Tag: A Very American Autocracy

It Appears The United States’ Decent Into Autocracy Is A Foregone Conclusion

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve pretty much seen enough — rather than have any sort of civil war, the United States is going to become a Hungary-style autocracy. I say this because the American center-Left has proven itself to be complete ineffectual. Combine this with how the entire edifice of the Republican Party is now fascist and I just don’t see how we don’t slouch our way into autocracy at some point after 2025.

Things won’t change initially, of course. But gradually, in fits and starts someone like a President DeSantis is going to gradually throttle what’s left of traditional American democracy.

And we’re going to let it happen with our eyes wide open. There will be a lot of gnashing of teeth on the part of Twitter liberals as all of this happens, but in the end they’re simply going to leave the country — I predict a least 1 million in the first few years.

Now, this is not an abstract to me. I’m a loudmouth crank who is often drunk and as our new autocrat consolidates power it is inevitable — because form follows function — that even that most prized of American rights, freedom of speech, will no longer exist.

All my hysterical predictions from the first Trump Administration will happen, just a number of years after I initially predicted them. Remember, the people who voted for orange dingus in 2016 wanted an autocrat. Trump has shown how weak America’s democratic institutions are and as such, once someone like DeSantis is POTUS they will know they can get away with some pretty white knuckled autocracy and people will abide by it.

The great irony is, of course, that the MAGA New Right is hysterical about how much they want to murder people like me in cold blood for political reasons that they — and a lot of third party observers — get wrapped up in the fanciful idea that Reds will start some sort of civil war.

This is a very dumb belief. Reds have no reason to start a civil war and it would be a massive, historic self-own on their part if they did such a thing. They just have a vested interest in keeping the peace so they can inevitably consolidate power without firing a shot.

There, are, any number of scenarios you could think up were we have a civil war but most of them require some pretty massive screw ups on the part of the MAGA New Right. If there is a Second American Civil War, it’s going to happen when Blue States leave the Union en masse.

The only reason why I can’t 100% predict there won’t be a civil war is, lulz, I can’t predict the future and any number of totally unexpected things could happen that might force Blue States to feel they have no other option but to leave the Union through a “National Divorce” and, as such, precipitate a civil war.

But, for the time being, I would advise you to get ready for A Very American Autocracy. The center-Left is fiddling while American democracy burns by being “woke” and getting way too wrapped up in things like pronouns. Autocracy is really, really popular in the United States at the moment and, as such, when the next Republican becomes president, that’s all she wrote for the American birthright of democracy.

A Very American Autocracy: Trump’s Successor Will Be America’s First Autocrat

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.

When The Very American Autocracy Finally Comes, Fox News Will Freak Out Not About Immigrant Caravans, But A Liberal Brain Drain

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

At the moment at least, it seems as though we are careening towards some sort of MAGA presidency in 2025 and, as such, autocracy. The Republican Party is very clear these days about how much it hates democracy, doesn’t believe in it and goes so far to point out with great vigor that we aren’t even a democracy, but, rather a “constitutional republic.”

So, I predict that as many as 1 million or more highly trained, highly educated wealthy liberals will leave the United States once it becomes clear we’ve peacefully slipped into autocracy.

What’s more, the autocrat — whomever that may endup being — will notice this and at his behest Fox News will go completely batshit over the brain drain the United States will be experiencing. Their go-to, hysterical coverage of “immigrant caravans” will be replaced by the dire implications of “liberal brain drain.”

This will be very ironic, of course, because Fox News has long been on the “If you don’t like it, leave it” side of the political fence when it comes to such things. When wealthy liberals begin to do just that, Fox News will piviot to bitch and moaning about it without blinking an eye.

In fact, because form follows function, I could see the autocrat making it far, far more difficult for people to flee the country. But before that happens, so many wealthy liberal Americans will decamp to Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and that will be The Issue of the Day at some point after 2025.

This has massive implications for global culture that I can’t fully game out at the moment. But it’s going to happen — or something similar will happen when all the coward Twitter liberals flee the country for a different reason, which would be the country has imploded into civil war.

It will be really interesting to see if Twitter liberals surprise me and rise to the occasion when the time comes. But, really, who am I kidding? They are already getting second passports at an alarming rate. And, given how big the US, it could be I’m low balling how many people will flee the country. All I know is, it’s going to happen and there are some pretty big cultural implications that will stim from it.

Anyway, the point is — these are The Before Times. Act accordingly.

MAGA’s Coming ‘Light Touch’ American Autocracy?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One possibility when it comes to America’s decent into autocracy that we need to think more about is what if you held an autocracy and no body came? In other words, the center-Left has a lot of soft power in the US…but pretty much jack shit hard power.

So, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s possible Trump steals the 2024 election, his veep becomes POTUS at some point afterwards, we become an autocracy….and….we don’t even notice much of a change in real terms.

President DeSantis, or whomever, just doesn’t give a shit what the late night hosts say — even though libel laws will likely be changed — and, in general the average person’s life doesn’t change that much. Sure, loudmouth cranks like me who get drunk and tell President DeSantis to suck it may vanish but that would be the outlier.

And, sure, a lot and I mean A LOT of wealthy Twitter liberals would flee the country, but the average American — the Good Americans — would just go about their business. They generally wouldn’t notice any change in their everyday life until it became personal.

Then, oh boy, they will get woke pretty quick.

I say all of this because it would definitely fit more in the collective American personality for there to be a “light touch” autocracy than all my dystopian hellscape hysterical fears. If anything, my hysterical “terribly negative” fears would be things that might come to be gradually to the point that we wouldn’t even really notice that much of a difference in everyday life at first.

But make no mistake — America is careening towards autocracy one way or another. Or we have a civil war. I don’t know which one yet. But I would suggest you enjoy these last few days of “normal” life. You thought the pandemic sucked, you ain’t see nothing yet.