Wormwood

Reflections on an Endangered Nation

What to Do in Face of Election 2024’s Looming Catastrophe?

Donald Trump will likely be the 2024 Republican candidate for President. Whether he wins or loses, the country is in for a bumpy ride.

For Americans who cherish the Constitution and honor its troubled journey towards a “more perfect union,” Trump and his supporters have staged a terrifying historical moment.

Many non-MAGA citizens are past wondering how this emotionally unstable and corrupt man has secured the passionate loyalty of a third of our population --

·      loyalty to a man who has never been loyal to anyone or any principle that did not serve his self-interest;

·      loyalty to a man who betrays even those who have thoroughly forfeited their integrity and debased themselves in his service.

Since the past is often prologue to the future, we know how the 2024 election season will unfold, regardless of whether Trump campaigns from the stage or from a jail cell.

1.   He will continue to outline his plans to be an American dictator, like his pals Vladimir Putin, XI Jinping, Victor Orban, and Kim Jung Un.

2.   He will continue to gaslight and project:

a.   casting Biden as a criminal and leader of a crime family;

b.   accusing Biden of doing what he (Trump) has done, and plans to do again, if he takes office, i.e., “weaponizing the justice department.”

3.   He will refuse to accept the result of the election if he loses.

4.   And if he loses, he will claim fraud and call for another insurrection, one more deliberately violent than January 6^th, 2021.

5.   If he does manage to win, he will arrest his political enemies, and those in the media not named FOX, WSJ, NY Post, Breitbart, or Newsmax.

So, win or lose, Americans who honor the Constitution and hope to preserve democracy face a perilous and uncertain future. MAGA zealots, for example, are calling for civil war if Trump is convicted and jailed for one or more of his many crimes, and especially if he loses the election.[1]

How seriously should Americans take these threats?

Well, the FBI and law enforcement agencies across the country take them seriously. They are already anticipating coordinated operations by various right-wing militia groups (like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers) or random, hit and run acts of violence by “lone wolves.”

The federal government believes that the threat of violence and major civil disturbances around the 2024 U.S. presidential election is so great that it has quietly created a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump's army of MAGA followers.[2]

In other words, though a war on a scale of the “War Between the States” is unrealistic, numerous coordinated acts of violence are not only possible but likely. Violence like the January 6^th Insurrection should be expected in multiple cities and towns throughout the country.

Unsurprisingly, the people most capable of shooting up the country are, well, those with the most guns: white male Republicans, the most radical of whom have been stockpiling weapons and ammo in anticipation of the big event.

Pew Research has shown that a clear majority of gun-carrying Americans are these white, male Republicans. And the MAGA subset of this group has already demonstrated that they are willing and able to inflict injury and death on innocent fellow citizens, including police officers.[3]

So, what do Never-Trumpers do while the MAGA war clock ticks down?

·     Sit and wait, wringing our sweaty hands?

·     Cave to MAGA demands – “better a live coward than a dead hero?”

·     Call our congressional representatives and voice our concerns?

·     Write anguished letters of concern to our local papers?

·     Change our names and locations and get off the grid?

·     Visit our local gun shop and select a 9-MM Glock, or a Baretta, or an AR-15, or a shotgun? Or all of these?

·     Fortify our homes, join a band of like-minded defenders and plan defensive strategies?

·     Trust in local police departments and federal agencies, hoping that their officers have good intelligence and have not themselves gone MAGA?

·     Leave the country, and not wait too long, like the doomed citizens in Nazi Germany?

·     Ask Rupert Murdoch to change his editorial policy and replace his lying reporters and TV personalities? —> OK. Only kidding.

·     Hope current Republican office holders will reject their cowardly ways in time to save democracy? —> OK, kidding again.

Here’s my answer: I don’t have a clue.

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure." Considering Jefferson’s “declared” passion for democracy, he would certainly have seen Trump for the tyrant he is — a tyrant whose unhinged speeches labor to produce enough manure to fertilize the tree of fascism.

Democracy requires a commanding victory against tyrant Trump, a victory sufficient to demonstrate that the country has the will and the resources to defeat him and his fascistic movement -- before and after the election.

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[1] https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4187490-republicans-just-cant-stop-calling-for-civil-war/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjjgb/trump-supporters-are-threatening-civil-war

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-supporters-gleefully-threaten-civil-war-after-fbi-raid

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-indictment-violence-the-donald-mass-killing-1234768146/

[2] https://www.newsweek.com/2023/10/13/exclusive-fbi-targets-trump-followers-as-2024-election-nears-1831836.html

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/politics/capitol-police-injuries/index.html