From the time that cloture rules were introduced into the Senate in 1917, until the end of Reagan's presidency, the filibuster was deployed 385 times. During Obama's presidency, Senate Republicans launched over 500 filibusters, many of them to directly block Obama's appointments to the federal bench. In Republican hands, the filibuster ceased to be a tool of checks and balances, and became a tool of obstruction, or better yet, nullification.
We know that Trump is not above claiming fraud where there is none and denying fraud that is real, particularly if orchestrated by Russia.
Recent efforts to make election day a holiday have met with stiff Republican resistance, with Mitch McConnell denouncing such a plan as a "Democratic power grab."
None of the original justifications for the electoral college remain persuasive or relevant. We keep it in place not because we believe the system is wise, or efficient, but simply because change is virtually impossible.
Those predicting Trump's reelection in 2020 expect him to once again lose the popular vote. Let us pause over the misfires in 2000 and 2016. Is it a coincidence that the two presidents who emerged from them must be reckoned as two of the worst in American history?
A report published in June 2019 showed that nearly half of Americans doubt the fairness of independent fact checkers. The split is particularly dramatic along party lines. Seventy percent of Republicans say fact checkers tend to favor one side, compared with only twenty-nine percent of Democrats.
Trump doesn't need to win in 2020 in order to remain in power, but rather the opposite. He needs to remain in power in order to prove that he's a winner.
(Note: He also needs to remain in power in order to avoid prison, which Douglas goes on to mention).
The only power Trump really craves is the power to command attention.
Norms define the limits of appropriate behavior. When someone violates them, we expect the violator to pay a price. Not so in Trump's case.
If Trump were to succeed in an act of electoral nullification, he would propel himself into the ranks of Putin, Erdogan, and Orban, the leaders he appears to most admire.
Bunker Bitch has no intention of leaving office if he loses, but it won't work. Here's one of the reasons why.
Will He Go?: Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020 | 
