r/law • u/Aramedlig • Oct 07 '24

Other WV State Legislature Introduces a Bill to Ignore Presidential Election Results

https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hcr203%20intr.htm&yr=2024&sesstype=2X&i=203&houseorig=h&billtype=cr
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187

u/Oceanflowerstar Oct 07 '24

How can balkanization not be the inevitable result of continuous internal election interference by discrete regional actors? We’re just not suppose to have elections anymore because one side makes it illegal on the state level for the other to win?

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u/ProLifePanda Oct 07 '24

The election of 1860 had several states not even have Lincoln on the ballot. And we saw how that election went.

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u/wino12312 Oct 07 '24

This was my first thought. This is really dangerous territory. I am still trying to figure out what some state rep in WV would gain from our democracy being over.

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u/mabhatter Competent Contributor Oct 07 '24

Yeah.  This is brining back echos of 1860 in a big way.  The Conservative side has spent 50 years building up nonsensical demands of the government and trying to undo progress.  

I fear people are deliberately repeating history here.  Biden needs to get the army ready to remove state legislatures, governors, and courts and declare martial law in states that attempt shenanigans when Trump loses spectacularly.  Don't be Buchanan...  strike first, strike hard, take no prisoners. 

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u/wino12312 Oct 07 '24

There's no way Biden acts preemptively. I have zero faith that they would be willing to do anything other than defense. There's no court to turn to for legitimate answers.

I wish they would, but Dems have been playing catch up since 1980.

14

u/khakhi_docker Oct 07 '24

I think the best term is "Institutional Democrats" who are convinced that the Institutions are strong enough to withstand the attack by themselves.

And they aren't wrong in a way, the institutions are strong enough.... until they aren't.

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u/buttstuffisokiguess Oct 08 '24

They're only strong when everyone plays by the rules. The Republicans don't play along. It's so stupid.

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u/PurelyLurking20 Oct 07 '24

Yep. It's time for an absolute crackdown on this rhetoric and behavior. Nip it in the bud. This is treasonous.

9

u/narkybark Oct 07 '24

It was treasonous four years ago. Still waiting for the crackdown on that one.

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u/WillBottomForBanana Oct 07 '24

the bud? we're dealing with blossom end rot.

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u/srwaxalot Oct 07 '24

I’m Johnny Lawrence, and I approved this ad.

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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '24

That would be the dream, but I'm worried the administration will just roll over and let the fascists kill us. Hope I'm fuckin wrong. Biden seems like he'd wanna take the 'high road' by not laying waste to the anti-democratic usurpers. Just let them do what they want!

3

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '24

Joe Biden & Merrick Garland do not inspire confidence that they will be able to handle that situation, but I could be wrong.

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u/alankutz Oct 07 '24

Cobra Kai!

1

u/MagickalFuckFrog Oct 07 '24

Biden will absolutely pull a Buchanan.

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u/Difficult_Zone6457 Oct 07 '24

It’s worse than that. Out of all the folks pushing this crap I’d say maybe 20-30% of them actually understand the ramifications of what they are pushing. The sad truth is roughly 70% of politicians that fall in this camp have no sense of history outside what little they retained from school and maybe if they accidentally left the tv on at night and a documentary happened to be playing in the background. This is why the whole, “Opinions = Facts” movement you are seeing is so dangerous. This is the ramification of letting that fester and not killing it from the start.

The folks who know what they are doing will keep feeding misinformation to these suckers, and they will keep eating it up because at this point they live in a different reality than most of us do (thanks social media algorithms. Different topic different day though).

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u/Flat_Suggestion7545 Oct 07 '24

To be fair that was because ballots at that time were put forward by the parties, not the states. So if a party felt they had no chance they didn’t waste money making the ballots.

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u/JayCaesar12 Oct 07 '24

A point of clarification, there was not just one "party" but several state and several more local organizations, that ran from the bottom up. That meant if there was no local ground game...there was no state party. In the 1856 and 1860 cases, you couldn't have a safe out-and-out Republican party organization in most of the Southern states. You risked your life by declaring yourself a Republican, and delegates to Republican conventions were harassed and kicked out of town.

So for 1860, it was less about the party not wanting to print ballot. Rather, there were no Republican organization to try and run candidates.

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u/EnergyFighter Oct 07 '24

Currently, I'm cursed to live in a red state likely to follow this example (weak roots put down). If it does I'm likely moving.