Younger brother Jeremy Serwer writes:
We’re almost done.
That said, apparently our Constitution provides no prescription for next steps if a President refuses to step down and leave. In a nutshell, the Founders couldn’t imagine this happening, and/or felt that such a President would be impeached/tried/convicted out of office first.
Good piece in The Washington Post today on the issue:
So, a possible worst case scenario, IMHO:
Hopefully, the more likely scenario:
Cooler heads in the Trump family (and/or close enough confidants that Trump will not fire due to what they may know – think VP Pence?), and/or pressure from Republicans in Congress not subject to near term re-election, convince him that he has lost, that he should concede (though he may not). While he may not attend the Inauguration nor assist/facilitate the transition, he steps back from disrupting it and prepares to leave the Oval Office and the White House residence. Best case, he finally concedes and does attend Biden’s Inauguration.
No matter what happens, our country will remain sharply divided over who should be President. There will be demonstrations, potentially violence, though this too will dissipate – PARTICULARLY if we begin to curb the pandemic, consequently restore the economy to a better normalcy, and further reduce the unemployment rate – and those not working and not included in that rate – begin to get jobs back. After all, how much demonstrating can you do if you have your job(s) back, need to be at work, and by so doing are not at risk of virus infection and potentially death?
Finally, some predictions that won’t go away for a bit:
Of course, none of the above could be accurate or happen, though I believe some semblance of it will. Our system – even when it’s NOT defined or prescribed – will settle this, as it’s ultimately human beings that make things work. I believe the large majority of Americans are that type of human being.
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