Elections are a means of checking the worst excesses of the politicians. Just like the right to freedom of speech or free assembly, elections are a vital part of democratic rule by the capitalist class vs. rule by outright dictatorship (Bonapartism). Trump’s attack on elections goes hand in hand with mass deportations, war, unchecked war crimes, increased racism and attacks on the rights of women and LGBTQ people, and personal corruption at an unprecedented level. It’s a major step in the direction of one person dictatorship – Bonapartism, in other words. In Trump’s case, his rule is also linked with outright fascists. Anybody who thinks elections in the form they have traditionally been held doesn’t matter should take a look at Hungary under Orban, or Russia under Putin, or any of the Gulf states.

That is why we should be concerned that the Trump administration is moving ahead with its plan to steal the upcoming elections. They are doing so by planning to sabotage mail-in voting. Here is what is happening:

The Trump-controlled United States Postal Service (USPS) initiated a program through which it would check the voter registration status of everybody who is set to receive a mail-in ballot. It would do so in the sorting process. Under the plan, if a state sends in a batch of, say, 10,000 mail-in ballots and the USPS finds one recipient whose name doesn’t match US government list of registered voters, the entire batch of ballots would be sent back to the state. A mismatch could be caused, for example, by somebody changing their name after getting married or divorced.

In June, federal district court judge Indira Talwani ordered a halt to these plans because they violated the Constitution. Then, the judicial wing of the Trump administration – the US Supreme Court Trump majority – reversed that ruling saying that it had come too early because no actual actions had started yet. In other words, the court has to wait until the Trump administration has already broken the law before it can act. The effect of this would be that the courts can’t act until the USPS has already created chaos in the vote-by-mail system.

However, on August 21 the USPS issued its final rules for this illegal system. In other words, they have acted. So Talwani issued a new temporary restraining order on August 26 with a full hearing to be held on Sept. 3, after which she may issue a permanent injunction.

Then on August 31 US Senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the USPS in which he revealed that they had violated the earlier injunction even before the Supreme Court threw it out. Blumenthal had gotten a whistleblower complaint and then sent a letter to the USPS. In his letter Blumenthal cited three problems with the USPS plan:

• First, any such new plan would require months and months of development to get the bugs out;
• Second is the “zero percent failure rate” requirement;
• Third is overall poor management.

Blumenthal writes: “Put plainly: this process will likely lead to chaos, confusion, and the inability of many Americans to have their vote counted.” That is exactly the intent.

Chaos and confusion in the vote-by-mail system will affect Democratic voters more than Republican voters. According to Statesunited.org About 25% of registered Democrats vote by mail compared to only 20% of registered Republicans who vote by mail.

How about in-person voting? Is that a way around Trump’s plans? The Trump administration is also moving ahead to create chaos at the polling places. Recently, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) head Markwayne Mullin said that they plan to send ICE agents to enter polling places. Mullin claimed that they would only be sent “to enforce specific threats.” Note that he didn’t say to block specific threats, he said to “enforce” them. This is a Freudian slip if there ever was one. Once again, the standards of Trump majority on Supreme Court will enable DHS-caused chaos at the polling places. They can’t do anything until after the fact, after millions of voters are potentially blocked from voting.

The Democratic politicians’ strategy to oppose this is through court action, but the Trump administration majority on the Supreme Court shows that it is extremely risky to rely on the courts.

As always, the union leadership is silent.

A DSA meeting. Serious discussion is rare.

How about the left? The only left that matters is DSA. As Oaklandsocialist reported, chapters recently discussed a proposal that DSA consider running a candidate for president in 2028. I hadn’t realized at the time, but what they probably meant was sponsoring a candidate in the Democratic primaries, not run an independent candidate. In any case, as I wrote “whether in 2028 there will be an election in any real sense of the word was totally ignored as was whether helping MAGA remain in office should be considered.… Talk about running a candidate in 2028 is living in a fantasy world if we don’t talk about this threat [to the election process] in 2026. If Trump steals this election, there might not be an election in 2028 in any real sense of the word.”

This is typical of DSA.

The major hope in preventing Trump from stealing the elections lies in his collapsing popularity. Added to this is the turmoil within his own administration, especially in the military where according to CBS News Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired at least 20 top generals or forced them to resign. This is part of the Trump administration’s drive for complete personal loyalty over loyalty to the Constitution, meaning the traditional way the U.S. capitalist class has ruled. The most recent resignation was the secretary of the army, Dan Driscoll.

These firings are decapitating the “institutional knowledge” of the U.S. military, which is causing a division between Hegseth and top Republican members of congress. According to al Jazeera, Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst, Republican chair of the Senate armed services committee Senator Roger Wicker, and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, have all expressed dissatisfaction with Hegseth recently.

There must be a layer of lower level officers who are loyal to these fired officers and feel disturbed at what is happening in the military. This sentiment must filter down to the NCO’s and the rank-and-file of the military. It must also affect the morale in the National Guard, which Trump wanted to call out on two occasions when he was president the first time. That may be why he seems more inclined to use ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to disrupt elections this time than in the past.

However, relying on the weakness of and divisions within the enemy is a foolish strategy indeed. But at this point there doesn’t seem to be much else to restrain Trump. And relying on the Democrats, the union leadership or DSA seems to be even more foolish. A spontaneous eruption from below is always possible but there don’t seem to be any signs of one yet.