by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I don’t know why this is so difficult for me to game out, but here goes.
If Trump had gone to the Capitol to press his case on January 6th, 2021, what we look back upon as kind of a .5 of a 9/11 would have jumped up the tragedy scale to a full-blown 9/11-sized event. The idea that a president, even a president as crazy as Trump, would go to the Capitol at the forefront of a crazed mob wanting to stage a coup would been a Day The Earth Stood Still type of historical event.
The imagery alone of the event would be embedded into our collective consciousness just as much as the JFK assassination or 9/11.
Here is where things get even more sketch — would Trump’s second impeachment have gone any differently?
I have my doubts. Trump is such an avatar for some pretty astonishing problems in our political system that he’s kind of an immutable historical force. I doubt even him literally be the head of the spear of a crazed mob trying to intimidate Mike Pence into not doing his job would have been enough to cause Senate Republicans to convict him.
In fact, it’s very possible that Trump would be seen as some sort of uber-patriot in the eyes of MAGA for doing such a crazed thing. No one is going to save us from Trump.
We’re going to have to save ourselves.
