I don't think GOP electeds and voters have considered (or are capable of doing so) the implications of a 2024 Trump victory, or even a contested 2024 Trump loss.
"Civil war" gets mentioned more frequently, at times with a semi-reluctant tone that it might be necessary and on the horizon. It could take many forms, could look like the Irish…
I don't think GOP electeds and voters have considered (or are capable of doing so) the implications of a 2024 Trump victory, or even a contested 2024 Trump loss.
"Civil war" gets mentioned more frequently, at times with a semi-reluctant tone that it might be necessary and on the horizon. It could take many forms, could look like the Irish "Troubles", could be armed militia resistance and takeovers of state/federal agencies/facilities, could be assassinations, could be even more mass shootings and everyday confrontations between citizens etc.
Whatever form it takes, it would likely render the government utterly dysfunctional, wreck the economy, render us unable to pay our debts, hobble the global supply chain, create a global economic depression, etc which in turn will cause global unrest, governments to fail and spiral toward something like a global collapse.
I may well be catastrophizing. Or perhaps not. The point is ... such an outcome would be disastrous for everyone, and the suffering it would bring would be historic. There is no benefit for a major party to "gain and keep power" in such a dystopia. Have our fellow citizens on the right so given up on our country that the only way to save the country/world is to burn it down? I don't think so, for all but very few. More likely - they do not see where they could be taking us by their continued tolerance/support of this monster/mobster, and expect that they will remain employed, their 401k will remain intact, and their kids will continue to live in a prosperous and stable nation/world, just with Trump in the White House instead of Biden.
Nailed it. Not sure if you were targeting this at JVL, but I find he is the most "Civil War is not possible" cynic on the site.
As I have said repeatedly, I think that JVLs blindness/unwillingness to see the very real possibility of armed conflict comes from the fact that he is a White Man. When Trump first began his run in 2015, I told everyone who I worked with that he could win. Most POCs and Jews agreed. It was only the White Christians who were dismissive. "No one will ever vote for him. He is a crook. Ya da, ya da...." Well, a year later, when he got the nomination, they said, "he cannot beat Hilary, he's a liar and a crook." Then when he won, they were left speechless. I think it was like that SNL episode that Chappelle hosted: Black people were not surprised at all, while White People were forlorn. I believe it was because for the first time, many of them finally saw what we have been saying for years: a lot of White people are very bigoted. JVL himself said that he came to the realization after dismissing it all these years.
Once you realize that a lot of White people are very racist, then it all begins to make sense. The obsession with guns, harping on crime, increasing anger toward any discussion of our country's racial history, attacks against equity programs, constant attempts to demand conformity, support for authoritarianism, all of this sounds like the Deep South my mother was born in to.
If you have these attitudes, then it is not a large step to argue that "those people don't deserve a say in our government because they don't support our country's values." Except, their idea of what our country's values are is not economic, social and political pluralism. It is a support for government imposed social conformity, enforced by either (i) government authority (i.e. police) or (ii) by non-governmental authority, (armed citizens with cover of law). JVL put it best when he said, "rule by law, not of law."
I don't think GOP electeds and voters have considered (or are capable of doing so) the implications of a 2024 Trump victory, or even a contested 2024 Trump loss.
"Civil war" gets mentioned more frequently, at times with a semi-reluctant tone that it might be necessary and on the horizon. It could take many forms, could look like the Irish "Troubles", could be armed militia resistance and takeovers of state/federal agencies/facilities, could be assassinations, could be even more mass shootings and everyday confrontations between citizens etc.
Whatever form it takes, it would likely render the government utterly dysfunctional, wreck the economy, render us unable to pay our debts, hobble the global supply chain, create a global economic depression, etc which in turn will cause global unrest, governments to fail and spiral toward something like a global collapse.
I may well be catastrophizing. Or perhaps not. The point is ... such an outcome would be disastrous for everyone, and the suffering it would bring would be historic. There is no benefit for a major party to "gain and keep power" in such a dystopia. Have our fellow citizens on the right so given up on our country that the only way to save the country/world is to burn it down? I don't think so, for all but very few. More likely - they do not see where they could be taking us by their continued tolerance/support of this monster/mobster, and expect that they will remain employed, their 401k will remain intact, and their kids will continue to live in a prosperous and stable nation/world, just with Trump in the White House instead of Biden.
Nailed it. Not sure if you were targeting this at JVL, but I find he is the most "Civil War is not possible" cynic on the site.
As I have said repeatedly, I think that JVLs blindness/unwillingness to see the very real possibility of armed conflict comes from the fact that he is a White Man. When Trump first began his run in 2015, I told everyone who I worked with that he could win. Most POCs and Jews agreed. It was only the White Christians who were dismissive. "No one will ever vote for him. He is a crook. Ya da, ya da...." Well, a year later, when he got the nomination, they said, "he cannot beat Hilary, he's a liar and a crook." Then when he won, they were left speechless. I think it was like that SNL episode that Chappelle hosted: Black people were not surprised at all, while White People were forlorn. I believe it was because for the first time, many of them finally saw what we have been saying for years: a lot of White people are very bigoted. JVL himself said that he came to the realization after dismissing it all these years.
Once you realize that a lot of White people are very racist, then it all begins to make sense. The obsession with guns, harping on crime, increasing anger toward any discussion of our country's racial history, attacks against equity programs, constant attempts to demand conformity, support for authoritarianism, all of this sounds like the Deep South my mother was born in to.
If you have these attitudes, then it is not a large step to argue that "those people don't deserve a say in our government because they don't support our country's values." Except, their idea of what our country's values are is not economic, social and political pluralism. It is a support for government imposed social conformity, enforced by either (i) government authority (i.e. police) or (ii) by non-governmental authority, (armed citizens with cover of law). JVL put it best when he said, "rule by law, not of law."