Tag: We Are So Fucked

Republican Fascism & Shutting Down The Government As A Trump Gotterdammerung Impeachment Strategy

Buckle up.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The thing about Mueller’s testimony to Congress being such a dud is both sides learned the wrong lesson. House Trump got cocky. They thought they could begin the second, more sinister phase of Trumplandia without anyone doing anything about it. The Trump opposition, meanwhile, began to think Trump was simply a political force of nature that they could never defeat.

But, guess what — Trump is a self-own artist.

It’s darkly humorous how eager Maggie Haberman of The New York Times is to say in a quiet, droll tone how Trump is using his native Leadership Principle abilities to subtly influence various portions of the electorate with his political genius.

This, of course, is complete and total horseshit. Trump’s a barely functioning human being much less some sort of modern day Machiavelli. What Trump is, is very, very lucky. Someone like Trump was bound to pop up at some point between 2016 and 2024, it was just a matter of whom. And, really, I grow ever more concerned about who will be Trump’s fascist successor than I am he himself — not that he’s not an autocrat wannabe. As Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare once quipped, “Trump’s malevolence is only mitigated by his incompetence.” Or something along those lines.

The Real Trump.

In other words, Trump’s nothing more than a deranged version of Being There’s Chauncey Gardner. That’s it. That’s all that’s going on. This brings us to some potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategies on the part of House Trump. I see these likely happening for no other reason than Trump is hysterical the thought of simply being impeached. When he faces a trial in the Senate, his mental state is likely to explode, not implode. We may face weeks of a demonstrable insane person running the government until the painfully slow wheels of government get around to convicting Trump — not really on the matter at hand, buth is extremely unstable mental state. (The 25th Amendment is a dead letter for the time being.)

Anyway, one of these potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategies is holding the government hostage. House could shut the government down and simply say, “You don’t get your government back until you end the impeachment process.”

This will, for about 24 hours, dominate the impeachment narrative. Maggie Haberman will coo at Trump’s political genius. The MAGA talking heads of FOX will huzzah. And, honestly, it might work given how fucked up the world is right now.

But it might not.

As it sinks in to the average person what is going on, there’s a decent chance this won’t slow impeachment down at all. It will, in fact, only heighten the sense of urgency and build pressure for conviction. This would go with my general belief that if Trump is convicted, it won’t even be because of the actual politics of what he’s accused of doing — it will be his complete and total mishandling of House Trump’s reacting to the impeachment process.

Another, more ominous, potential gotterdammerung impeachment strategy is Trump becomes transactional in his Twitter offenses. He starts to tell people what he wants them to do, in other words. He doxes the Whistleblower and “jokingly” tells people to “teach him a lesson.” Or a few carbomb’s explode in New York City with pro-Trump people claiming credit. Again, initially, things will be on House Trump’s side because generally a lot of people do not want Trump to be convicted. A lot of very powerful people — on both sides of the political spectrum — have a vested interest in Trumplandia lasting a full eight years.

But…

There’s also a good chance that once the shot wears off, the average American who to date has been pretty blase about impeachment will freak the fuck out. This is yet ANOTHER example of how Trump is not what Maggie Haberman would have you believe — Trump’s political firebreak is apathy. If people start dying in some last-gasp gotterdammerung impeachment strategy on the part of rabid Republicans, there’s a pretty good chance the average moderate American might stop thinking about raising their kids and paying their mortgage long enough to demand Trump be convicted by the Senate as soon as fucking possible.

I would say the most important thing to remember is the country can not withstand this much political turmoil without something really fucking bad happening. I simply can’t case out the endgame right now. And whatever the endgame is, we’re in a new political era. We will no longer be in the post-9/11 Era, we will be in either the American Carnage Era or the Post-Trump Era.

Ivanka Trump’s Political Future

Vice President Ivanka Trump?
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am not prepared to believe Trump finally faces an existential threat, at least on a political level. Politically, he’s fine. The Republican Party is now the fascist Trump Party and he is likely to be acquitted on the facts before us and go about his merry way. He will bribe individual Electors, get Russia to directly hack into our election systems or he will simply get Bill Barr to indict his opponent in Oct. 2020.

But let’s daydream. What if Trump loses his mind during the process of impeachment or, say, there’s MAGA violence that makes the average person so furious with House Trump that Der Fuhrer finally meets his political match — himself. Who would President Pence pick as his Veep?

This is a far more complicated question than you may at first imagine. Pence wants to use the MAGA base to win two full terms on his own. So, it’s unlikely he would pick someone like Nikki Haley because she’s, well, not a Trump. That leaves Ivanka and Don Jr. The reason why I doubt it would be Don Jr. despite his popularity with the MAGA base is he’s such an outlandish hothead that he would likely use his position as veep to challenge Pence for the 2020 Republican nomination.

