Will the presidential election lead to civil unrest?

[grip]

At Pentagon, fears grow that Trump will pull military into election unrest

The president's raised deep anxiety among military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep armed forces out of the elections. Officials say top generals could resign if he orders the military into the...

www.seattletimes.com

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump gave officials no solace Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.”

“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process.”

But that has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest.

 

[Jredbaron96]

Trump has been doing everything he can to undermine the mail-in voting process because he knows that it's likely many Democratic votes will be dependent on it. Then if he gets his "red mirage" (the idea that more Republicans will vote in person than Democrats, and therefore on election night the results will be skewed in Trump's favor), he will relentlessly attack the election offices still counting their mail-in ballots and insist that "TRUE PATRIOTS don't let the MARXIST ANTIFA TERRORISTS" steal the election.

 

[Schweddy]

I voted peaceful transition. Was thinking you missed an option, but I could see how it could also be interpreted as peaceful transition into second term.

Again... don't like him and won't vote for him.

 

[Mycroft]

At Pentagon, fears grow that Trump will pull military into election unrest

The president's raised deep anxiety among military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep armed forces out of the elections. Officials say top generals could resign if he orders the military into the...

www.seattletimes.com

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump gave officials no solace Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.”

“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process.”

But that has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest.

You really need to work on your poll creating skills.

Your thread title refers to civil unrest. You refers to peaceful transition. And then you drag the military into it.

Tell you what...here's my take on possible civil unrest: If Trump loses, there will be no civil unrest. If Trump wins, the Dems, Trump haters and anarchists will royally **** up the country in retaliation. It's as simple as that.

 

[AConcernedCitizen]

You really need to work on your poll creating skills.

Your thread title refers to civil unrest. You refers to peaceful transition. And then you drag the military into it.

Tell you what...here's my take on possible civil unrest: If Trump loses, there will be no civil unrest. If Trump wins, the Dems, Trump haters and anarchists will royally **** up the country in retaliation. It's as simple as that.

The civil unrest will continue until there are massive police reforms that are effective in preventing the disproportionate killing of black people. If Biden doesn't deliver on police reforms, the civil unrest will continue under his watch too.

 

[grip]

Trump has been doing everything he can to undermine the mail-in voting process because he knows that it's likely many Democratic votes will be dependent on it. Then if he gets his "red mirage" (the idea that more Republicans will vote in person than Democrats, and therefore on election night the results will be skewed in Trump's favor), he will relentlessly attack the election offices still counting their mail-in ballots and insist that "TRUE PATRIOTS don't let the MARXIST ANTIFA TERRORISTS" steal the election.

I voted peaceful transition. Was thinking you missed an option, but I could see how it could also be interpreted as peaceful transition into second term.

Again... don't like him and won't vote for him.

I think if Trump wins, there will be riots in major cities, not sure how bad. If Biden wins, Trump will contest the election and call voter fraud, setting off a Constitutional crisis.

 

[grip]

You really need to work on your poll creating skills.

Your thread title refers to civil unrest. You refers to peaceful transition. And then you drag the military into it.

Tell you what...here's my take on possible civil unrest: If Trump loses, there will be no civil unrest. If Trump wins, the Dems, Trump haters and anarchists will royally **** up the country in retaliation. It's as simple as that.

I'm sorry you didn't understand the poll. I'll try harder to make them more clear in the future.

 

[Mycroft]

The civil unrest will continue until there are massive police reforms that are effective in preventing the disproportionate killing of black people. If Biden doesn't deliver on police reforms, the civil unrest will continue under his watch too.

Nonsense.

There will be civil unrest because the anarchists love civil unrest. It doesn't matter if they have an excuse or not.

 

[Schweddy]

The civil unrest will continue until there are massive police reforms that are effective in preventing the disproportionate killing of black people. If Biden doesn't deliver on police reforms, the civil unrest will continue under his watch too.

I think the civil unrest will be over as fast as it began right after election regardless who wins.

