chat

Elections in the US are run by state governments, so in a situation where the White House declares there will be no presidential election, things would be a lot messier. A number of states will hold elections anyway, while a couple particularly loyal MAGA state governments might actually cancel them. This also complicates things in terms of state governments. A lot of states hold municipal / county / state elections on the same ballot as the federal elections (while others hold them on off-years as a deliberate method to depress turnout).

In practice what we would likely see is a rump election, which the Democrats take very seriously, in an effort to elect Rahm Emanuel or some comparable slime mold as the US president in exile or some shit. The situation would call for for a military coup, if not an outright revolution, but they will still do everything in their power to observe the procedures and work within the institutions, because that is the only arena where they have ever had any real power. They will never concede that the situation demands a popular uprising or military force, because that leaves them completely outside of the driver's seat. Nobody is going to take orders from them. When the bullets start flying, nobody is taking up arms to restore the US republic to 2016 so we can hand the reigns back to the Clintons and the Bushes.