04-02-2020, 05:37 PM
(04-02-2020, 01:33 PM)David Horn Wrote: Let's ask about the worst case. The pandemic is still raging, or seesawing through an ongoing pattern of flares-up that are suppressed by stay-at-home orders. In either case, having a convention is somewhere between ridiculous and insane. Now what? For that matter, what happens if the remaining primaries are delayed into nonexistence? And what about the general election?
No good options I can see. Yes, we can have a general election by mail, but I doubt the GOP will go along unless rural areas are being hit hard. If 2000 and 2016 were minority elections, 2020 might be even worse. Will the majority electorate stand for that, once the pandemic is under control?
It isn’t clear that the pandemic will be clearly under control by the general election. People seem not to be taking it seriously.
I won’t miss the conventions. The balloon manufacturers might. Would the parties hire air time to play reruns of the balloons falling from past conventions? Things look like Trump vs Biden. How many people are hoping that Sanders could rally, or a draft Cumo movement could catch? Could committees write platforms as well as the convention members could?
Democracy would take a hit if the Republicans blocked voting by mail. Trump won’t care, and would find an excuse if it looks to his advantage to go either way. People could get mad if he does try to block it, and tend to vote against Trump? Ballots could be sent by census data or if you are already a registered voter? If you can’t respond to the census, there would be another way?
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.