In the last paragraph of my previous article, I stated that I understood that people had legitimate concerns about Trump trying to use the military to stave off his removal from office if he loses. We shouldn’t even be having to have this conversation, but since it’s Trump, and it’s 2020, all bets are off. But because it’s Trump and 2020, it’s also a con, which Emperor Numbus Nuttus hasn’t thought through very well.
Let’s start with this. Trump is toast, and even he knows it. A confident candidate with solid polling would never need to ask his supporters to risk federal prison by asking them to vote for him twice in the same election. Also. a confident candidate with solid polling never mentions losing. You have never heard The L Word escape Biden’slips since he started campaigning. But it’s the only word that Trump uses to describe the outcome of the election. You’ve never once heard him say If we don’t win, it’s only because the election was rigged! With Trump it’s always If we lose, it’s only because the Democrats rigged the election! That’s a losers mentality.
Which is important, because Trump is openly talking about using some arcane dead-sea-scrolls law to call the military into the streets to declare martial law if he loses. The problem here is that in order to do that, the military commander would have to consider it a lawful order to be forced to comply. And General Milley is still licking his wounds after letting trump use him as a prop to clear Lafayette Park for his infamous photo op.
A quick comparison of two marches, conducted by the opposite sides. On January 21st, 2017, The Women’s March descended on Washington DC. Millions of women in adorable knitted pink pussy hats marching through the streets, a kid in hand, while hubby pushed a stroller with another kid, Grandma bring up the rear in her little knitted pink pussy hat. It became the largest single day protest movement in US history, possibly global.
A couple of months ago, Trump angrily tweeted his followers to Liberate Michigan, to try to force Democratic Governor Gretchen Witmer to end the state’s lockdown. Within hours, a horde of slobbering bucket heads descended on the state capitol. waving AR-15’s around and carrying the stars and bars, loudly demanding the Governors immediate lynching from the nearest tree. If you’re General Milley, and Trump issues the orders to march and declare martial law, which group do you think causes the greater risk to the Republic?
But here’s the real rub. Remember, all of Trump’s doom and gloom predictions of rampant and violent anarchy in the streets are based on him losing the election. And in that particular scenario, lies a complete failure in Trump’s pathetic version of linear thinking, but it invalidates his whole point.
Whether it’s on November 3rd, 5th, 8th, or 11th, when the AP finally calls the race for Biden, Trump is right, every democrat and independent in the country will pour into the streets. But not to riot. Instead of everybody running off to try to recreate Bastille Day at the White House, we’ll all be jumping around in masks and screaming, high elbowing each other, and racing off for the nearest liquor store to start a run on champagne, beer, and vodka. And nobody will see any of us for the next week, because the hangovers will be life threatening.
If armed violence comes, it will come from Trump supporters, not Democrats. Even that puddlehead Mike Caputo admitted it, saying in his Facebook rant that When Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, that’s when the shooting starts. Gee, sound much like a veiled hint at the signal to commence operations, Mike? With a real Attorney General, you could find yourself looking at conspiracy to incite violence charges, pal.
That’s the real John Carpenter ending twist to this whole thing. If Trump ends up having to send out the troops, either the national guard, or God forbid the army, he’ll be sending them out to quell violence from his own supporters! And if you think that Trump would hesitate for one second to issue the shoot-to-kill order, you haven’t been paying attention for the last 5 years. That’s exactly the kind of Putinesque blaze of glory he’d like to go out with. Fuck ’em, he lost.
And one more thing before I go. Should Trump somehow manage to steal the election, of course you’ll see massive protests in the streets. But not with AR-15’s and Kevlar vests, for God’s sake, gun control is one of the major planks in our platform. Besides, we have 4 long years of practice at peaceful, non violent demonstration. From the Women’s March to the Muslim Ban, from Child Separation to repealing Obamacare, we’ve got it down to a science. And unlike the Trombies, our Mama’s taught us to have manners. And we damn well better remember that, since they’ll be marching right alongside of us.
I agree again.
“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in it’s wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.” Malachi 4:2,3
I love reading your work! The optimism is always heartfelt and spot on. You do a great job of finding the silver lining and reminding us there is one. I also read that Joe Biden has assembled a legal team to address any and all questions should the rethugs succeed in stealing another election. I am anxiously waiting for tubby the ewok to recognize that he can’t save the orange menace and abandon ship.
