We are effectively a dictatorship right now and the only thing that can reverse that is if Trump fails to act fast enough or acts so fast he gets heavy pushback. This far they have been effective at letting the most right-wing elements dominate the media so by the time they do crazy shit the people have already sort of absorbed the idea and it doesn’t seem outlandish.
He can ignore the courts in the event that they act fast enough to matter. He controls the military and can simply blockade polling locations, cut off power, etc. He can at least fuck with an election to the point where the ordinary safeguards against vote fraud can’t be ensured. He has all the tools needed to end democracy here.
The question is whether enough people will be complicit. Speaker Johnson will just declare he hasn’t read the news until the coup is complete. But will none of the freedom-loving conservatives think twice about throwing away freedom? Epstein is creating cracks. It would be easy for Trump to fuck up and overplay his hand, but unfortunately he will win unless he makes an error.
But he also needs to move fairly fast. There is a lot of inertia in the way the system is built and if he moves too slowly, it’s game over for him (well it’s two years of playing defense). It takes time to replace everyone with sycophants.
I’m optimistic. I’m also 70 miles from Canada, if worse comes to worst.
US citizens, particularly the ones in the upper-middle class are going to have to be willing to die
I’m not some kind of super-patriot, but I’m a former soldier. I swore an oath to protect my country from enemies foreign and domestic, and that… weighs on me, despite how easy it would be to just enjoy old white guy status. I’m also old and out of shape and I have no illusions how it will end if it comes to that. But I’ve also lived a good life. If that’s the end to which I’m fated… we can only do what we can in the situation we find ourselves in. Sometimes there is no winning scenario, you just do what you must.
Are there more like me? I don’t know. My wife would let the country burn if it kept her family safe. I don’t know anyone else thinking about things (aloud) the way I do and maybe they will let the world burn, too. But I won’t. In 40 years I’ll be dead one way or another, and 40 years later my life won’t even be a memory. And the only thing that will exist of me is whatever has rippled out into the world from my actions. I won’t have the failure of America be my only enduring legacy. That said, there is time and runway before that becomes inevitable, and I have hope.
We are effectively a dictatorship right now and the only thing that can reverse that is if Trump fails to act fast enough or acts so fast he gets heavy pushback. This far they have been effective at letting the most right-wing elements dominate the media so by the time they do crazy shit the people have already sort of absorbed the idea and it doesn’t seem outlandish.
He can ignore the courts in the event that they act fast enough to matter. He controls the military and can simply blockade polling locations, cut off power, etc. He can at least fuck with an election to the point where the ordinary safeguards against vote fraud can’t be ensured. He has all the tools needed to end democracy here.
The question is whether enough people will be complicit. Speaker Johnson will just declare he hasn’t read the news until the coup is complete. But will none of the freedom-loving conservatives think twice about throwing away freedom? Epstein is creating cracks. It would be easy for Trump to fuck up and overplay his hand, but unfortunately he will win unless he makes an error.
But he also needs to move fairly fast. There is a lot of inertia in the way the system is built and if he moves too slowly, it’s game over for him (well it’s two years of playing defense). It takes time to replace everyone with sycophants.
I’m optimistic. I’m also 70 miles from Canada, if worse comes to worst.
I’m not some kind of super-patriot, but I’m a former soldier. I swore an oath to protect my country from enemies foreign and domestic, and that… weighs on me, despite how easy it would be to just enjoy old white guy status. I’m also old and out of shape and I have no illusions how it will end if it comes to that. But I’ve also lived a good life. If that’s the end to which I’m fated… we can only do what we can in the situation we find ourselves in. Sometimes there is no winning scenario, you just do what you must.
Are there more like me? I don’t know. My wife would let the country burn if it kept her family safe. I don’t know anyone else thinking about things (aloud) the way I do and maybe they will let the world burn, too. But I won’t. In 40 years I’ll be dead one way or another, and 40 years later my life won’t even be a memory. And the only thing that will exist of me is whatever has rippled out into the world from my actions. I won’t have the failure of America be my only enduring legacy. That said, there is time and runway before that becomes inevitable, and I have hope.