Trump knows he’s loosing.
We see something we’ve never seen from the President, a flicker of weakness, a demonstration of how little power he really has here.
We all fear an authoritarian power grab upon a narrow Trump defeat, but it’s always good to keep in perspective that Trump is genuinely weak. Don’t let him put you off voting, that’s how he seizes power. It’s true, the highly politicised arena of facts, and the fact Republicans have a stranglehold on so many power structure in the States means there could well be something resembling courts and local officials joining forces to declare a result in Trump's favour, but we cross that bridge when come to it. The lesson from our friends in Bolivia is that a wide margin can quell an antidemocratic power grab; the grey area is where this actors thrive.
What I’ve noticed from Trump the last week or so is a shift in his attitude. He’s talked about leaving the country if he looses the election, and importantly in terms of his language it sounds more and more like he’s acknowledging Biden winning is a likely possibility, before blustering over it with proclamations of fraud and blind faith he will prevail. Here and there, if you look hard enough, there is a flicker of weakness behind the wannabee autocrat’s eyes. He knows he’s loosing, and he can’t stop it.
Donald Trump wants you to believe he’s insurmountable, he wants you to see the election result as null and void and a Trumpian power grab as the inevitable result either way. Sure, these things are very real risks and things like a general strike or mass mobilisation of millions, grinding society to a halt, could both combat it, and should be planned for, as leverage against a reluctant outgoing Trump administration. But the truth is, if Biden has a blowout, it’s game over, especially if he wins on the night (a possibility but not the likely outcome). The way to remove Trump is to vote, vote vote. Don’t vote for Joe Biden, vote for the removal of Donald Trump and future avenues for progressives in the longer term. Step one is remove Donald Trump, and unfortunately that means voting for Joe Biden; too much is at stake.
Trump desperately wants you to believe he can’t loose, but he knows he can. We’re seeing the dying embers of Trump as he kicks and screams his way towards likely defeat. And make no mistake, if he does win, it’ll be down to apathy, disillusionment with a neoliberal establishment candidate, and against the will of the majority of Americans.