by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Trump is — and remains — too stupid and lazy to be an autocrat. The great irony is, of course, that both myself and the people who voted for him in 2016 thought he was an autocrat. But, lulz, no. He’s not a Great Man, he’s just an avatar who plays himself and is too lazy to do the hard work of destroying American democracy once and for all.
This brings us to Trump’s looming second term.
Now, obviously, that’s both not happen yet and a few years away. So a lot could change between now and 2025. But even though Trump looks like shit most of the time these days, Joe Biden has proven that someone in their late 70s and early 80s can be president.
So, let’s suppose Trump does exactly what we believe he is going to do and runs again in 2024 and, through hook or through crook, wins again. What would be the significance of that event?
There is a lot to unpack here.
First, of course, is the cold hard fact that Trump’s second term will be based on revenge and the final destruction of American democracy. But, again, all of that will happen in the context of Trump being very stupid and very lazy. The real issue we have to worry about is who will be his successor.
His successor will be America’s Putin.
At the moment, I’m leaning towards him picking as crazy as possible a successor. Someone like Gen. Mike Flynn. Someone who is totally fucking bonkers and yet is young enough and smart enough to complete the process of transitioning the United States into autocracy. There’s a small chance that Trump might, out of desperation, pick Ron DeSantis as his veep, but if he goes with a “normal” person, it’s probably going to pick someone even more dangerous like Josh Hawley.
But the point is — barring the other option of 2024 – 2025, which is civil war — the United States will no longer be a democracy soon after Trump cheats his way into a second term. (A second term he would probably win without even cheating.)
And even Trump is smart enough to realize that once he’s back in power, he can get everything he wants through a Constitutional Convention. I fully expect Trump — or his smarter, more organized successor –to demand a Constitutional Convention to “pass a balanced budget amendment” at some point after 2025.
And, yet, I’m still blocked by Mueller, She Wrote for being “terribly negative” even though it’s pretty obvious that my “terribly negative” views are using self-evident information. Oh well. Fight the power, I guess.
