What is Team Democracy’s back-up plan if the elections are rigged (they already are post the new SCOTUS ruling), or delayed, or results denied and challenged?

The answer is: they don’t have a back-up plan. We cry for another four years. I outline the only feasible back-up plan in this post. Math is on our side, as it was in the Civil War.

Every criminal has a back-up plan if things don’t go as hoped. Trump’s plan is likely to go ex-patriot if the dems take full control of federal government ; much of his money is already overseas and BTC has no country.

If one political team claims the right to question, or refuse legitimate election results, or try to rig the voting by Gerrymandering away citizen’s votes, then the opposing side logically inherits a duty to do something about that to preserve our 250-year-old democracy.

Something has changed in America, and pretending otherwise is no longer safe. It’s become clear that Team Trump intends to deny, delay, obfuscate and/or outright rig the procedures and results of the 2026 midterm elections. The Supreme Court just threw in for lowering the ability of black communities to have a say in our government. That should be the last straw. It’s time to do something, not to talk about doing something. Team Democracy faces a choice: accept our broken democracy, or prepare an unwavering collective response.

The publishing of said collective response should be made well ahead of the midterms.

The Democratic Governors Association — or a similar alliance of state leaders — should announce now that they will stand together to defend free and fair elections. An Article Five–style pledge — “you come for one, you come for all” — would signal unity and deterrence. The purpose would not be confrontation but prevention.

Let me lay out the logic plainly.

Many Americans believe the country is already in a political war — a conflict not of weapons but of institutions, trust, and power. Democracy, once a radical idea, depended on citizens choosing representatives who argued and negotiated within agreed rules. Authoritarian systems do not operate that way.

The Founders wrote about “self-evident truths” for a reason. Evidence literally means “from what we see”, the word video hiding inside evidence. And reports say most Americans now feel they have seen enough of Trumpism.

Elections carried out by longstanding rules, with broad participation and lawful procedures, must be accepted regardless of outcome. Americans have done this before. Many disliked prior results, but the system held because people respected the process.

The fear today is different: that elections may be contested not through law but through power. Attempts are currently being made to undermine the midterms. States should be prepared to respond lawfully and collectively. Governors have the power to protect their citizens and should announce that, in the event of clear election interference, they would explore emergency powers to protect their citizens and institutions — including reconsidering how and to whom federal tax dollars are paid and managed until constitutional order is restored.

I researched the financial mathematics of this and found these statistics which Team Democracy should know. Blue states can live without red states much easier than the other way around.

Using governor party as the blue/red divider: 24 Democratic governors, 26 Republican governors.

Social Security / OASDI benefits paid

By governor party:

So blue-governor states contain about 55% of Social Security payouts, not wildly different from population, but still more.

Military / defense burden

For 2025, U.S. national defense spending was about $919.2B/year, or ~$76.6B/month.

For “who pays,” I used IRS FY2024 gross federal tax collections by state. That’s better than just population because it reflects where the federal revenue actually comes from; the IRS table includes income, payroll, corporate, estate/gift, and excise taxes.

By governor party, 2024 federal gross collections from the 50 states were roughly:

I applied that same split to the defense bill:

Combined “big two” cost: Social Security + defense

Income tax by party, derived from IRS “gross collections by state” data for 2024.

Blunt conclusion

On pure fiscal capacity, blue-governor states are not the weak side. They pay about 61% of federal tax collections while receiving about 55% of Social Security payouts. While the red states pay out about 39%. That means, financially, the blue bloc has a 6 to 4 stronger tax base relative to its Social Security obligation than the red bloc does.

Mathematically, blue states can survive and even do better without the drain of red states. And I dare say, once this discussion of mass secession starts being heard on media, red state citizens, who are being hurt more than blue states by the Trump tariffs and wars, will cry out for the dems not to do this. Imagine being stuck with Trump as your president while the rest of the country just has governors and does not pay income tax to the IRS but to their states. They will become instantly jealous and scared. And that is the point.

That is democracy’s back-up plan. And it’s all kosher, because of the 14th sec 3, which clearly says not one in the GOP can hold office because they have now all aided and comforted an insurrectionist. SCOTUS be damned. This SCOTUS has needed reforming for a long time, but certainly since Russia if you’re listening.

Distrust of federal power is not new; it has appeared in movements from the Tea Party to modern progressive coalitions. The idea of states asserting greater autonomy has deep roots in American history. Such a stance will resonate with many Americans across the political spectrum.

And here is the strategic point: if all citizens know there is a peaceful, organized, constitutional backup plan, attempts to manipulate elections lose much of their power. Deterrence works when the consequences are clear. Institutions survive when people are willing to defend them collectively. But to be willing, they need to know it can work.

This is not a call for chaos or refusal to accept legitimate outcomes. It is a call to prepare calmly, lawfully, and transparently, so that no leader, from any party, can undermine the rules that make democracy possible.

And now there is mathematical proof that it works just fine for the blue states if they all secede en masse this November, day after the elections, if the GOP, the Supreme Court and Trump cheat, or Gerrymander their way into a majority again. And the cheating has begun.

Americans of every political beliefs should refuse to accept that future.

What citizens can do today

• Write your governor, online and on paper, and ask them to form a union with other like minded governors, much like NATO, so that an attack on one is an attack on all.
• Ask why your governor why he is collecting tariffs that Congress has not approved and if he will consider refusing to collect tariffs until they are approved by Congress as per the Constitution.
• Ask your governor if he believes he has a duty to protect his state’s citizens from the dangers and costs of Trump’s unconstitutional executive actions
• Make it clear you will not support your governor is he does nothing to stop tariffs and warrantless arrests.
• Continue to protest peacefully.
• Share this plea on social media. Get this plea to citizens and governors going viral.

About the author: Joseph Aronesty was a classmate to Donald Trump at Wharton in 1968 and worked in his orbit from 1986-99 in Atlantic City NJ. He has been warning Americans about the danger Trump poses for our country since 2016.

PS. This image has been at my blog since 2017, Helsinki. It was clear to me then that Trump had thrown in with Putin and is compromised. Unfortunately the Biden administration was too old of mind ( not of body as much as mind) to deal with this level of traitorous criminality.

Joseph Aronesty

[email protected] – created world’s first site with a click and drag shopping cart, 1996.

HOLD ON TO LOVE AMERICA – song by Joseph Aronesty