The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
The replies were even more so.
“Dan, seriously now,” one user wrote in response to Bongino. “I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.”
That’s a common version of how many people on the US right reacted to the ex-president’s verdict, drawing on a “mirror world” where Trump is seen as the selfless martyr to powerful state forces and Joe Biden is the dangerous autocrat wielding the justice system as his own personal plaything and a threat to US democracy.
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.
Honestly, I’m inclined to agree. I also don’t see a way out without bloodshed. Not because I want Republicans to die or think that Democrats are so great that I am ready to die for them, but rather because we have split so far ideologically that I cannot see us ever being united again and we seemingly don’t have any method available for a peaceful divorce.
My personal plan is to leave the country permanently as soon as I retire, but that is 15 years away. I can only hope that things stay somewhat together until then and I will use my vote to try to help it do so.
What would “bloodshed” achieve though?
Well, historically, civil wars seem to end in one of two ways, either the victor subjugating the loser or the country splitting apart. So I would wager the outcome to be one of those.
We forgot to subjegate the south and let them infiltrate our society over 150 years.
Yeah, that was Johnson’s failure.
Both of those sound so much worse than the current situation though.
As in, to have a decisive civil war everyone has to be certain there’s no alternative, knowing that they may well die in such a war.
Things would have to get a lot worse before that seems like a good idea.
It is NOT a good idea, it is NEVER a good idea. However, in order to avoid it, both sides would have to be willing to talk to each other, in good faith, and work out an agreeable way forward. That is what we used to do. We have always been a divided country, but when it mattered both side could usually work out a mutually agreeable resolution. That has stopped. So, we are divided and continuing to split further and no one will work together. What is the resolution? I don’t see a good one any time in the near future.
Everyone doesn’t have to decide a war is preferable, just a critical mass. And it probably won’t be a war like you’re imagining, with battles and such, but rather a whole lot of terrorism and assassinations. Only a fool would attack a well-armed group directly when there are so many soft targets all over the place. Most Trumpanzees are dumb as bricks, but there are enough of them with a basic knowledge of military tactics that they won’t just throw themselves into a meat grinder.
Where ya planning to move to?
Well, I don’t like hot and humid, so most Asian countries are probably out. Most likely some where in Europe. Depends on the current state of affairs at the time.