re: #167 Decatur Deb

Paywalled, but I know the lyrics. A sloppy American electorate done fucked up, and we’re going to pay for it. We won’t be that lucky again.

Hmm. It didn’t flag me for a paywall. I can read the article.

The Pentagon has always found “war games” indispensable. Informed role players provide a sharper sense of how military escalations unfold. The same is true of the electoral battlefield. In three out of four US election games run by the Transition Integrity Project, a non-partisan group created by Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law school and Nils Gilman of the Berggruen Institute, the US republic hit constitutional impasse by the conclusion in January 2021.

Even in the fourth scenario, where Mr Biden had clearly won the popular vote and the electoral college, the result was contested. Mr Trump only agreed to leave office after Mr Biden promised him a blanket pardon.

It is the other three prospects we should worry about. Much like the situation outlined above — in which I helped play the role of the media — presidential incumbency is a huge advantage. America is unique in giving its losing chief executive another 10 weeks of power — nuclear button included — before handing over to the winner.

It is one thing when the defeated president is Jimmy Carter or George HW Bush (the last two one-term presidents). They personified fair play. It is quite another if the loser is Mr Trump. As they say, possession is nine-tenths of the law.

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