My second favorite fantasy at the moment is trump steals the election, but he has to face an overwhelmingly democratic congress. I have no doubt there would be another impeachment this time successful. The only fly in that ointment is pence pardoning him.
And……if the marches begin – rest assured the asshats will be out there with their AR’s / AK’s for intimidation. And just maybe it’ll only take one to open fire on those peaceful protestors. The stochastic terrorist in chief will make it ok.
Once again I feel compelled to say this: You politizoom writers are too confident of a Trump loss in the election. I see many young and their parents , who haven’t been voting prior to 2020, now coming out of the woodwork to cast their spell over the election. State districts were not redrawn and still work for a Trump electoral college win.
I personally think that Trump’s coup is already staged and is happening, piece by piece, right now behind closed doors. Every avenue for action against Dump, open to us now, will be blocked. We are even now foiled and locked out of the doors to government, and militias are formed and probably forming. The darker Trump World gets, by closing all the doors to remedy, the less chance for Democrats to see any sunshine at all. We will be lost in the dark…
Eff all that…sorry but none of the above deserves any less. I heard the EXACT same crap during W’s time and it came to nothing. Just like THIS will come to nothing. You want to curl up in a ball while the rest of us go another way, be my guest.
You learned about Trump by observing W.? Fail. W was nothing like Trump. And I don’t want to curl into a ball, as you suggest. I’m being realistic, and you aren’t. Do I want to be right? Of course not. I see the doors to remedy closing to us. When Trump puts Cruz on the Supreme Court, maybe you’ll get my drift.
When asked why the magats like trump and voted for him, their main anwser was ” he’s just like us ”
So you think most Americans are racist, stupid, con men,
perverts, grifters, gun toting Neanderthals, hypocrites and can’t see through a blatant liar.
I think NOT, give America a chance because you ain’t seen nothing yet.
That’s not fair. Your second sentence does not follow from the first. More than half the voters did not vote for him the first time. Trump already plans to mount a challenge based on his suppositions about mail-in ballots. We need the popular vote for Biden, hopefully on November 3 itself, to be so huge that his challenge will be rendered moot.
people started voting yesterday.
W was the prototype for Trump: letting Americans die and be undefended, putting people in cages, crashing the economy for personal gain while effing up foreign policy. The only thing that has changed is scale and the people being targeted, that’s it. And “realism” is the defeatist’s last line of defense when they’ve given up victory. I therefore look forward to quoting back HG Wells during the Blitz when this is over: “God damn you all, I told you so.”
And even so, more than half the voters gave him a second term. The next day, the banner headline, taking up the entire upper half of a London newspaper, read, “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” Even if less than half are just as dumb today, if the results are contestable by any rationale, no matter how inane, Trump, Barr, et al have already indicated they will contest.
You contradict yourself every other sentence. Why not just turn out the lights, get in bed, pull the covers up over your head and forget everything ? You would be better off.
Please point out even one contradiction in my remarks. Please.
I hear this a lot, Annette. The only remedy I see for this is for a massive voter turnout. Either democracy still works, or the democratic experiment has failed. A decisive Biden victory will end this nightmare, and if we get out the vote, that will happen. Kamala Harris said just again today, to black voters, “it’s up to us.” It’s up to everybody to get out the vote. If the results are close, Trump will contest the results, but a decisive victory will send him limping off — or so says his niece, the psychologist, who says he’ll take it as a “narcissistic injury.”
Thanks Ursula for being kind. I get it, really I do. I will never give up the fight; not even a day goes by without me banging on about Trump’s horrorshow vs. Biden’s decency. I’m all about that. But after weighing all that I think and read, I see too many signs and developments that are not in our favor. My bitterness comes from the fact that I was raised in Trumpsville, Springfield, Missouri, home of Roy Blunt, John Ashcroft, and a vast legion of Trumpers. I know these people. Once they’ve got their teeth in our flesh, they will not let go. I’m sensing a major disruption ahead. Good luck to our side, but I’m afraid Nobility has no spot in the Trump World to come. We should have come up with a plan to end Trump a long time ago. We’re the smart ones, right?
The downrates are uncalled for, and should be reserved for trolls. A lot of reasonable people have the same concerns as you do.
When people say something this stupid, the kindest thing I can do is call BS. If that makes me unreasonable, so be it. “I am not what is called a civilized man. I have done away with society for reasons that seem good to me. Therefore I do not obey its laws.” –Jules Verne, “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”