It Was a Bizarre Question to Even Ask
On This Day In 2017
OTDI 2017, the Washington Post published the results of a poll. They had asked 1,325 Americans: “If Donald Trump were to say that the 2020 presidential election should be postponed until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote, would you support or oppose postponing the election?”
“Postpone the election?” Why would they even ask that? Put yourself for a moment back into our pre-Trump world. Back then, it wouldn’t have occurred to most people that there was something corrupt about our election system…because there isn’t anything corrupt about our election system. It wouldn’t have occurred to Americans to think about postponing it…because it hadn’t occurred to anyone before.
Then along came Trump, and it was all downhill from there. Not in the integrity of our elections, but just in the way the GOP makes false claims about them, sowing nonsensical doubt in people’s minds.
(And notice how quickly the world changed under Trump: This question was asked a mere 7 months into his term!)
So, sure enough, 52% of Republicans answered Yes, they would indeed want to postpone the election if Trump asked them to. From that moment on, the 2020 election was seriously imperiled.
The Post noted that the results “show that a substantial number of Republicans are amenable to violations of democratic norms that are more flagrant than what is typically proposed (or studied).”
Sure enough, the “unbelievable” actually did happen: Three years later, Trump did imply that the election should be postponed and that his term should be extended! And at least 161,000 of his followers on Twitter loved the idea. Has there ever been a scarier tweet?
When those efforts didn’t fly, of course Trump then resorted to more extreme, and even violent, methods to try to steal back power.
2024 update: As you may have heard, he’s now promising Christians they will never have to vote again as long as he becomes president this time.
And even more ominously, he’s telling his crowds he doesn’t need their vote. As if he has another way planned to win the White House other than, you know, by winning votes. Rachel Maddow reviewed the evidence that Trump may have something up his sleeve for ’24. Take it away, Rachel:
Get Weirder; Dive Deeper
The Washington Post poll analyzed their poll results
The BBC reported on that survey too