Coronavirus and the 2020 Election: Will Democrats Seek a Postponement? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: The author of this post is Mitch Kokai for the John Locke Foundation.

    Editors and Issues and Insights ask the question. They propose that Democrats might want to delay an election they expect to lose.

• In their continual effort to smear President Donald Trump, Democrats and party operatives in the media have suggested he would use the pandemic to cancel the 2020 election so he could stay in office. Don't be surprised, though, as it becomes more difficult for their presumptive nominee to campaign, and his catastrophic flaws become ever more visible, if they soon pivot and insist that the election be delayed.
• Last month, as life began to change under COVID-19 lockdowns, Chris Cillizza wrote on CNN that "whispers have begun that maybe, just maybe, President Donald Trump will use the pandemic to cancel the 2020 election entirely."
• On the same day, Politico claimed that because Trump "has repeatedly shown contempt for the rule of law and the spirit of democracy, it's not unreasonable to worry that he could try to use the pandemic as a pretext to cancel the election and remain in power." ...
• ... As the narrative fades, don't be surprised when it's replaced by demands from Democrats and the media to delay the election for at least a year because the COVID-19 lockdowns have handicapped their candidate. Which is true. Biden cannot campaign in the traditional manner.
• Meanwhile, Trump makes a media appearance every day, and reigns over the news cycle while Biden works from home, and is looking wholly unsuitable for the presidency.
• The Democrats, as noted in Foreign Policy, also need a nominating convention attended by thousands more than the Republicans, since it might come to a brokered convention to select a candidate.
• What will go unspoken, though, is the growing realization that Biden is a deeply flawed candidate. He's prone to red-letter gaffes, unbridled exaggerations, embarrassing outbursts, and unexpected digressions, and has been losing focus and slurring his words.

    Follow Carolina Journal Online's continuing coverage of the 2020 election. You'll find the latest stories HERE.