 

[trixare4kids]

Should Trump win, his haters' heads will explode.

 

[Helix]

Will the presidential election lead to civil unrest?

i hope not. gathering in crowds during a pandemic is a shitty idea, as is violence in general.

 

[swing_voter]

Will the presidential election lead to civil unrest?

No, the republicans in congress will throw Trump out on his ass before that happens.

 

[grip]

Will the presidential election lead to civil unrest?

No, the republicans in congress will throw Trump out on his ass before that happens.

If Trump loses GOP support, then it will be over quickly if Biden wins. If Trump wins, then I agree with Schweddy that protests won't last long.

 

[rickc]

If trump wins its Katy bar the door. Hell is coming!

If.Biden wins the deplorables will crawl back under the rock they crawled out of and calm will return to our cities

 

[Tangmo]

This is prescient having been written in early August by Robert S. Taylor the former general counsel of DoD appointed by SecDef Robert Gates. Taylor wrote the piece in Lawfareblog to include the matter of an illegal order.

As Taylor notes the military plans and works through "contingencies" of every kind and, although there's no precedent likely for this, there are numerous contingencies existing at the Pentagon already to deal with an election fiasco should one occur and any civil unrest or disorder that may occur.


Contingency Planning for Presidential Interference with the Election

August 4, 2020,

One of the great strengths of the U.S. military is its planning, encompassing contingencies big and small. With sadness, I urge my former colleagues in the military services and at the Department of Defense level to plan now for the possibility of actions by the president to disrupt the forthcoming election or even to vitiate the election results. It is distressing that we have come to this point, where strategic planners must prepare for serious threats to our democracy from the president of the United States, and where the military must be prepared to avoid becoming an instrument of the demise of the great American experiment in democracy and the long and uneven march to a just society.


But the president and his enablers have found another way of usurping local and state control over law enforcement. The DHS personnel are federal law enforcement personnel, unlike members of the military. But they are dressed in camouflage uniforms, and their presence in the streets of Portland and elsewhere seems calculated to suggest a military operation. This usurpation of local policing powers comes as the president’s abysmal performance of genuine federal responsibilities has led to cratering polling results and, most ominously, the president’s incessant drumbeat of attacks on the integrity of the forthcoming election. The president has refused to say that he would accept the results of that election, if he did not win. The military, sadly, must plan how to respond if the president attempts to wield the power of the presidency to thwart the electoral process, whether through the Insurrection Act or through other means.

Contingency Planning for Presidential Interference with the Election

I urge my former colleagues in the military services and at the Department of Defense level to plan now for the possibility of actions by the president to disrupt the forthcoming election or even to vitiate the election results.

www.lawfareblog.com

Interesting the role Bob Gates has had. As noted Gates appointed Taylor the Harvard Law grad principal deputy general counsel of DoD to begin with. Gates in retirement also called Potus Obama in 2015 when OB was considering the next Army chief of staff and recommended the 4-star Mark Milley who was CG of Army Forces Command (deployment of which units big and small and by MOS, strength, weapons etc).

Obama met with Milley for the first time and went on to successfully nominate Milley as CSA. In 2018 Trump needed to nominate a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs and, although by custom it was the turn of the Air Force, Trump went with Milley whose blunt manner impressed Trump during interviews. A high DoD official was quoted just last week as saying about Trump and Milley, "a bully needs a bully" in reference to Milley successfully refusing to send active duty troops to Seattle, Portland, Chicago and other cities that Trump insisted on doing.

Indeed, Milley and SecDef Esper the WP grad refused to bomb cultural sites in Iran as Trump had told 'em to do. Milley and Esper said it was against the Laws of War. Milley as CSA also talked Trump down from Soldiers shooting immigrants with rocks at the Mexican border on the same basis, ie, it's against the Laws of Land Warfare and against the Laws of War.

Laws, not men.

 

[Rexedgar]

Regardless of the election results, the US will continue “to go through some things.”

