There are some scenarios cost way too much to address. It’s possible that Trump will go “full fascist”. Hell, he may even go apocalyptic (order a launch of missiles on Russia and China, triggering a massive retaliation that kills everyone in North America) when he loses the election.
But to address these kinds of scenarios essentially requires the willingness to become authoritarian ourselves by discarding process in order to pre-empt the perceived threat.
And while a threat may be real (Hitler), our record in choosing pre-emption is over-all massively terrible.
So, my choice is almost always to opt for “regular process” and yes, hope the worst case scenario simply doesn’t come to pass.
What’s more important to the average BB poster, it’s a waste of time and of spoons to worry about worst-case scenarios that might someday happen, maybe. Our lives are full of more immediate concerns, and of better things to think, and do, and talk about. So please, everyone, for the Christmas season at least, try not to fret too much about stuff like this, and focus on the positive things in your lives.
The article is concerned with what he will do before the election, after the Senate hands him his “Get out of jail free” card. I don’t think doubling down on what he is already doing is at all implausible.
Mine too. I wasn’t suggesting anything else. But regular process doesn’t rule out playing hardball.
When I hear the term “full fascist”, I assume we’re talking a round up and execution of Trump’s political enemies including pretty much all the Democratic senators and members of congress, and probably 10-100 thousand executions of enemies and activists.
In spite of this, Trump’s bullshit field can still reach to even the shores of this Brexit-cursed isle. I was visiting my fairly conservative but otherwise perfectly pleasant uncle and aunt lately, and the latter, as somewhat squiffy conversation drifted across politics, voiced something like “At least Trump does what he said he would.”
I was half-cut myself, so I couldn’t respond with much more than a raised eyebrow and a “uh-huh?”.
Of course my uncle was also drunkenly trying to convince me that the Conservatives would absolutely have implemented universal health care provision in the wake of WW2, so…
