Voter Suppression and the Senate: Key’s to Trump’s Power
There was deep anxiety in America about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. A significant percentage of Americans feared another four years of Trump would cause irreparable harm to our democracy and national security. These fears were well-founded. Since the 2016 campaign and throughout his presidency, Trump consistently fomented division and violence, supported long-standing foreign adversaries, and flouted constitutional and democratic institutions. At his rally in Muskegon, Michigan on October 17, 2020, Trump referenced Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer which led to “Lock her up!” chants from the frenzied crowd. In response, Trump smiled and said, “Lock them all up.” Dangerous communication from a supposed “law and order” president. Duly elected Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the subject of a plot to kidnap and overthrow the government of Michigan by right-wing extremists. Unsurprisingly, Trump did not condemn the plot. In April 2020, Trump tweeted, LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” It appears that the right-wing extremists who devised the plot against Michigan were inspired by Trump’s tweet.
Trump admitted he wouldn’t win re-election if there was high voter turnout.(1) And frankly, Trump wouldn’t have won in 2016 if there had been high voter turnout. The 2016 presidential election had the lowest voter turnout since 1996.(2) Trump’s winning strategy appeared to be compromising the voting process and ensure all the ballots were not counted. The Trump campaign and GOP officials in several states launched multiple lawsuits to suppress voting and invalidate ballots. For instance, in Texas, the GOP ensured only one Official Ballot Dropbox was available in each county regardless of its geographic size or population. Undeniably, this was a transparent attempt to make it difficult for voters to cast their ballots. In Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, GOP officials prevented the processing or counting of mail-in or early vote ballots until election day. With the surge of early voters and mail-in ballots in the 2020 election, officials may have had difficulty counting ballots by the December 8 “safe harbor”** deadline. This strategy provided the opportunity for Trump to challenge the validity of thousands of ballots if there was difficulty declaring results in a timely manner. Of course, Trump wanted to make it difficult or impossible to count all the ballots. These are only a few examples of the legal shenanigans and anti-democratic strategies that were pursued by Trump’s campaign. Clearly, Trump does not support our democracy. Trump’s only goal was to retain power. If Trump had been successful in disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters, our democracy would have been compromised. We’ve seen schemes like this before in non-democratic, autocratic-ruled countries.
In his four years as president, Trump’s key to wielding and retaining power had been the Senate. After being impeached by the House, Trump was able to retain power by being acquitted in the Republican-held Senate. And it had been through the Republican-held Senate that Trump had been able to control any legislative action as well as government and court appointments. The House was controlled by the Democratic Party and retained control of the House in the 2020 election. The Democratic Party also took control of the Senate in the 2020 election.
References
** Safe Harbor Deadline: Date in presidential elections when states must finalize voting results and select electors for the Electoral College
Updated January 13, 2020
