskovsky be even talking about this plan if it were not possible legally???

Have you listened to any of some of these Republican led states???? Check out the governors of some of these states. They are 100% Trump loyalists and cult members. Why is it so hard to believe it is possible they would try to steal an election? Mr Trump has already made it clear .... he will not lose the election.

You may say well that is just the way Mr Trump talks or something similar, but you continue to fail to recognize his narcissism and cult standing. He has the nascent foundation of a Trump militia roaming the streets. Remember the Green Revolution in Iran? Motorcycles gangsters loyal to Ayt Khamenei roaming the streets attacks protestors.

Mr Trump and his loyalists have effectively and brazenly subverted the law with Republican complicity. He was acquitted of abuse of power and you believe that did not embolden him to attempt anything with the blessing of AG Barr????

Yes, in years gone by, it would have been unimaginable, but not now.

Insurrection?

Well, I guess they can try. Some of my relatives went that route, oh, bout a hundred and 60 years or so ago. Worked out poorly for them.

Here's something interesting from RCP. It includes the Libertarian and Green Party candidates.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/e..._biden_vs_jorgensen_vs_hawkins-7225.html

What's so interesting, at least to me is we only have 4% undecided. But expect a few voters now for Jorgensen (L) to peel off and to mostly to Trump leaving Jorgensen with a bit less than 1% of the vote. The same for Hawkins (G), some to peel away and go to Biden leaving Hawkins with less than 0.5%. Third party voters are usually cut in half come election day.

If you like to compare as I do, on 25 Sep 2016 it was Clinton 42.0, Trump 39.8, Johnson 8.5, Stein 2.6, undecided 7.2%. They ended up Clinton 48.2, Trump 46.1, Johnson 3.3, Stein 1.1. You can see how the third party voters or those who state they'll vote third party drift away from voting for their third party candidate and end up voting for one or the other major party candidate. Expect the same this year with a whole lot less folks stating third party preferences.

Couldn't those final numbers just reflect Third Party voters not even bothering to vote? Seems like a lot of hassle just so your Third Party candidate can have a slightly higher losing percentage.

Interesting thought. Certainly possible. The drop from 11% of the electorate planning on voting third party against both major party candidates down to the final 4.5%, certainly staying home and saying to Hades with it is very possible.

Especially since the exit polls of those who voted show the vast majority of third party voters weren't voting for their candidate, but against both Trump and Clinton. The Libertarian Party's candidate had never received more than 1% of the vote until 2016, 3.3%. That triple, more likely quadruple their normal 0.5 to 0.8%.

I hadn't thought of that, learn something new everyday. I suspect about half of those 11% planning on voting third party who didn't, decided to just to stay home and the other half decided to vote for the lesser of two evils.