After four years of debate about the possibility of foreign interference in the 2020 election and how to counter such disruptions, Mr. Trump’s comments were a stark reminder that the most direct threat to the electoral process now comes from the president of the United States himself. His unwillingness to say he would abide by the result, and his disinformation campaign about the integrity of the American electoral system, went beyond anything President Vladimir V. Putin could have imagined.

What if it’s not just Trump – it is the people who enable and defend him, a cabal aiming at power. The elite clinging to power.

another column:

Whatever they may say, they weren’t concerned about the cost. Republicans didn’t worry about budget deficits when they rammed through a $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy. They only pose as deficit hawks when trying to block spending that might help ordinary Americans. 

No, what this is really about is the modern G.O.P.’s plutocratic agenda. McConnell and, as far as I can tell, every member of his caucus are completely committed to cutting taxes on the rich and aid to the poor and middle class. Other than March’s CARES Act, which Republicans passed only because they were panicking over a plunging stock market, it’s hard to think of any major G.O.P.-approved fiscal legislation in the past two decades that didn’t redistribute income upward. 

Politico – BY DAVID SIDERS
With help from Renuka Rayasam 

DO YOU HAVE TO LET IT LINGER?Democratic insiders are surprisingly cheerless for a presidential election in which Joe Biden has a large lead in public opinion polls and an edge in early voting. He could win in a landslide. Even as the prospect of a post-Trump world becomes plausible to many Democrats, they are seeing reminders everywhere that President Donald Trump’s impact on the country will be enduring. 
Whether he is defeated in 11 days or leaves office in four years, Trump and Trumpism will still be with us, for decades to come.
The most obvious sign of that is the Senate’s all but certain confirmation Monday of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court — Trump’s third justice.
But it’s way more than a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Democrats complain about the lasting effects of ignoring climate change for four years. They say the nation’s image abroad has eroded , as has confidence in democracy at home. For the duration of his presidency, Trump has insisted elections are “rigged.” No surprise, many voters aren’t confident that American elections are conducted in a fair and equal way. 
After watching the chaotic presidential debate three weeks ago, the teenage son of Ken Martin, the chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, asked Martin how he could stomach a life in politics, his chosen profession.
“It’s just sad, sad all around,” Martin said. “We’re going to be living with Donald Trump’s impact on politics for the next couple of generations.” He went on to say: “My concern here, win or lose, is that we have essentially changed the norms of politics to a place where you don’t have civil discourse anymore. The idea of working together just becomes so far off in the distance that how does anything get done in government anymore?”
For Democrats who feel like they are on the cusp of victory in this election, there is a sense of grief for what they have already lost.
Former Rep. Brad Ashford, of Nebraska, worries, he said, about people in their 20s and 30s – his daughter’s age – who are “so upset with everything going on” they’ve “sort of given up on the whole institution of representative democracy.”
Former Rep. Tony Coelho, who was chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, said he was concerned about the effect of Trump on young people, too. Even if Trump goes, Coelho said, “We will not put hate back in the bottle for at least a couple of decades, because there are a lot of young people today who think that hate is okay.”
No one involved in campaigns can ever say the one they’re working on is not the most important one yet. “Most important election of our lifetimes” conveys hope, but it’s also a coping mechanism for politicians’ and campaign workers’ own life choices and a morale booster for the people they are trying to inspire.
This year, voters seem to agree with the cliché. According to a new Gallup Poll , more than three-quarters of registered voters say the outcome of this election matters more to them than in previous years, a record level dating back to 1996, when Gallup first asked the question.
But no matter who wins, Coelho said, America is no longer Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill.”
“The question is how long will it take to get it back,” he said. “I think it takes a decade to turn all this stuff around in the best of circumstances. But it probably will take longer.”