General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This Is Why Team Trump and Republicans Are Freaking Out [View all]Celerity
(43,285 posts)about NE-2. If no split EV's ME-2 would not go to him, but NE-2 would never go to us.
A 269-269 (assigning ME-2 and NE-2 as the other 48 states + DC do) tie means he wins as the Rethugs will control the bare minimum (26) state delegations in the US House needed in the House (and they might have more than 26) to put him over the top. WI and FL are the only 2 states we can flip from them, and those are so gerrymandered (especially WI) that it will take a miracle to pull it off.
Trump will sue and say that split EV's are illegal (yes, the states do control it per the Constitution, but if the SCOTUS say it is illegal, we are fucked IF they go full stop sell-out, which I do NOT see Roberts allowing)
There are like 5 or 6 plausible ways to get to 269-269 naturally.
That would be the worst possible way to lose, as it is via an arcane process that is corrupted due to Rethug gerrymandering. There will be violence, probably bad violence, especially IF the Rethugs also hold the Senate and take back the House, as that means doom for the nation. Trump and the Rethus will wipe out 5 times as much of our protections this time than in his first 4 years, and the SCOTUS probably goes 7-2 hard RW plus Thomas replaced with a younger model of RW thug. Only hope would be to flip the Senate in 2022 (very possible) but that means RBG and Breyer both need to hold on for 2 and a half more years (and all on pure speculation of a Dem Senate flipping victory in 2022.)
The country cannot take 4 more years of Trump (just based of the federal courts and the SCOTUS, let alone all his other shit), and if he sneaks in via a 269-269 stolen (via gerrymandering) House vote, that might be the straw that breaks the camel's back, especially if he is CRUSHED in the popular vote, far more than Clinton won by.
The longer I study the US Constitution and how it has evolved and been interpreted over the long sweep the time, the less I like it. It was written under certain assumptions that have now been gamed by the Rethugs since the late 1960's. The very institution of the US Senate was always a long wave ticking Constitutional time bomb. By the early 2030's 70% of the Senate will be controlled by just 30% of the population, and that 30% is FAR older, whiter, more fundie religious, poorer, rural, less educated, and more RW reactionary than the other 70% of the US population. also, the entire POTUS/Executive branch is FAR too powerful now, it truly has turned into Arthur M. Schlesinger's 'Imperial Presidency' over the past 50 plus years. It needs to be reigned in, a LOT. Look at how much utterly (and long lasting) DAMAGE one horrid human sitting in the White House has done both domestically AND globally.