That leaves Ivanka.

It’s likely Ivanka would be nominated and confirmed by the Senate at lightning speed the moment Trump was somehow finally physically dragged out of the Oval Office. Pence would see Ivanka as the “safe” member of House Trump that would help him on a number of different levels. Ivanka as his veep would reassure MAGA as to his fidelity to House Trump. He would get to name the first woman — and Jewish — veep in American history.

Really, given how little the veep position really does, Ivanka is pretty much perfect for the job. You could pace out any number of different nightmare scenarios involving unintended consequences to this move, but that’s pushing it. Ivanka is an example of someone who thinks that the are “owed” something simply because of their connection to someone who paved the way. She’s in a curious political position because her bonkers brother is far more appealing to the MAGA base, while she herself is at least superficially someone who might for a heartbeat bring the nation together. The moment it sank in how bad she was on a practical level, the usual political divide we inhabit would kick in again.

Put another way — not even Ivanka could coast to the Republican nomination in any traditional manner. Her only real shot at ever becoming president would be if Pence somehow magically found enough shame to resign in disgrace. I just don’t see that happening. Pence at this point is more likely to do exactly what Trump would do only with a theocratic bent to it.

But I do suggest you keep an eye on Ivanka. If there was some sort of last-ditch effort at having a compacted resignation on Trump’s part (this will never happen) then maybe Ivanka-as-veep might be a bargaining chip desperate Republicans might use to coax a reluctant Trump out of office. Or, maybe they might use her as veep on a more basic level — to simply get Trump physically out of the Oval Office should he miraculously be convicted by the Senate.

Folks, We Have To Take Impeachment More Seriously

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

As it stands, Republicans’ arguments against impeachment are essentially, “Lalalalalala I can’t hear you!” Because they can’t get any political gain from it, they see it as by definition illegitimate. That’s why they attack the process, no matter what. Because the facts don’t help them, they want to message the base that the entire thing shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

There’s a serious danger that should Republicans feel they’ve exhausted all political options that they will lulz the entire concept of liberal democracy and go full throated fascist on the nation. One of the central tenants of fascism is violence or the threat of violence to further political goals. So I feel it’s well within the realm of the possible for Republicans — specifically Trump through his Twitter feed — to become transactional. They will embrace the idea of violence so they can turn around and say, “We have to stop the impeachment process, people are starting to get hurt.”

They will, of course, wilfully ignore that they were the ones who incited the violence to begin with. All I can say is we have to take this into consideration going forward. We have to stop trying to deny that impeachment is happening. We have to start accepting that Trump did this to himself — and us — and we have to see the process through. This is a political war and there’s no avoiding the damage to our political system at this point. All impeachment is doing in real terms is accelerating some trends have been happening for some time.

Really, the issue now is, will Republicans stage a putsch of some sort if they get desperate enough. Will they collectively — at least in the House — decide they would rather martyr themselves in a last-gasp effort to save the political future of The Dear Leader than risk him being convicted. I draw no joy from this prospect. But given how hysterical Republicans are growing, it definitely seems there’s a greater-than-zero chance this might actually happen.

Or, put another way, we have to accept that on a strictly political level Trump is likely to be acquitted no matter what he is proven to have done. In real terms, it would be a non-political event that may bring House Trump down in the end. He goes bonkers. Or there’s some sort of impeachment-related violence the causes a brief–but powerful– radicalization of otherwise moderate independants.

I honestly have no idea what is going to happen. I just know no matter what the endgame, we’re going to be in a new political era.

The Cognitive Dissidence That Is Republican Impeachment Messaging

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

One common theme, it seems, when it comes to Republicans and impeachment is anger. Their minds can’t process what is happening. As such, they either shut down or start to get really, really, upset. This is rather unnerving because I’m left wondering what will happen when politics fails them. What happens when Republicans lose the vast majority of independents in the election struggle? What happens when they finally have only the 35% MAGA base to rely on for the re-election prospects?

This has not happened yet. Trump could still pull through using strictly politics and media messaging. That’s very, very possible. Republicans will be so riled up if they win that they’re likely to finally shed all pretense of believing in liberal democracy. If Trump survives impeachment in the Senate, then there’s a real chance that the general trend towards a fascist state will accelerate rapidly and the whole issue of “let the people decide” will be rather moot.

