I’m sure if we all put our heads together we might even come up with one million reasons to impeach the mango menace. But as I keep on hearing, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Are the politics of these times going to prevent what has been going on for the last two and one-half years (I could argue, 11 years if you go back to Obama’s initial days in office.) from becoming the new normal? And if the tangerine terror and his minions face no consequences for their behavior, what does that mean for the rule of law, and our democracy?
As I am but a neophyte in the areas of political science, history, and psychology, and have an unsavory, visceral reaction whenever I even hear his voice, let alone see his face, it’s hard for me to even begin to answer those above two questions calmly and logically. Another obstacle: my default setting is worry. I even worry about worrying so much. Being in a maligned minority group, this might actually be a logical response to the presence of all this hate, personified in this distillation of the primitive fight-or-flight lizard brain that is the *resident.
Possible Worst Case Scenarios
This is what worriers conjure up. So here’s my list:
- Complete failure of the electoral system because of foreign and domestic interference, or even simply because of antiquated institutions like the electoral college. This would put us in a position similar to that in Russia, perhaps a faux democracy run by moneyed interests.
Oh wait …..
- Breakup of the U.S. into politically homogeneous entities, in which red states and blue states form independent, like-minded governments, embodying their values and beliefs. I think I’d want to stay in the Mid-Atlantic/New England alliance, myself. What makes this a worst-case scenario? I cannot imagine how this would be done peacefully; I can imagine a Civil War with mass disruption and casualties before we could get to such a solution, if at all.
- A war of distraction, say in N. Korea, Venezuela, the Middle East (Syria?), or somewhere in Africa. Such a war could easily escalate into something horrifying; pick your version of Armageddon and run with it. My choice would be global thermonuclear war … we’d all be gone or at best pounded back into the Stone Age, until the radiation clears and nature could start over.
- A purge of those deemed undesirable by the current regime. This would look something like the German purge of the Jews and other minorities such as GLBTQ, cultural minorities, and racial minorities in the 1930s-early 1940s. Could those of us who found ourselves actively being purged, find asylum elsewhere? I kind of like Costa RIca myself; would they like me back?
- Others (feel free to elaborate in the comments)
Possible Best Case Scenarios
I’m a worrier, so I got nothin’. What you got?
But seriously …..
- Doing right as an electorate. We overcome the obstacles placed before us and remove the stain from our collective psyches. But would this prevent this from taking action against potential future, “democratically elected” tyrants?
- Find other ways to exact punishment on these purveyors of political poison, other than impeachment. No consequences was what Nixon got (thanks G. Ford), and I suspect we could draw a line directly back to that lack of action (or to be fair, perhaps, lack of follow-through).
- Others (again, feel free to elaborate in the comments).
While as a worrier I actually didn’t have nothing … I did have less inspiration and imagination, so I’d be grateful for some of that mojo from others.
Interesting Times
Interesting times … we’re livin’ in ‘em. I don’t know about you, but I’m up for a little bit of boredom.