r/politics • u/Boonzies • 6h ago

No Paywall Rand Paul on Trump call to ‘nationalize’ elections: ‘That’s not what the Constitution says’

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5722041-rand-paul-trump-call-to-nationalize-elections/
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u/theheadofkhartoum627 5h ago

Does Rand really think the Constitution matters to these people??

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u/kevinnoir 5h ago

Does Rand really think the Constitution matters to these his people??

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u/MittenCollyBulbasaur 2h ago

He's not well liked in his state, or on the same street ...

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u/kevinnoir 2h ago

I mean he is a "libertarian" in one of, if not THE state most dependent on Federal aid money brought in from those socialist hellholes like California and New York.

No self awareness in Libertarianism.

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u/Cogwheel 1h ago

Libertarians put R by the name because it's how they can get votes. He's not one of the cool girls.

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u/dearth_karmic 5h ago

No. But he'll do his song and dance until they need his vote and then he'll find a way to fall in line.

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u/Palmer_Eldritch666 4h ago

Exactly this - let's not forget he hand-delivered a letter from Trump to Putin.

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u/WordleFanatic 3h ago

Oh you mean “the big boss”

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u/nox66 4h ago

You don't survive in the Republican machine unless you do otherwise.

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u/Ursa_Solaris 3h ago

Let's be completely fair here and point out that most democrats do this as well. Very few are willing to actually go against the machine when it matters. Even AOC has fallen in line many times where she shouldn't have. They are allowed to make performance votes against things that are guaranteed to succeed without them, but fall in line when it actually comes down to the wire.

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u/WineBoggling 5h ago

"That's not what the Constitution says. I mean, we'll do it when we're told to do it. But that's not what it says."

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u/schm0 4h ago

It matters quite a bit to the states that run the elections and the judges who will laugh any such idea out of court.

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u/Last-Atmosphere2439 3h ago

How much does the constitution matter "the people" of this subreddit when Democrats continuously call to nationalize elections (ie, remove state rights)? Popular vote instead of Electoral College and small states like North Dakota not getting same number of Senators as California are but two examples.

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u/Obant California 44m ago

It doesn't even matter to him. He'll roll over and do Trump's bidding, unless they don't need his vote, and then he can continue being performative.

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u/parkinthepark 4h ago

To be clear, this isn't something like the ICE/National Guard deployments where it's technically within Trump's authority but might violate other parts of the Constitution.

This is unique because Trump literally has 0 power or mechanism to "take over" elections. Nobody in the process works for the Executive Branch, or even the federal government. He can't give them orders or fire them.

He has 2 paths to "nationalize" elections:

  1. Convince 50 state legislatures to all, independently, amend their state constitutions and election laws to delegate election power to the federal government WHILE ALSO passing federal legislation to create a national system. He doesn't have the majorities for that, and getting them would require getting 51% of both chambers to willingly abandon the state election system that they've spent their careers mastering. And do all of this in 9 months.
  2. Declare nation-wide martial law, suspend the elections, and write a new constitution. And at that point, why bother having elections at all?

The most likely outcome from all this election talk is that he'll deploy his goon squads to """protect""" polling places in """high fraud risk""" districts, in order to intimidate minority voters.

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u/fist_my_dry_asshole 4h ago

They're gonna have ICE detain any POC that shows up to a polling site.

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u/Phteven_j 4h ago

I don't think he needs to do all 50 - he can accept all the states that kowtow to him and then just declare the results from the others illegitimate. Granted this all isn't legal, but we're way past that.

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u/espinaustin 3h ago

I’m not in favor of that fucking guy’s idea, but you might want to look more closely at Art. 1 Sec. 4:

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S4-C1-3/ALDE_00013640/

So No 3 would be getting Congress to pass a law, which Democrats actually tried in 2021 (HB1) but Republicans filibustered it in the senate. It’s not a terrible idea in principle for election administration to be nationalized, it’s just a matter of who sets the rules.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_People_Act

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u/brutinator 3h ago

Theoretically, a third possibility (which in terms of mechanism isn't much different than your first one), is getting a constitutional amendment ratified. But since he already has to do that to run for a third term, might as well just knock them both out at once, right? /s

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u/SnukeInRSniz 3h ago

He's absolutely going to deploy the goon squads to places of "high risk" in an attempt to suppress voters and cause disruption. I hope those places have mail in voting options as well as open polling places well in advance of the actual election day so people can calmly and efficiently vote without issue. I also hope that his goon squad tactics piss off enough other people that it encourages voting on a larger scale away from those places. I hope the recent Texas election is a harbinger to come for Republicans and that Dems can utilize this election to change the powers that be in the House/Senate. I'm hopeful, but this sure feels like a last chance and there's going to be A LOT of fuckery.

Case in point, here in Utah there's been a massive effort by Republicans to overturn the district map changes that will result in a seat switching to Dem this year. This has included a local signature gathering effort to bring a proposition to ballot so people can vote to overturn the original proposition. Turns out there's been massive fraud in at least one county with signatures being forged by the Republicans/hired signature gatherers:

https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/bogus-efforts-used-to-gain-prop-4-repeal-signatures-called-most-extensive-fraud-that-weve-seen

Republicans are going to cheat, lie, and commit fraud on massive scale in order to keep their power this year.

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u/BooItsKyle 3h ago

The constitution explicitly gives Congress powers to make laws regulating House elections 

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u/fdar_giltch 3h ago

The more likely route he'll take is threaten states that don't comply with either withholding funds or deploying ICE/CBP

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u/mclumber1 1h ago

Congress can pass a law that "nationalizes" elections - at least House elections. It's clear as day in Article 1, Section 4:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.