The day after election day
The options are limited
by Mike Meyer
Trying to be positive in America in the age of Trump is a problem of trying not to know too much. Trump is a mentally ill, criminal personality for whom it is almost impossible to maintain sympathy. The sheer weight of lies, insults, and abject idiocy of one form or another leaves little room for rational thought.
But that is, of course, his purpose. He is a distraction almost completely focused on inciting violent emotions and, increasingly, violence among his followers in order to disgust and frighten the rest of us. The fact that this political system was weak and dysfunctional enough to allow insertion of such a thing into national leadership is far more frightening than Trump could ever be.
This problem indicates that the deformities in our national political culture are extreme and may not be repairable. Trump as a tool has been put in place in order to distract us all from the plundering of our national treasury and the destruction of whatever remains of our democratic electoral systems.
On a larger scale this has been managed and funded by both national and international capitalists to gain a few more years of exploitation before the growing range of climate disasters forces their shutdown. The cold blooded greed and self destruction that has driven this is breathtaking.
The people responsible for this must live in a world where science is not valid and moral standards do not exist. They must actually believe their own bullshit. To do what they have done and are doing can only be done by people who are totally unself aware. They see only themselves and their tribe as valuable however they define that group.
I say this only because if this is not true then these people are truly evil. In fact, some of them undoubtedly are truly evil but I refuse to believe there are very many like that. But people who are not self aware have little means of understanding feelings of others and an inability to identify other’s pain and suffering as anything but a win for themselves. These are the zero sum people of pure capitalist societies. Your loss is my gain.
What will we know the day after the election?
I think we will know if America will survive or not. Let me work through this to see if it makes sense.
America will survive
If Congress will have a full Democratic majority in January this will allow reversal of the most brutal and destructive of actions that have been taken in the name of Trump. I do not call these things anything other than actions as they are not legitimate laws.
Until Trump is removed along with his entire menagerie only limited corrections can be made but further actions can be stopped or limited in scope. This is still a disaster but a clear denunciation of fascist illegality will have been made. Work can start on reform and electoral redesign. The absurdity of executive actions on borders and internationally can be stopped.
There would be clear hope.
This will not solve the national deformity as that will require a completely new kind of governmental organization and an significant movement away from predatory capitalism.
It certainly doesn’t solve the problem of a corrupt, directionless Democratic Party but it will effectively declare what has replaced the Republican Party as a criminal organization. This could allow the development of new parties and new leadership.
America will fail slowly
The Democratic Party takes control of the House but not the Senate. A general background sound has been that this is good enough. The system works so we just wait for 2020.
Sorry. This is a terminal disaster. Short of an overwhelming majority able to act without Republican involvement this will insure the maximum confusion reinforcing the lack of any coherent Democratic policies. The usual tussling between primary opponents will cripple any possible action.
By claiming a majority in the House both sides will claim that nothing can be done and the deadlock will continue.
Understand that we do not have time for this. The most critical group on this planet now is the United Nations Climate Commission. The scientific community has told us we have twelve years to act to avoid major damage to the climate. We would ultimately be able to recover but the danger to human civilization will only escalate from that time.
This country needs to either become a force for scientific advancement for the planet or get out of the way.
In this situation the deadlock would result in neither outcome. America becomes a deadly weight on the decision making of the entire planet. We would be the cement boots as humanity is dumped into the rising ocean.
The forces of fascist dominance would barely be disadvantaged and would continue, with the help of a politically corrupted Supreme Court, to destroy the chance for anything but a token election in 2020 returning Trump and what he represents to power.
America will die
On November 7 we have a government still under control of a antidemocratic group willing to accept planetary destruction for the gains of extreme financial elite. This is a very real possibility.
There are two routes from this point. In either case the population realizes what has happened and that democracy is dead in America. The desires of the majority are no longer of any importance and minorities can expect to be driven into poverty with the bulk of the country right behind them.
Within the fist week there would be massive demonstrations demanding investigation and change. That is the point of divergence.
The demonstrations would grow and ICE would be used to break them up because the US military would not be reliable under Trump control. Trumpist areas would be locked down and the fascist militias would begin to attack people in cities.
Fear would set in and the media would denounce the demonstrators who would be swept up in massive arrests. The West Coast led by California along with others would offer sanctuary and people would begin to move from Trumpist controlled areas. Metropolitan areas wold join the citizen sanctuary movement and begin to defend areas from ICE assaults.
The result would be secession from the union as an invalid and criminal government. The chaos would continue as borders began to be defined and defended.
The other option is that the demonstrations would quickly reach a peak and everyone would go home and go back to work. Nothing would change but everyone who participated would tell themselves that they tried.
ICE managed concentration camps and disappearances would grow but people would just look the other way and continue to ask for someone to tell them what to do.
Migration to Canada, Mexico and other countries would increase until stopped with borders blocked. The classic fascist solution of wars against others would be hyped. Unfortunately the American Empire has been gutted and the maintenance of fifteen years of war on several fronts leaves little room for new campaigns. The fight would become internal with low grade rebellion and rapid economic collapse.
Which will it be?
As I’ve indicated and as many people are saying there appears to be little likelihood of any significant change. If this type of regime is allowed to stay in power there will be nothing that will stop what they are going to do. Trump and the people using him for their gain will simply ignore any rules. With the loss of the Supreme Court there is no balancing group for tradition and precedent.
Slow death or fast death will the real choice. And no action is simply a slower transition from slow to fast death.
The only clear hope is massive voter turn out. The forces of voter suppression have been working without much resistance. I would expect open denial of voting rights in all Trump controlled areas.
Vote now as this may be the last opportunity for an election that could effect change for this country. After this the options will be much more difficult than going to the polling place.
