Not since Gavrilo Princips assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 has the politically-motivated action of a single individual threatened to plunge an entire nation into strife and crisis like the decision by Maine’s Democrat Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, to keep Donald Trump off of the state’s primary ballot.

Does that sound like hyperbole? Allow me to explain.

Donald Trump’s path to re-election in 2024 is simple: Hold the red states that he won in 2020, which he should do with ease, and win back the swing states of Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia. That outcome would result with him receiving 270 electoral votes, the exact margin needed to regain the presidency.

The push to remove Trump from state ballots is largely irrelevant. He’s not going to be removed from any red state ballots and there are no signs he will be removed from the aforementioned swing states. Even if every blue state were to keep him off the ballot, the scenario laid out above would remain not just possible, but likely… with one exception: the state of Maine. Unlike most states which apportion their electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, Maine divides its four electoral votes by Congressional districts; in 2020 Biden won three, while Trump managed to win one from the more rural, conservative region of the state.

Now let’s assume that the election plays out in the highly likely possible manner as suggested, with the caveat that Trump is not on the ballot in Maine. This means he will lose one of the votes he held in 2020 bringing his electoral vote count to 269, one vote short of the number needed to win. The result will be an electoral college tie meaning the election will be thrown to the House of Representatives to decide.

This is not an ideal situation, but it would be advantageous to the GOP by virtue of the fact that the vote in the House will be taken by congressional delegations. Trump would seem to have a lock on re-election, except the GOP’s advantage is only a single delegation, and if you think Democrats will accept that, you haven’t been paying attention for the past eight years.

Biden could go into that House election with a massive lead in the national vote total, not only due to the voting imbalance in condensed urbanized areas like in California and New York, but by virtue of the fact that other blue states could keep Trump the ballot. So they will make the case that Biden, having received say, ten million more votes nationally than Donald Trump, rightfully deserves to be elected. And when I say “will make the case” I am of course speaking euphemistically. The post-election 2016 riots, the George Floyd riots—those will seem like child’s play. The Democrats will resort to maximum pressure including violence (they always do) knowing that, whatever happens, no one will prosecute them. Cities will burn and Republican House members in blue states will have their lives threatened—just ask Steve Scalise and Brett Kavanaugh about that.

All the while you can expect the media to make excuses for the rioters while pushing the narrative that Trump should not be made president again. The Democrat mob will dox electors and congressmen at the drop of a hat if they think those people can be intimidated into changing their votes, and will wave away any violence that might take place in the effort to intimidate people who still believe in the rule of law.

Republicans will face the choice of fighting back with force or surrendering to the mob. But even if the spineless members of the GOP did in fact give in to Democrat demands and put Biden into office, this would set off a chain reaction amongst Republican voters who simply could not abide by such an abdication of duty, which would largely result in a massive restructuring of the country in a way that is not even comprehensible. It is almost impossible to imagine a scenario where Republicans, as weak as they are, would accept this, leading to an intractable divide in our nation.

Of course people will argue that the Supreme Court will intervene and mandate that Trump’s name be placed on the ballot in every state, but what if they don’t? It’s a low percentage chance that they do not, but nonetheless it's a real one. After all, they declined to intervene in any of the post 2020 election lawsuits, including ones brought by multiple states, so there’s no reason to assume that they will take action in this particular case.

And if they don’t, and Donald Trump is denied that one vote in Maine because of the unilateral decision of Democrat partisan Shenna Bellows to bar Trump for asserting that he engaged in an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government, consisting of 2.7 million employees, then America will face a nightmare scenario which will permanently tear our country apart.

Image: YouTube video screen grab.