Tag: Tyrant Trump

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of the liberal, hand wringing think pieces about any possible impending Trump second term is how abstract they are. They don’t really get into the nitty-gritty of what the reaction in Blue states might be if Trump went “full tyrant.”

Now, if Trump is all talk and is more Victor Orban in his autocracy, then I think he will be fine. He will lay the cornerstone for an autocratic state that will probably last for the rest of my life. We will continue to have “elections” but they will be anything but free and or fair.

My fear is, of course, that Trump is so dumb and bonkers that he goes full hard tyrant and does such crazy shit that the country buckles in some way. If Trump canceled, say, the midterms or the 2028 elections, then that would be….oh boy, a bridge too far for most people Red or Blue.

Or if he really did gather up 20 million undocumented people, put them in camps and started to deport them. That would be something, on a practical basis, that a lot of Blue states simply would not stand for. And that doesn’t even begin to address what might happen if, say, Trump started to use Red National Guard troops on the populations of Blue States.

That kind of “hard” tyranny is the kind of stuff that gives me pause for thought. The country would be shaken to its core in a way not seen sense the American Civil War. I have pondered some “legalistic” ways Trump might be deposed by the military, but, alas, I don’t even think that would help much because Trump would replace too much of the leadership of the military.

The point is — if Trump wins, the US could buckle in a pretty dramatic fashion. And if Blues were able to successfully depose Trump, that would only set the stage for a civil war, with Red states leaving the Union in protest. So, for everyone’s sake, I think some situation where Trump loses and simply drifts off into the political darkness would be the best for everyone involved.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I would like to think that maybe the United States can make it through the next few months without, in some way, collapsing. I say this in the context of it could be that no matter who wins, some pretty horrific shit might happen. If Trump loses, he could go “full tyrant” to the point that the country collapses because Blues refuse to take his shit anymore.

At this point, I’m just really perplexed about what may happen one way or another. I just don’t know.

I do feel, in general, a deep sense of unease.

I keep thinking about the specifics of how and why I might become a domestic political refugee. Like, how might it specifically happen. My guess is because my politics are well known enough that someone will knock on my door and tell me I need to leave my home — or else.

Or, I suppose, things could get kind of “hot” for me in my area to the point where I make the move to leave on my own, even though no one outright tells me I need to leave.

I keep imagining there being refugee camps in places like the rural parts of PA, upstate NY and maybe Maine. Those seem like the types of places such camps would arise if there came a need for them.

Or something like that. I just don’t know. And I really don’t like the uncertainty of it all.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continued to have a sense of unease about this fall and winter. I know I’ve been writing for years about this moment in time, but that doesn’t make it any easier to process.

It definitely seems as though this maybe be it. We’re going to find out, one way or another, if the USA is going to collapse in to civil war and / or revolution because of Trump or if his election in 2016 was something of a fluke and the high water mark of fascism in the country.

I just don’t know the answer at the moment, which is the source of all of my unease. I can already see it in my mind — Trump loses, demands a National Divorce and my state, Virginia, collapses into an intra-state civil war. I have to leave my home and, before you know it, I’m living in a refugee camp in up state New York or something.

Ugh.

Or, alternately, Trump *wins* and things get so bad that I have to figure out a way to get out of the country. This is a bit tricker because, well, I have no money. But maybe there will develop some sort of “Underground Railroad” for Blues who need to get out of the country or something.

Something like that.

I just don’t know. The whole thing puts me on edge. But, I suppose, we will all learn soon enough one way or another.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key thing about the 2024 election is, because of the Electoral College, the fact that we have a collection of anti-MAGA interest groups going against a fascist party is hidden. As such, I just don’t know what to tell you — if Trump wins, this could be it — American democracy as we know it could be over.

Now, of course, MAGA shitheads will say I suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The reason this is so dumb is “TDS” is more about hand waving on the part of MAGA cocksuckers than it is about having an honest political debate about anything.

Anyway, the point is — if Trump wins the key issue is how bad things might get. If Trump “autocrat-lite” like Orban in Hungary, then he can found an autocratic state in the United States pretty easily. We won’t have free and fair elections anymore — but we will have elections.

The fear is, of course, that Trump is so stupid that he will attempt to end elections all together — then we have a problem. A big problem. I just don’t see the American populace accepting something so dictatorial. There’s one thing for such tyrannical behavior to be abstract and yet another for to actually happen in the concrete.

So, I just don’t know. It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope Trump loses, but we have to prepare for him to win.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Even though Kamala Harris is beginning to look like she might win, I’m still very uneasy about the consequences of a Trump victory. We have to take seriously the idea that Trump may very well make good on his vow to deport 20 million people.

I talk to my far more conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — and they seem either eager for the deportations to begin or simply blasé and non-committal about it all. They wave their hands and mutter something about “both sides.”

Anyway, if Trump does somehow win, I still am uneasy that he may go “full tyrant” and, as such, somehow be deposed. I have no idea how such a thing would happen, but if he really did go full tyrant…some pretty shocking and historic things could happen one way or another.

I don’t want such things to happen, but I like to think in the macro and it seems if Trump tried to deport 20 million people overnight someone, somewhere in the United States might take notice of such a shocking thing.

But, who knows. No one listens to me. And they probably shouldn’t.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I’m prone to “magical thinking.” That is, thinking that really doesn’t have much connection to reality. It’s the type of weird thinking that caused people to think that they could cure COVID by….drinking bleach?

But given improvements in AI video technology, I have an unease about what might happen in the near, near future. The plot of Live Free or Die Hard revolves around some huge terrorist attack being faked via the use of deep fake technology (or something.)

I just worry…what if something like that happened as part of us careening towards civil war / revolution in late 2024, early 2025? I worry.