He certainly could do it. Between the Bird Flu laws, the Military Commissions Act, the Warner Reauthorization, his executive orders and the Lucky Strike Supreme Court ("so round, so firm, so fully packed") he has the power.
Who would stop him? Congressional Democrats? Not until their balls drop and they grow a spine. Congressional Republicans? Not even.
Would the people rise up? No. If they were going to do that they'd have done it. They're pacified. They're lobotomized. And if you tattoo 9-11 on it they'll let themselves be sodomized and euthanized.
The police? Not even.
The military? There you've come to the rub. Rumor has it that when Nixon's aides floated the idea of a Presidential coup the Joint Chiefs of Staff said they would never go along. The professionalism and apolitical nature of the military is one of the great unspoken checks against executive and legislative power. Unfortunately, we have seen a nearly unprecedented exodus of officers, especially senior officers, from the various branches in the last couple years. Those who remain are more personally loyal to the President than was the case in previous decades. The rise in the use of mercenaries whose loyalty is solely towards their paycheck and their use in civilian situations in this country is troubling.
So he could. Nobody will stop him. We have a pervasive national surveillance network in place, facilities to house large numbers of dissidents, widespread apathy, mercenary troops not subject to the Geneva Convention, Posse Comitatus, the UCMJ, US Law and so on.
Will he suspend elections?
He probably will not.
His core supporters, the very rich, would not be please with the disruptive effect it would have on their investments.
If it's Republican control of the White House that he wants it will be easy enough to repeat the Florida and Ohio vote fraud. An apocryphal saying attributed to Stalin goes "It's not the votes that count. It's who counts the votes."
He might have had some fears of being held accountable for his crimes. That is no longer an issue. Upon assuming the gavels Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid immediately and repeatedly announced that they would never under any circumstances seek impeachment proceedings. Unlike most of their Democratic constituents the DLC hates the idea of important people being subject to the Law.
Most of all, it's not fun anymore. Consider George W. Bush's entire career. He got a cushy (safe) job in the Air National Guard. When he wanted to do other things he didn't even bother to serve out his term. He just went AWOL. We'll leave the discussion of "desertion in time of war" for another time. He was given the Texas Rangers. When he mismanaged them and lost money he bailed getting a premium price bailout for his shares. His daddy gave him an oil company. When he couldn't make money at that he quit, incidentally running it into the hole and getting a bunch of personal loans from the sinking firms. His career as governor made a lot of headlines, but actual results were lackluster.
In short, his pattern has been to quit when a project requires real work and to leave the cleanup to someone else. His approval ratings are worse than Nixon and Truman. The economic and foreign policy chickens are coming home to roost. He's widely hated here and around the world. He's been photographed drinking in public again (beer with German President Merkel). He won't be held accountable. He might have to actually do some work and ride the pipe for his mistakes.
Nope. It's not fun. It's time to bail and let someone else fix his mistakes.
