Here’s the deal, as Joe Biden is fond of saying. On paper the 2020 election ought to be a slam dunk for Democrats. Trump has never broken 50% in approval rating. The economy has been great for the Mar-a-Lago crowd, but brutal for many lower down on the totem pole. Polls show few deem Trump presidential in demeanor or character. He has promised a lot, but failed to deliver on almost everything.
And yet, pessimists, which is the name given by critics to realists, point out that the game really is rigged — in Trump’s favor. Trump’s base is solidly behind him because they value his theatrical performance more than policy performance.
Putin’s cyberwarriors are already at work inflaming divisions in our country that favor Trump. The electoral college gives an edge to red states despite their deficit in popular vote totals. And the Republican election tampering machine is revving up its voter suppression efforts, has already gerrymandered districts, and has refused to enact safeguards to protect the vote.
What’s an anti-Trump opposition to do? So far, sixteen states representing 190 electoral votes have passed laws requiring their electors to choose the winner of the popular vote, but the clock is ticking, many more states are needed, and Republican activists are fighting this sensible solution.
Several other far-fetched, impractical steps that might be pursued come to mind, but desperate maladies call for desperate remedies.
First: Disenfranchise white men who voted 63% for Trump and are his edge. Or if that’s too extreme. Just deny the vote to white men without a college education who voted for Trump by 67% or Evangelical white men who back him by 81%.
Second: Consider revisiting sucession. The following states voted by 60% or more for Trump. Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and West Virginia. Would they really be missed? The union would have to deal with far less disunion without them. And they’d be far happy in a less democratic world of their own, one with less Pluribus.
Third: Grant statehood to Puerto Rico and break up large blue states into several smaller states. California, with 40 million citizens, gets only two senators, the same number as Wyoming with only 577,000 people or Vermont with 629,000. In fact California is as large as the twenty smallest states which ought to entitle it to 40 senators. But why be greedy? Break it into eight states or so, each with the population of a South Carolina, and give it sixteen senators.
Fourth: If all of this seems unworkable, a longer term solution is possible. Persuade half of the 50 million or so liberals from big blue states like California, New York, and Massachusetts to move to places like Tulsa, Little Rock, Knoxville, Paducah, or Cheyenne flipping several states for red to blue.
The newcomers would be forced to sacrifice good jobs for good pay, good schools for their children, cultural amenities like museums, fine dining, theater, leading universities, cutting edge health care, professional sports, but isn’t it time for the liberal elite, on whose back Trump has painted a bullseye, to do more for the cause than donate dollars. They should regard it as their patriotic duty to help switch red states to blue, bodily.
More might be persauded to take such a drasrtic step with a little ledership from the liberal illuminati. Come on, Bezos, you’ll learn to love Fargo. You too, Bill and Melinda, all we are saying is give Tuscaloosa a chance. Please Mr. De Niro, Hot Springs is the Tribeca of the outback. And Oprah, you will surely be the most glittering ornament of Beckley, West Virginia. Barbra, Beyonce, Rob Reiner, take one for the team.