What’s more, the rot within the Republican Party is so astonishing that even Pence may simply use the damage Trump inflicted on the Constitution to turn us into a more theocratic version of American Carnage. That may be why both Barr and Pompeo have definitely been messaging the evangelical base with some of their official acts. As such, I feel we can not automatically assume that Pence will allow a free-and-fair election. He could very well simply keep Barr and Pompeo in place and do exactly what Trump would do with them.

I still think all things being equal, Trump will escape justice Senate Republicans will simply say something along the lines of “Trump is guilty, but it’s too close to the 2020 election — let the people decide.” They will believe that it’s better to win their primary in hopes of having a really weak general opponent than to vote to convict and to sign their political death warrant.

Thus, the only way I can possibly see Trump being convicted will be things that are not political. Trump snapping under the pressure of impeachment. Or there finally being widespread violence on the part of MAGA people. Either one of those would dramatically change the equation. If Republican Senators are forced not to think in political terms but in terms of national security, then they may realize they have no choice but vote to convict.

But, again, this is now a political war. And even if Trump loses that political war, the MAGA base will remain. And there’s a decent chance that a President Pence will fight a pitched battle with Kris Kobach, Tom Cotton and God only knows who else for the sweet, sweet votes of MAGA people.

So, in a sense, our best bet is Nancy Pelosi becomes president — somehow — and she serves as a caretaker president simply to make sure we have a free-and-fair election.

But who knows, I sure as hell don’t.

Why Hugh Hewitt Being A Trump Sycophant Is Such A Bad Sign

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The thing about impeachment is it’s not going to be the panacea for the nation’s troubles that “woke” blue check thought leaders on Twitter would have us believe. A prime example of this is Hugh Hewitt.

Hewitt has gone full Baghdad Bob on us. He’s all in with Trump to an obscene level. Hewitt is so willing to excuse anything Trump has done that obviously merits not only impeachment but conviction that it’s a little surreal. The true tragedy of impeachment is that Republicans like Hewitt are willing to destroy everything, EVERYTHING, for a corrupt fascist moron like Trump.

I long ago realized that just because someone can passionately articulate an opinion, doesn’t mean they’re right. In fact, that pretty much describes most of the thought leaders of the Right at this point. They are running on fumes, but they are getting really fucking high snorting thought fumes. In all honesty, I wish Hewitt would drop the facade. The distance between Hewitt and an old school fascist at this point is pretty minor.

The reason why this is significant is a lot of people within the center-Left spectrum believe that since we have Trump dead-to-rights that we can defeat him on the merits. They think that there is some connection between facts and politics. While this is still the case for Democrats, for Republicans, alas, that’s just not the case. Republicans are so wrapped up in conspiracy theories because it gives them a framework to articulate opinions that are pretty much justification for an illiberal democracy like that found in Russia.

And, honestly, this is going to be the case going forward no matter if Trump is removed from office or not. Republicans will stop at nothing to turn America into Trumplandia. They crave power for power’s sake and they crave obtaining as much cash as possible in as short amount of time. This is not changing, no matter Trump’s fate. We may be able to delay the dystopian nightmare, but we won’t be able to stop it. I say this even more so knowing that our best bet of removing Trump from office isn’t even what he actually did to merit it in the first place — it’s the possibility that he will finally fucking snap and go completely fucking insane on us in a very public fashion.

Though I would, in passing, point out that the obvious endgame of the rhetoric that Hewitt spouts is real, honest to God, death and destruction. There’s at least a small chance that they will get so worked up over impeachment that they really, really, REALLY overplay their hand and sign their own political death warrant…at least long enough for the browning of America to kick in just as the youngest of the Baby Boomers finally croke. But I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m content to see how far politics can get us in our goal of ridding us of the MAGA mence.

Or, put another way, Hewitt ain’t going nowhere. Even if we push Trump out of office, Hewitt and his ilk have crossed the Rubicon. They will welcome the dystopia when it finally arrives.

Lulz?

How We Got Into This Trump Mess & The Fascist Dystopia Ahead

A Republic, if you can keep it.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

When the final history of the American Republic is written — and fear it will be a lot sooner than we would like — the end first came the night Richard Hatch won the first season of Survivor. Everyone was in shock. But it also marked the beginning of modern reality TV. Trump was the greatest beneficiary of that night, in hindsight.

Trump is the culmination of several macro trends in American political history. On one had you have the rise of Fox News. On the other you have how detached the average media person is from the practical lives of the average person in a flyover state. This is a side effect of income inequality caused by the Reagan Revolution. You also have the rise of social media. The massive flaw of social media is not only do the most extreme positions of any issue set the tone of debate, but it’s very, very easy for it be weaponized by an outside, hostile force.

