It’s become almost cliche in modern times that conspiracy theorists on the side opposite the incumbent President speculate about their sworn foe delaying the elections so as to hold onto power and become a mad tyrant. I first heard that sort of rumbling back during the Clinton Era, where a combo of Gingrichian “win at any cost” politics combined with debacles like Waco and Ruby Ridge to lead to reports of FEMA slave labor camps and anticipated false flag operations to justify Clinton canceling the election. This ramped up further (while shifting wings) during Bush’s tenure (amplified by fears of folk like Cheney, events like 9-11 leading to increased security and civil liberty lockdowns, and the hamfisted justifications leading up to the Iraq War), when a number of people sincerely argued that Bush would cancel both elections during his tenure. Then, of course, once Obama was in office, things shifted the other direction, and that Kenyan Atheist Muslim Terrorist would clearly cancel the elections in 2012, and then in 2016, so he could hold onto office.
This article is a little bit different. Rather than asserting such a scheme, it asks identified Republicans a series of questions. They were asked if Trump won the popular vote (nearly half said yes), if millions of illegals voted (68% said yes), and if voter fraud occurred often (73% yes).
Then they were asked these questions:
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If Donald Trump were to say that the 2020 presidential election should be postponed until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote, would you support or oppose postponing the election?
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What if both Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress were to say that the 2020 presidential election should be postponed until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote? Would you support or oppose postponing the election?
Of those polled 52% said they would support a delay if only Donald Trump asked for it, and 56% said yes if Congressional GOP backed him up.
That’s … pretty remarkably scary.
The article does note that, if this weren’t a hypothetical, if this were a real proposal being made, they think that more folk would oppose such a radical move. But, hey, nobody thought Trump would win, either.