The 2020 election was going to be a stress test for American democracy under the BEST of circumstances. With the pandemic, the election will easily be one of the most chaotic, hotly contested elections in American history.
Professor & Legal Scholar Lawrence Douglas’s new book “Will He Go: Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020,” outlines how Trump is likely to threaten the most important principle of democratic governance: the peaceful succession of power, not by refusing to leave office but by undermining our faith in the tenants of a free and fair election.
Professor Douglas say if Trump rejects his defeat in November, our constitutional and legal systems are exceptionally ill-prepared to manage and resolve that challenge.
Lawrence Douglas is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College.