by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The thing about having a discussion on Twitter is everyone is running around with scissors and even when you agree with someone, sometimes, they feel obliged to disagree with you.
That’s what happened to me recently when I got into a debate about what might happen if Trump wins this year. There were all these people who telling me that if Trump goes full tyrant on us, then, that’s it. We’ll just become Nazi Germany Redux and no one is going to do anything about it.
I have some serious doubts.
But my doubts are so nuanced that it’s just not possible for people on Twitter to comprehend that I actually agree with them, with a few caveats.
The issue for me is if it was anyone else but Trump in charge of our transition into autocracy, then, yes, we would become an autocratic state without much trouble. But this is Trump we’re talking about.
There is a real risk that rather than him gradually guiding us into what seems inevitable at this point — autocracy — that he will thrash around and be so ham-handed in his efforts that he will make a lot of Blue America very very angry.
I’m not advocating anything, but if Trump just overnight turns himself into a dictator, that will bump into America’s self-perception. And that is why I think there is a chance that Trump, specifically, might be deposed in some way if he does all these crazy dictatorial things he is proposing.
America 2025 will not be Germany 1933. In 1933, Germans were ready and willing to embrace fascism. In America 2025, we’re talking about a huge, diverse and decentralized nation where not only is the military a foundation of our democracy, but the forces of fascism don’t have an SA to run around and knock heads.
And it will take time for an SA to be built out, even if the fascists wanted to create enough storm troopers to round up 20 million people to deport them. And that would be a window of opportunity for, say, a General Strike. But, of course, there is a real possibility that about 1 million wealthy Blues will simply flee the country rather than be the core of any sort of effort to topple ding-dong Trump.
I can’t predict the future, but I do have hope.
