I fear what is coming. Donald Trump will lose his bid for reelection and will refuse to peacefully cede power to Joe Biden. The specific possible scenarios are unfortunately too many and too easy to imagine but make no mistake, Trump is going to lose. Attorney General William Barr can be counted on to stand firmly at Trump’s side defending his every move. So how will he be removed from the Oval Office? To what extent will both the military and the now severely undermined Supreme Court play a part?
There will be an attempted coup d’etat. The question is, how long will it last? A day or two? A week? A month or more? How much blood will be shed before all is said and done? And will the coup in fact be defeated, as it rightly should be? The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Will it bend soon enough to save us?
Many of you certainly think I’m being a crazy alarmist, but look at what’s transpired so far. Look at what we already know about Donald Trump. He has no moral compass whatsoever. He is only concerned with his own desires. He never really wanted to serve the people of the United States in the first place. This has all been just a reality TV show for Trump, and we’re all part of it whether we wanted to be or not.
Consider also that Trump has been advised that as soon as he leaves the Oval Office that even should he escape jail time, his former life as a faux rich guy is over. The con game will be over. So when Don the Con talks about being entitled to a second and third term or considering the idea of “president for life,” he is not joking. Not one bit.
In some broad strokes here and finer strokes there, here’s how I see things playing out this coming fall of 2020. First of all, I see, as Dr Anthony Fauci has predicted, a resurgence of COVID-19. Suddenly Trump will become a true believer in the dangers of the virus he once played down and will use it as an excuse to attempt to postpone the November elections. But as it turns out Trump played that card early and got pushback even from his own party. Of course he can’t legally do so but that doesn’t mean he still won’t try.
When that fails, Trump will simply call the election results to be in his favor, regardless of the overwhelming loss he is destined to incur and leaving hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots uncounted. He will declare fraud where necessary and ballots will be counted and discounted however required to eke out a bare electoral college win.
Trump and the entire GOP machine will do whatever it takes to claim at least another four years and, unless adequately challenged, will wash, rinse and repeat in 2024 to either remain in power or get a new administration in place that will guarantee to pardon him and his cronies for all their many crimes.
Folks, I wrote several months ago that for a number of good reasons the 2020 elections will be the most consequential in modern, if not all of U.S. history. Add to that list the current situation with the Supreme Court.
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said in a recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he sees the United States as being on the brink of a potential second civil war. Unfortunately, I see it too. People are going to need to be prepared. What are you prepared to do?
Jeff Taylor is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.
