If this is a close election, which they’ve tended to be lately, every ballot will count. Trump is up against a built-in structure of voter irregularity on the Democrat side that is taken for granted after decades of kid-glove treatment by the mainstream media and the acquiescence of establishment Republicans, playing by the rules and afraid to rock the boat.
By calling into question this questionable arrangement, Trump has been said to have broken a sacral taboo of untold ages’ provenance, like entering the inner sanctum of the Temple to touch the holy of holies with his little hands, or eating shellfish.
It is unprecedented, we are told, for a candidate to say that he might contest the results of a close election. Trump’s answer may well be unprecedented, but only because the question was itself unprecedented. It ought to be assumed that in a close contest, where every vote counts and where any margin of irregularity would tip the scales (as in the Florida 2000 recount), presidential candidates will reserve their right to take legal measures on behalf of their voters and assure a fair count.
The question was another failed attempt to handicap The Donald with a commitment others are not expected to make. Just like the “pledge” to support the Republican nominee on the Fox debate stage in August 2015, Donald refused to take the bait, generating the prepackaged firestorm of media abuse in response.
As I am no mathematician-savant, I can’t speak to vote flipping algorithms or other instances of machines being partial to Hillary Clinton. So aside from vigilance at the polls and keeping an eye out, what can energized Trump voters do to insure a positive outcome on November 8th, beyond voting and donating?
In a word: convince non-voters to vote for Trump. This is low hanging fruit. They’re non-voters for a reason.
Registration deadlines having passed in most states, this applies only to registered individuals who have been nonvoters. Speak to them, explain what’s different this time. They’ve been waiting a long time for a candidate worth voting for, and may have waited so long they forgot they were waiting. Most nonvoters are probably less than satisfied with the status quo, and may feel that the system is unresponsive to their concerns. These are the people to talk to.
Trump has billed his candidacy as a voice for the voiceless. Unrepresented Americans might now have a chance to leverage their numbers and get some access to representative government for a change. This will be deeply distasteful to our very serious and very sensitive elites, and so all the more a delicacy for the rest of us.
Imagine when our troll-in-chief rolls in for inauguration. Imagine, political correctness on roast for four years. Oh, sweet schadenfreude! And they truly need the humbling, before their hubris takes us all over the cliff.
What nonvoters need now is someone to help them make the connection between what’s happened to their jobs, their neighborhoods, the cost of their child’s college tuition, the quality and cost of their health care, or just their general feeling that something is wrong, with the symbol of the status quo: Hillary Clinton. For millions of nonvoters, it isn’t obvious. They’ve tuned out. You have to tune them in.
As is often the case when our Keystone elites do some stupid thing, it backfires in their faces. Such is the case with always quashing the alternative to the status quo, even when the alternative is a known quantity they can work with. From Perot to Buchanan to Nader to Kucinich to Ron Paul to Bernie Sanders, every outsider has been blocked by the establishment, and the can of reaction kicked down the road. At every turn, the outsider is tarred as an existential threat to democracy (read: their profits).
This has in turn damned up voter discontent and produced a mass reservoir of unrepresented voters. This reservoir is a huge source of latent instability and Black-swan risk and will be in every future election until it is discharged by the victory of some outsider, bringing effective reforms.
Rogue billionaires can now mount third party insurgencies within the two party infrastructure. All it takes is charisma and a commanding presence on social media, and enough money to make it through the primaries and win the allegiance of a small army of small donors. Whether Trump wins or loses, he has drawn the blueprint for the building of such insurgencies, as is fitting.
This all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Let’s discharge the discontent sooner rather than later, with someone who we know loves his country, and by equal measures suffer or enjoy a period of Trumpism.