Doug's Darkworld

Not that there hasn’t been political violence during Trump’s tenure as president, but now the violence directly related to Trump’s inability to accept he lost the election has started, with a number of stabbings and shootings in 3 cities. No deaths so far, knock on wood. I like how the Washington Post put it:

“Thousands of maskless rallygoers who refuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Washington into a falsehood-filled spectacle Saturday, two days before the electoral college will make the president’s loss official,”

Falsehood filled spectacle. Would that this be a difference of opinion or politics, but no, not really. Biden clearly won the election, Trump clearly lost, this wasn’t a close one. There was no vast conspiracy to defraud Trump of his win. He thinks he won, his followers believe him, his legal attempts to overturn the election results have been, well, groundless. And all quickly tossed out of court. A Wisconsin judge just ruled against him, the last state to clear the path for the electors to do their thing Monday. A judge Trump appointed, tossed out his case “with prejudice.” Trump loses election challenge lawsuit in Wisconsin, further cementing Biden win in presidential race

That’s lawyer talk for “This case is fatally flawed legally and thus can be dismissed without further consideration.”

Numerous Republican Trump appointed judges and officials have made similar rulings, the system works. Doesn’t matter though. We’re talking tens of millions of people who for decades have listened to Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones and believed all too much of it. Trump’s great insight was he realized a politician could play the same game and get a vast following. Now as always Trump has a great gift for inspiring  white Evangelical working class America like no one ever has.

And sadly he’s decided to use his awesome power to tear the country apart. Though I don’t think it’s deliberate, Trump actually believes he won the election. Yes future and foreign readers, in 2016 America elected a man who lives in his own delusional world where he’s the greatest at everything. He loved it, his fans loved it, everyone else was horror stuck to bemused. But reality finally clashed with Trump’s fantasy world in a way that no sharpie could ever fix. He got a double whammy, Covid, that no amount of lies and pandemic signalling was going to fix; and then losing the election.

Frankly it seems clear to me that if Covid hadn’t hit, Melania would be building a victory penthouse on top of the White House after Donald’s resounding reelection.. But Covid did appear, and Trump lost to Biden, and no amount of, well, typical Trump BS is going to change that. Any more than his promise that Covid would just magically go away by Easter made it go away.

What the hell happens now is anyone’s guess. There’s open talk in Congress of denying Biden the presidency: Republicans plotting attempt to deny presidency to Biden on floor of the House if Trump gives the word: report. This and congressmen signing onto the just failed Texas SCOTUS case are pretty close to sedition, if not well over the line. We are very parallel in some ways to the Civil War runup. In fact in some ways this is incredibly infuriating because it’s basically the same freaking people rebelling over the same freaking thing. The South refusing to accept the results of a presidential election. Though at least the Confederates had the stones to admit they were rebelling over white supremacy, not spewing fantasies about stolen elections.

In some ways I think a case can be made that this is a repeat of the start of the Civil War, because many of the fails of both government and society that led to that calamity were never really addressed, and some are festering to this day. As someone who spent some time as a white supremist in the 70s, the Proud Boys and their ilk don’t regard blacks as human beings. It’s a problem.

And now they and Trump think the presidency was stolen from them. I see no peaceful resolution at this point. The 20s are going to be a very hard decade for America. The good times are over. Here’s a good article for those interested in America’s long history of sordid politics: Minority Rule Cannot Last in America. It’s never been pretty, we seem to have trouble pulling together. And of course the coming winter is almost certainly going to be one of the worst mass death events in US history. Woohoo, free euthenasia coaster rides: This Is the Test of Our Lifetimes.

New personal goal, I think I will continue daily blogging through the winter and the coming pandemic. Greatest events of my lifetimes, and writing about it gives me a measure of sanity in a nation tearing itself apart amidst the worst plague in a century. Didn’t Stephen King warn us about this? If not, he should have. Hell, he gets credit for trying. Him and the Simpsons.

Hope all had a good weekend and Monday brings us good news. Stay safe and sane. As always, feedback is appreciated. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Capture of Ricketts’ Battery, the First Battle of Bull Run. It was the first big battle of the US Civil War. nearly 1,000 dead; 9,000 in comparison to today’s population. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to this level. Still, if you told some in 1860 that in 5 years a million Americans would be dead, they would have told you it couldn’t happen. The future is known to know one.  Credit: Sidney E. King 1906-2002 Public Domain.)