 

[SheWolf]

I think if Trump wins, there will be riots in major cities, not sure how bad. If Biden wins, Trump will contest the election and call voter fraud, setting off a Constitutional crisis.

Of all the comments I have read, I agree with your’s the most. We may know who wins on election night or not. If Trump isn’t declared winner election night, he will take it to the courts. There will be huge protests. There will be confrontations. The armed militia people will show up. I can see violence happening. I see Trump going insane with the law and order rhetoric, all violence will be the fault of BLM and the radical left.

I honestly think the best to hope for is a Biden win on election night. Trump will still cause problems, but I see it being less messy because he will have less to fight for.

 

[SheWolf]

Will the presidential election lead to civil unrest?

No, the republicans in congress will throw Trump out on his ass before that happens.

Why do you think that? Even if he wins or tries to fight in the courts? You think the GOP will toss him on his ass no matter what?

 

[SheWolf]

If Trump loses GOP support, then it will be over quickly if Biden wins. If Trump wins, then I agree with Schweddy that protests won't last long.

I don’t think protests will stop, but it depends on how he wins. If he wins because of a partisan Supreme Court ruling, protests will not stop

 

[grip]

Of all the comments I have read, I agree with your’s the most. We may know who wins on election night or not. If Trump isn’t declared winner election night, he will take it to the courts. There will be huge protests. There will be confrontations. The armed militia people will show up. I can see violence happening. I see Trump going insane with the law and order rhetoric, all violence will be the fault of BLM and the radical left.

I honestly think the best to hope for is a Biden win on election night. Trump will still cause problems, but I see it being less messy because he will have less to fight for.

TY on the assessment. I'm pretty sure Trump will lose but as you say, it'll still be a mess depending on how much support he gets.

 

[joko104]

A peaceful transition at the governmental level and social unrest at the societal level are two different questions.

Regardless of the legitimacy of the election, there will be a peaceful transition at the governmental level. I do not believe the result will be accepted at a social level. With Democrats already throwing away ballots for Trump, I would not accept Biden as the elected president, but rather a senile old man installed by a coup pulled off by corporate-fascists - ie the richest corporations and people on earth using their MSM to generate race riots to divert from the grotesque economic inequities. They literally are paying for race riots to divert from economic disparity issues and themselves.

 

[Tangmo]

Regardless of the election results, the US will continue “to go through some things.”

You know in China they've always called it "interesting times."

CCP Boyz in Beijing want Trump to be reelected.

Their outlook is, ahem, interesting.

While the Boyz know Trump is hell on wheels against China and the Chinese, they know too Trump is wrecking the USA in the world and they love it. The Boyz see the general global picture as benefiting 'em more than the severe cost to 'em of Trump being focused on hammering 'em as China and the Chinese.

The principal strategy of the Dictator-Tyrants in Beijing is to separate America's allies from the USA and Trump is built to do exactly that.

 

[grip]

I don’t think protests will stop, but it depends on how he wins. If he wins because of a partisan Supreme Court ruling, protests will not stop

I never used to worry about riots going on for too long because most people in the US had to go to work eventually. But with so much unemployment now, people have the time to protest/riot for extended periods. Much the way that socialist governments get overthrown by high unemployment and poverty rates. It's a recipe for disaster.

Pentagon fears Trump will order military to put down post-election violence, report claims

Pentagon brass worried Mr Trump would use American troops on American citizens

www.yahoo.com

 

[joko104]

Another possibility is that there will be no election outcome or within the deadline. This makes Nancy Pelosi president until the states vote - each state having 1 vote.

This is probably why Nancy Pelosi claims she is more powerful than the president and among the reasons she wants the chaos of tens of millions of mail in ballots, millions of ballots thrown away and millions of mail in ballots disputed.

 

[SheWolf]

TY on the assessment. I'm pretty sure Trump will lose but as you say, it'll still be a mess depending on how much support he gets.

Do you think he will lose election night?