2020 unimagined

 

I imagine myself back in Miss Bell's Civics class, a required class in American government for high school seniors.  Or in my junior high school social studies class.  Most of the class staring off into space, bored out of their minds.  

"And so," Miss Bell intones, "the voters of each state select that state's electors, who then meet and elect the new president.  The new president is inaugurated on January 20."

And there I am, waving my arm in the air.

"What if the president was running for re-election and was afraid he was going to lose?  What if he said the other side was cheating, and the election results wouldn't count?"

Miss Bell rolls her eyes, as she so often has this year.  "Well, Don, what proof was there that the election was going to be fraudulent?"

"There wouldn't have to be!  The president could say that it was obvious that most of the country loved him, and the very fact that he lost the so-called election proved that there had been fraud?  The electors don't have to vote the way the way the voters vote, right?"

"Yes, Don, but the electors are devoted party members of the same party as the candidate who won their state's election."

"What if the state legislature decided instead to choose electors who would vote the other way?  Or what if the president just said that the whole election had been a fraud and a confusing mess, and he was staying in the White House and running the country until a new election could be held some day?"

Miss Bell looks at the clock.  "I think you're wasting our time again, Don.  Everyone in America, Democrat or Republican, believes in our form of government.  No one would allow the president to do what you're saying, and no president who would do such things would ever have been elected in the first place.  I think you should write science fiction novels, rather than study political science."

"But what if, some day, a president wants really bad to stay in his office, and no one in his party disagrees with him?  He's the president -- he controls the Army?  Who could stop him? 

The bell rings and the class comes to life.  "Well, we've wasted a lot of time today.  Please read chapter 34, "Separation of Powers," for tomorrow.  Don, please stay after class; I need to speak with you for a minute or so."