Dem
51
GOP
49
A number of Democrats and organizations are already planning on how to deal with Trump v2.0 if it comes to that. As one example, the 19th century Comstock Act bans sending pornography, contraceptives, and abortifacients across state lines. It is never enforced anymore, but a new Trump administration could start to vigorously enforce it in order to stop pharmacies in blue states from sending mifepristone to women in red states.
So, what has Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) done? He has ordered the State of Washington to stockpile enough mifepristone in state to handle the expected number of abortions in his state for 4 years so it could be supplied to women in Washington without it going over any state lines. The headline is a quote from Inslee about mifepristone. He didn't quite express it right (he meant "shelf life" not "lifespan"), but even if Trump is elected, women in Washington will be able to get abortions. California, New York, and other states have done likewise. There are also international organizations that will ship mifepristone to women in the U.S. from pharmacies in India. That would be illegal, but there is no easy way to detect this (short of opening all packages from India, which would itself be illegal). That would simply cause the organizations to mail them from somewhere else. Also, there is certainly no way to punish foreign pharmacies or stop them.
Inslee is not the only one who is very worried. Many pro-democracy groups are expecting Trump to simply ignore the Constitution and the law and send federal troops into Democratic cities, carry out mass deportations, build huge camps to hold immigrants, and replace 50,000 civil servants with his flunkies. They are doing their best to prepare for the worst.
One hope is that the hundreds of judges Joe Biden and Barack Obama appointed will block many of Trump's plans. Democracy groups are already writing briefs for expected lawsuits. At the very least, the courts could slow Trump down by ruling he can't do some of the things he wants to do until the Supreme Court has ruled on them, which could take years. The groups will not be caught flat-footed again, like in 2017.
ACLU has mapped out 63 scenarios in which Trump could threaten the rule of law and is preparing lawsuits to deal with them. In particular, it expects Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to send federal troops into cities, against the express wishes of the mayors in question. It is prepared to argue before the Supreme Court that the Insurrection Act does not authorize the president to shut down protests allowed by the First Amendment. It is also recruiting plaintiffs who would have standing to sue. The ACLU has also hired an auditing firm to go over its finances with a microscope since it expects Trump to sic the IRS on it.
Another source of opposition to Trump's attempt to establish a dictatorship is federalism itself. Trump will not control about half the state governments. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has founded a group called the Reproductive Freedom Alliance for blue state governors to coordinate their activities opposing Trump. They are planning new state laws that could thwart Trump. Federal law trumps state law (no pun intended), but if the Democrats manage to control at least one chamber of Congress, Trump won't be able to get any new laws passed and state laws trump executive orders. In that case, Trump won't get any funding for massive deportation, concentration camps, and the like. In many cases, the blue-state governors will be able to get funding for their plans since Democrats hold the trifecta in 17 states (and Republicans in 23 states). Ten have mixed control.
In any event, numerous Democratic officials and pro-democracy groups are planning for a Trump presidency and how to thwart it in numerous ways. This, by the way, is the price of refusing to accept the legitimacy of elections. If Trump insists that Joe Biden need not be respected as the president, then the same holds when the shoe is on the other foot. (V)