I was wrong, again, about Trump. One is always wrong when predicting other than evil from him. Last night he, again, signaled for his disgusting people to engage in violence to prevent his foregone exit from the White House and loss of immunity from criminal prosecution. In answer to a question concerning accepting the outcome of the vote, Trump spoke directly to one group of his neo-Nazis who explicitly endorse violence:
“Proud Boys — stand back and stand by.”
Trump's words are now the group's official slogan.
Which means that I was wrong, again, to say that Trump's exit is "foregone." His supporters are going to commit violence, he has the support of local law enforcement, he has his Praetorian Guard, he is commander-in-chief of the military. He has and he will, again, unleash this personal army against voters and against the vote. They will physically prevent people from voting, including by beating, injuring, shooting, and killing voters; they will intimidate those who they do not physically prevent; they will storm voting precincts and batter and assault election workers, so many of them the elderly and female, to steal or destroy ballot boxes, old-fashioned or electronic, to prevent the votes therein from being counted.
This is an entirely reasonable scenario which Trump explicitly encouraged, again, last night, just 34 days before the election. So his exit is not foregone. The exit of American democracy is at least as reasonable.