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Fear of a stolen election is counterproductive.

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We’re all afraid right now, and with good reason. It’s a scary world and a scary time. But we should stop being petrified of Trump’s threats to steal the election. They’re less well-founded than one might think, and this fear is both useless for motivation and a distraction from the real threats.

First off, the man just says s***.  He talks and he talks and he talks. He’s done it all his life. But talk is cheap. If he loses by 7 points nationwide, the EC edge won’t save him and he’ll be declared the loser. If not on election night, courtesy of FL, it’ll happen a couple days later. He can’t stop PA/WI/MI/etc from counting their ballots — it’s a state process, and we control the secretary of state’s office in all three. And if he’s declared the loser, then he’s a loser. No one will want to jump in and save his rear end. People in his own party will flee from the sinking ship. And yes, that includes SCOTUS — they’re arch-conservatives but there still has to be an actual case, and unless things are within a few thousand votes in the tipping point state there won’t be an actual case.

Yes, you can come up with exotic scenarios where there’s a problem. But they’re unlikely and all of them require a very close election. If we vote like our lives depend on it — because they do — then that won’t happen.

The real threat is that Trump wins. It’s less than even money; Nate Silver puts it at 22%. But that’s far more likely than some discarded West Wing episode script. We need to stop him, and that means motivating people to vote. We can’t motivate people to vote with doom, gloom, and depression. If people think their vote won’t matter, they won’t come to the polls.

So we ought to quit telling people their vote might not matter. Because that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I’ve ever heard one. Instead: donate, volunteer, get out the vote, fight hard for the next 40 days, and we’ll stop him.


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