Donald Trump and some politicians in the Republican Party see the 2016 election in apocalyptic terms. The election of Hillary Clinton, in their view, will damage the republic for at least the next generation if not well beyond. So, their thinking seems to go, drastic danger demands drastic methods to avert it. In order to save the republic, they have a three-part strategy.
The first goal: defeat her at the polls. This, they believe, requires a well-orchestrated voter suppression effort. In recent years, states led mostly by Republican legislatures have passed a range of voter ID laws aimed at reducing voter fraud, a crime for which evidence is almost entirely lacking. A comprehensive study by Justin Lovett of Loyola University found only 31 instances of voter fraud in over 1 billion votes cast between 2000-2014. Many of these states have also restricted the ease of early voting. While the courts have blocked some of these efforts, others have been upheld. In the current election, a chief Trump aide announced what he called a three-part "voter suppression" effort, aimed at discouraging white liberals, young women, and blacks from voting. Still further, Trump has urged supporters to become unofficial poll watchers on election day. This has led some far-right groups to promise to show up in some inner cities with video cameras to record the "evidence" of voter fraud (and, by their presence, to seek to intimidate voters from showing up). In response, in Ohio, a federal district judge issued a restraining order on November 4th to bar the Trump campaign from "conspiring to intimidate, threaten, harass, or coerce voters on Election Day." All this comes, of course, from a candidate that claims the election is rigged against him.
The second goal, should Clinton win, is to delegitimize the results of the election. Breaking with the principle of the peaceful transition of power that has marked all of American history, Trump said he will accept the results of the election "if I win." According to a just released New York Times/CBS News poll, 27 percent of his supporters say they will "probably not accept the results" if he loses. Some Republican leaders have been critical of this stance by Trump, presumably seeing the danger it poses to the political system itself, but they have their own strategy if he loses,
That strategy, hypocritically, is the equivalent of Trump's claim from which they distance themselves. If Clinton wins, they intend to prevent her from governing. Prominent Republicans, including Senator John McCain, have indicated that they will block any Supreme Court nominee that Clinton names over her four-year term. Their previous insistence that they will not consider President Obama's nominee is thus amended by adding a key word so that it now reads: 'we believe the next Republican president should have the right to name Justice Scalia's replacement.' Other Republicans have threatened to launch multiple investigations of Clinton as soon as she takes office. Some have called for impeachment proceedings, apparently eager to deliver on the "lock her up" chant of the Trump campaign. This sends two messages to voters: (1) you made your choice; now we intend to take it away from you, and (2) if we can't do that, we can at least block the executive and weaken the image and operation of the Supreme Court.
All of this adds up to rather frightening behavior from a candidate and a party who say their goal is to "make American great again." American greatness was built on expanding and honoring the franchise, not restricting it. American greatness depends on accepting the results of elections fairly won, not crying "foul" and undermining faith in our republican system if you lose. American greatness comes from the collaboration of the executive, legislature, and courts in governing, not in using power to block the people's business.