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Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist.
She is a frequent CNN opinion writer, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review.
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(CNN) -
President Donald Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election, raising already loud alarms about threats to America's democracy to deafening volume.
There is no clearer demarcation between democracy and autocracy than the peaceful transfer of power after an election.
Trump showed us Wednesday that he is prepared to cross that line.
Any other president, at any other time in the history of this country, would have had a simple and direct answer, when asked if he would accept the results of the elections.
Any other president would have affirmed his respect for the will of the people, the hallmark of democracy.
But when Trump was asked that question, his response was a shrapnel-filled grenade.
This is what he said:
Well, we'll have to see what happens.
You know I have complained a lot about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.
He added: “Get rid of the ballots, you will have a very transfer, you will have a very quiet one, there will be no transfer, frankly.
There will be a continuation.
I will resist the temptation to clean up Trump's syntax in search of a compelling answer.
But it is clear that he is signaling, once again, that he has no intention of accepting the results if he loses.
It is also apparent that his months-long effort to assert that mail-in ballots are prone to fraud - something that experts agree is extremely rare - is designed to lift Trump and his supporters out of defeat.
LOOK: ANALYSIS |
Trump's comments send a signal to his supporters on how to react if Biden wins the election
US Attorney General William Barr has previously dismissed claims that Trump would attempt to seize power if he lost the election and accused Democrats of sparking fear.
But Barr has also supported Trump's attacks on voting by mail, and experts fear it could influence the outcome of the election.
When asked about Trump's comments, Democratic candidate Joe Biden responded in disbelief, asking, "What country are we in?"
Biden, knowing how Trump might interpret the comment, went on to say, “I'm kidding, what country are we in?
Look, he says the most irrational things.
I don't know what to say about it, but I'm not surprised.
The president has made it clear that this election is not simply a choice between Trump or Biden.
It is a choice between an accelerated dismantling of America's democracy or a return to America's centuries-long struggle to become a more perfect union, a nation that more closely reflects its founding ideals of democracy and equality.
Trump also revealed, perhaps unknowingly, that he doesn't think he will easily win the election.
He seems determined to wreak havoc and confusion and attack postal ballots, which could tear the country apart in a subsequent fight over the election results.
"I think this will end up in the Supreme Court," he said, "and I think it's very important that we have nine justices."
Keep in mind that there were only eight judges on the court at the time of the 2016 election. Trump could well pressure his nominee to replace the late Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to pledge allegiance to him and his electoral aspirations, in instead of a commitment to justice and the Constitution.
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Regardless of what Trump has in mind, there is only one sure way to prevent a disaster that could engulf the entire country: A landslide victory by Biden would make it more difficult for Trump to stay in office by taking advantage of the courts, Republicans in Congress, and even gangs of extremists who roam protests against racism with the aim of causing more chaos.
A decisive election result could discourage Trump's post-election troops.
But even then, we must prepare for what may come.
The 2016 elections offer some clues.
Trump, who repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged against him, refused to commit to accepting the outcome during the final presidential debate in 2016, saying: “I will analyze it at that time.
I will keep them in suspense.
Moscow was hoping Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would win, and pro-Kremlin bloggers were prepared to question the validity of the results with the hashtag #DEMOCRACYRIP, according to a 2017 US intelligence report.
If Trump loses and rejects the election results this time around, it would create the perfect opportunity for Russia to delegitimize the new US president.
Russia, along with other rivals and enemies of the United States, would revel in electoral chaos and foster mistrust in Biden's tenure.
Trump's most recent attack on democratic practices is not his first.
The President has broken the most basic democratic norms by attacking the media, praising tyrants, demanding personal loyalty from government officials, turning the Department of Justice into a personal political tool, pressuring public health agencies to that minimize a pandemic and stoke internal divisions instead of trying.
to unite the country.
These are all insults against democracy, but they are more mysterious, perhaps more subtle.
Refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after losing an election is pointing a loaded gun at the heart of democracy.
Refusing to give up power is pulling the trigger.
Trump has signaled to his supporters, on the streets and in the halls of Congress, that the battle will not end after November 3.
According to Barton Gellman of The Atlantic, Trump's team is already preparing a legal attack on the election results in key states.
There are multiple possible scenarios.
Gellman envisions one in which the battle lasts until January 20, in which two men show up to take the oath.
Others have looked at the possible outcomes that could follow an election in which Trump has told his supporters, who have shown a willingness to do almost anything to support him, that the vote is rigged.
We cannot rule out the possibility of violence.
Those who play by chance have also presented scenarios in which states with Republican-led and Barr-led legislatures put their thumbs on the scale to help Trump.
When the results of the 2000 elections were inconclusive and the Supreme Court handed victory to George W. Bush, Democratic candidate Al Gore decided to accept the result for the good of the country.
But looking at the smoldering anger in American cities and the polarization that Trump has deliberately stoked, does anyone think that a similar outcome is likely this time?
The only way the Americans avoid disaster is if they give Joe Biden an overwhelming and undisputed victory.