by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Now, before I lay this scenario out, let me be clear — I’m not advocating anything. I’m a man of peace. A man of ideas. And, what’s more, we all know that what I’m about to suggests happened that it would be just the opening salvo into pretty much a civil war / revolution situation.
But, having said that, here goes.
While it’s of course possible that Trump won’t win the 2024 election, it’s also true that at the moment it seems as though he is, in fact, going to win and we have to start to think now about what our reaction to that will be. Trump has made it very clear that he’s pretty much going to become a fucking tyrant the moment he is in power again.
He’s going to arrest people he doesn’t like. He’s going to invoke the Insurrection Act, the list goes on.
Really, the only thing that gives me any hope at the moment is that all these tyrannical things would not happen in a vacuum. If Trump really does go full tyrant straight out of the gate, there may come a point where a lot of well-meaning Traditionalists who voted for Trump because of negative polarization will finally, at last, sit up and take notice.
If Trump actually starts to not only round his critics up so he can “lock them up” AND he uses the military to crack down on any form of dissent, then, lulz, we got a problem on our hands. We may, very well, be going to the show. That’s what so dumb about tyrant Trump — if he had any self control he could get everything he wanted in due time.
But, no, Trump is so dumb that he could do what a civil war and two world wars could not do — cause an actual Glorious Revolution where the 60% of the population that hates Trump and MAGA with a passion actually collectively does something about it.
If Trump is a tyrant and makes all my hysterical doom shit fears become a reality, then there is at least a small possibility that the U.S. Military will step in and depose him in some way. The most logical way such a thing might happen is they could use the legal cover of the 14th Amendment to say both Trump and his veep aren’t legally in office to begin with.
We may find ourselves with a military junta (President James Mattis anyone?) who exists specifically to call up a Constitutional Convention that would enact a series of much-needed structural political reforms.
Another wild card is the issue of impeachment. If Trump goes totally completely fucking tyrannical and nuts from day one, if the House is Democratic, there is a chance that if the country is wracked with massive, rolling protests and there is even a General Strike, then there may be a snap impeachment that flies over to the Senate where Republicans may, at last, find their guts.
Or not. They’re all wussies.
But as I mentioned, Trump is really popular with about 38% of the population. If there was some sort of “Glorious Revolution,” well, there would be a counter-revolution that would probably happen in the guise of a secession crisis.
So. I don’t know. It’s all very curious. I can’t predict the future, so it’s possible that Biden will win re-election and, rather than demanding a National Divorce to stay out of prison, Trump just rants a lot and finally fades into oblivion. We’ll be safe another four years until the usual ebb and flow of a democracy causes a far more sly fascist revolution to take place in 2028 -2029.
Keep the faith.
