Do you guys think there will be death squads roaming the streets after the Republicans run their coup successfully?
What if I said there already are such things and they are just waiting for the chance. I am talking about the militias and right wing loonies collecting guns and waiting.....
Here is what I know Rancid. To believe me you have to take off your dad hat and put on your single guy hat. Follow me down the rabbit hole.
These gun fanatics are living in a grown up fantasy world. Take a look at Harry Potter. It was the absolute ultimate male fantasy. Harry is middle class and wants for nothing other than he lives under the metaphorical stairs. He is subject to authority he dislikes. We are not told exactly why but are given to know that his parents ignore how wonderful he is. Though he is dead middle class he always "knew" there was something "special" about himself. So what man doesn't believe that?
Now. Once Harry is freed from his mundane life he is famous. What is the first thing that Harry gets? A gun (wand). The second thing is the company of a very pretty girl. And he has a sidekick. Finally he is solidly on the side of good.
The absolute male fantasy. From construction worker to dangerous but virtuous defender of God and country. Feared by "bad" (liberal) people far and near. Potently carrying his shoulder holster and his assault rifle. And his charge in the cause of righteousness? Clean up the world. Get the girl. (Or take her. After all she was just the cheerleader (liberal) girl who spurned him in High School.)
We have seen this all before. How is it that a country of first rate science and the arts, a democracy, highly educated, and economically rising, could exterminate 6 million people using bug spray and car exhaust? How could they have squads of semi-soldiers that stripped women and children naked, marched them to a ditch and shot them one at a time? And who was their leader? A cartoon like figure, not particularly educated, but possessed with the absolute conviction about his own ideals and a talented communicator. He did not set the intelligentsia on fire but the middle of the bell curve loved him. And what story did he tell to the disenfranchised YOUNG MEN that rallied to his flag? Harry Potter. They are oppressed by the forces of darkness. But they are special. Aryans! The master race. The rest were Jews and muggles. The Jews must be eliminated and the muggles put in their place. Arm! Take to the streets. Like Rittenhouse, grab your gun and hurry to defend democracy from antifa!
No @Rancid I most certainly think this is more than possible. At this point it is almost looking likely.
How about Rittenhouse's acquittal. How about the Proud Boys and even more frightening Promise Keepers... But we are an enlightened and moral country. We could not stoop that low. Really? How many children do we have in cages as we speak. The whole nation has, just like the everyday German in 1935, pretty much ignored that little children do not know where their parents went, are sleeping on cots in fenced in cages, under emergency blankets, and are far from certain of their future. We just did an disastrous bug-out in Afghanistan leaving tens of thousands of men, women and children to a very likely very bad future. If they have a future at all. We are ignoring the fact that one in three black males will go to prison at some time in their lifetime. One in six Latinos.
But the Nazis rose from economic hardship you say. You mean like 50% of American workers cannot afford a one bedroom apartment on their pay? That these American workers do not have real health care nor any prospect of affording it? The Nazis arose from squabbling political parties comprising a do-nothing government that only served the wealthy when serving anyone at all? Does any of that ring a bell?
So there arose a leader who had absolutely no credentials to lead other than the very real willingness to ruthlessly pursue and destroy his political enemies? Could that happen here? It already did. And it very well may happen again in 2024. And will Trump go after his brown shirts when they are going after his political enemies just because they grab some neighbor girl by the pussy? Like the Reichstag's powerless rubber stampers, what will the Republican majority do? They already shit their pants at the very mention of his name and though he was ignominiously voted out of office remains the most powerful man in America.
But the Democrats. What of them? Well let's not go there. They can't pass gas not to mention powerful democratic protections. They are beating their meat trying to get child care credits while the country is doing away with one person one vote.
But the military. They won't let it happen. Well. I am not certain of that either. The military first follows orders. All the better when they like the orders. They are a mostly conservative organization and deeply self protective. The ranks are not filled with liberal or even centrist political types. Will it follow orders? It will. Whose? Whoever is President with bonus points if he is a conservative. Would they depose a popular despot? I am not sure they could if they wanted to.
Finally. The break up of the states into individual political units free from oversight by the central government is not beyond the realm of possibility. Your own Texas would make a splendid country as would California. Snag the nukes that are in virtually every state or coalition of states and what sticks them back together again? And the law in those states? Could Texas look at black crime and see the need for draconian measures? Work camps? Maybe "assign" black miscreants to work in some persons home or business. See where that is going?
Yes I am way out in left field. I know it. But just consider what I wrote and coldly and dispassionately ask yourself...what if....
So yes Rancid I think it actually could happen.