But letting Trump throw out the entire Constitutional framework of our government and not have an election at all?

That’s not at all what I’m talking about. You’re being much too literal. I’m talking about Trump using the familiar trappings of democracy while making himself a dictator. More like modern Russia.

Trump wouldn’t throw out the entire constitution. He’d only throw out the two term limit. He’ll come up with some excuse to ignore it and run again. With his lackeys on the USSC, will they stop him? Even if they do, who will enforce their order if he decides to ignore it? Certainly not his DOJ. Some states would refuse to put him on the ballot. But there is a good chance that enough might put him on to win the electoral college.

He’s certainly popular enough with the MAGA base to be a viable candidate even after ignoring the 22nd amendment.

You’d only need to add a bit of assistance from friendly state officials trying to grab their own bit of power to sway results. We’re already seeing some of that in the upcoming election and the new powers given to local election boards to monkey with elections. (Reference John Oliver a few posts above to refresh your memory on that topic. ) Expand those cases by a factor of two or three during a second Trump term and the potential for anti democratic interference gets larger.

—Peter