Trump’s Suggestion to Delay the Election Is the Most Anti-Democratic Thing Any President Ever Said

Published July 30, 2020

President Trump’s tweet Thursday morning suggesting that the November election should be delayed is more than reckless and irresponsible. It is the single most anti-democratic statement any sitting president has ever made. It should be immediately, forcefully and vocally repudiated by every conservative and Republican.

I do not write these words lightly. I have generally supported the Trump administration’s policies. Everyone has disagreements even with leaders of their own party, but I remain what I was before Trump was even a candidate — a conservative Republican with populist leanings. Were this election solely a matter of Trump’s platform vs. former vice president Joe Biden’s, I would enthusiastically back the Trump agenda.

Nor am I unaware of the anti-democratic elements among the far left. Mob violence and cancel culture are direct assaults on democracy and the rule of law, replacing the voice of the many with the force of the few. The timidity that too many leading Democrats have shown in the face of this summer’s onslaught on decency scares me, as it scares most Republicans I know. Freedom for me, but not for thee, is not America’s heritage.

Click here to read the rest of this piece at the Washington Post’s website.

Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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