Trump's violent factions have no intention of permitting a free and fair election in November.
The Trump campaign is already laying the groundwork of intimidation and voter suppression by encouraging violence against protesters and journalists.
As Trump follows the fascist playbook, the fawning news media avoid using that f-word, tiptoeing around his massive, fragile ego, terrified that he won't appear on their shows anymore and they'll lose ratings.
Every week, he ratchets up the violent rhetoric, and because he keeps appearing on TV, he is allowed to keep defining the boundaries of acceptable discourse. Many of his supporters are armed and excitable.
They don’t need to disrupt voting and suppress turnout in every district in the country. They only need to do it in a few swing districts in a few swing states. All they have to do is make anyone who doesn’t look like a Trump supporter (black, Latino, immigrant, Muslim, women, young) feel unsafe leaving their homes to vote. Given how threatened people in the non-Trump demographic will be between now and November, how hard do you think that will be? How much help can they expect from the police, particularly if Trump picks up endorsements from police unions?
The GOP establishment, much as they may loathe him, has already provided all the help he needs by dismantling the Voting Rights Act.
Trump's brand is "WINNING." He says it all the time: he's a winner who always wins, and his supporters eat it up. Every day, he conditions them to find the thought of losing more and more unfathomable. They will not accept a losing result. If they cannot win by legitimate means, that leaves them only illegitimate ones.
If they lose, do you think they all shrug, go home, drink a few beers and cuss at President Clinton or President Sanders on their TV? Trump has unleashed forces he does not understand and cannot control. While the Trump crowd contains the Tea Party and other familiar right-wing elements, he has also created something new: a physical campaign for a major party candidate traveling across the country creating gathering spaces. Having thrown out the dogwhistle in an environment with looser state gun laws in many places than we had eight years ago, he has caused the resurgence of sleepy white supremacist groups who had mostly survived as small online presences, and are now growing in power and visibility because of their association with a major party campaign.
It doesn't matter whether Clinton or Sanders is the nominee in this environment. The fact that one candidate can win more of this or that slice of voters is irrelevant if the voters won't be able to vote. All those Democratic party memes look foolishly irrelevant now. Oh, you think Hillary Clinton lies? You think Bernie Sanders is a one-issue candidate? Who cares? Someone is playing a much more consequential game.
The GOP is starting to catch on. Neither of the Democratic party candidates has, and many Democratic and independent voters haven’t, either. Sanders and Clinton have both been slow to respond to the rising threat of Trump’s violent factions. Both are of an idealistic post-war generation for whom American exceptionalism is a core ideological belief, and therefore, invisible. If you believe fascism can't possibly happen in your country, you simply can't see it, and you certainly can’t fight it properly. Both must take the lead in calling out Trump’s racist, violent, fascist movement.
Statistically, we know Trump can’t win a free election. No one can who is appealing to such a small demographic slice of the electorate. But at this point, what gives us confidence that we will have a free and fair election?
What good does it do to vote for the right candidate if the election itself is under threat?
