This is a good strategy. Just count all the votes. Don’t call it just count all the votes first. Let Trump kick and scream all he wants while we count it up. We’ll be done in a few days. Then he can litigate and pull any and every lever he can muster to change the outcome. If the outcome is Biden that is.
There are votes in PA he might be able to claw back according to Bush lawyer John Woo. You remember him, he wrote the torture memos. Then they’ll recount WI and Georgia and try to make it sound crazy. There’ll be lawsuits all over trying to cast doubt. Anything to make it into a circus.
But so far the system, as tattered as it is, is proving to be not as easy to break as he had hoped. In fact it’s starting to break him. Twitter has throttled him, major news stations are cutting into his rants. Some of his base are recognizing that he lost. Now his comrades could spring into action but so far they haven’t. There hasn’t been enough chaos for Wolf or Pompeo to do much. Maybe Bill Barr will release some weird Biden investigation. In any case their execution has been nowhere near what they threatened and they’re on the defensive.
Maybe Trump will concede. It’s his best bet. After all he could probably get funding to start a network and solve his financial problems. And maybe he’ll weasel out of the lawsuits. But I don’t think he’s capable of walking away. You know how in Lord of the Rings only Bilbo, and Sam, well and Tom, I digress, you get the idea. Only some people could willingly give up the ring. Trump is no Bilbo Baggins. He’ll likely do everything he can to steal the election and he’ll be dragged out of the office kicking and screaming. And that is actually the best scenario for our future.
If the system can break him, if our institutions can prove that they’re stronger than Trump and team, then that’s a big win. Him starting a network and holding onto his base while screaming from the sidelines will be a disaster. Bandy Lee, the psychiatrist that described his hold on his base as basically being in a cult has said that the only way to break the spell is to see him broken by something bigger and so authoritative that his deceptions cease to work. Does that mean that people will all of sudden not be racist or full of hate, no, but they’ll be less embolden and susceptible to new information again. And that’s what we need.
So if we want him to truly go away we need to see him break himself as he tries to break our Democracy. And there’s a good chance that he will.