Mix all this together and you find yourself where we are now. Fox News and income inequality in tandem caused a lot of Red State people to feel not only disenfranchised, but alienated from the media narrative that Blue State people were seeing. All of this accelerated in Obama’s second term as the lingering damage of the Great Recession began to sink in. Add to this just plain old racism being for political gain by — you guessed it, Donald Trump — and you end up in the situation we’re in.

In 2016, roughly half the electorate was primed for someone like Trump. This is when social media and the Russians kicked in.

So we find ourselves in a situation where many Red State voters actually are quite happy with the prospect of authoritarian rule. They can’t even grasp what the benefits of liberal democracy would be in the first place. And, so, here we are. It definitely appears as though there’s a good chance that impeachment in itself will be the final death blow to the American Republic. But I don’t say this as some sort of indictment of the process that may bring House Trump down politically.

What I mean, rather, is we’re finally seeing the fruits of a decades-long agenda on the part of Republicans. Even if Trump is politically vanquished, the Republican Party is now finally so radicalized that Pence could very well simply do exactly what Trump was going to do but with a more theocratic spin to it. And don’t get your hopes up if there’s a Pelosi presidency. Even that would be a delay to this process.

There are half a dozen would-be Trump successor on deck in the Republican Party ranks, from Kris Kobach to Tom Cotton to The Kooch. It’s a bit surreal to someone in LA or NYC the lengths that Republicans will to defend someone as demonstrably bonkers and corrupt as Trump. But that says more about the rot at the heart of our political system than anything else.

So, buckle up. My prediction is very soon we’ll have some sort of theocratic fascist “manage democracy”in the United States that will last at least 20 years. At some point at the moment when the youngest of the Baby Boomers begin to croke and the browning of America kicks in, there may be some sort of shift in politics. But for the foreseeable future, Trump’s American Carnage is definitely on track to become a hold hard reality.

I could imagine a few scenarios where this doesn’t happen quite the way I imagine. If Republicans really, really, REALLY overplayed their hand during the impeachment process and there was mass violence by people opposed to impeachment, then I think we might get enough of a delay in the march towards fascism for the browning of America to kick in. But that’s such a remote possibility that I just don’t see that being applicable. Even then, there’s a chance that Republicans would use the very violence THEY INCITED to do the very things I propose they want to do in the first place. So, in a sense, we’re in a no-win situation.

No one is going to save us. We’re on our own.

We Have To Be Honest With Ourselves About Impeachment

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some people — especially liberals on Twitter — seem to think impeaching and convicting Trump would be some sort of panacea for the nation’s divisions. While I wholeheartedly support the Senate convicting Trump, the surreal defenses of Trump I’m seeing are beginning to unnerve me.

The crazy-ass part of all of this is Trump won’t even take the L on impeachment and wait for his acquittal by the Senate. While a lot of observers far, far smarter than Trump think his impeachment but not conviction is a net win for him, he, himself, obviously does not see things this way. Remember, two big things are happening at the same time. Trump himself is growing hysterical about the idea of simply being impeached. At the same time, smarter people like Moscow Mitch are more concerned with simply having Trump stay in power.

Put these two things together and you have a situation where Republicans don’t care if the trial in the Senate is not seen as valid. They would rather have the entire nation sour on the Republicans in the short term with the idea that by the time the election in 2020 rolls around passions will have cooled and they can go about their business. Throw in Trump going full autocrat by that point and their decision to acquit is an easy one.

And yet.

I keep saying there is a very real chance that it won’t even be the politics of impeachment that gets Trump — it will be Trump’s reaction to the process. So, let me say yet again — in the end it may be Trump snapping in a very, very public manner that is his downfall, not the actual politics of impeachment. We’re reaching the point where Republicans are so detached from reality in their defense of Trump that they are giving him a political pardon for anything he does from here on out. There is simply nothing he could possibly do that they would not dismiss.

Things get weird when Trump starts doing things at some point where are so absolutely indefensible on moral grounds and his grasp of reality is so tenuous as to be alarming that Republicans may find themselves in a pickle. Their natural instinct will be to absolutely defend the absolutely indefensible. It’s just when Trump’s Twitter offenses become transactional, well, I don’t know.

It’s at least possible the idea of absolutely losing the general even if they absolutely win their primary becomes something that keeps them up at night. But, lulz, who am I kidding.

Trump’s probably going to nuke us all into a hellscape and MAGA people will be happy because they think it will get us closure to the Rapture. I wish I was joking.

Scenes From A Bar — Anecdotal Evidence House Trump Has A Messaging Problem

Thank you, next.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m reluctant to give too much weight to anecdotal evidence that supports my personal political agenda. Confirmation bias is a real problem in The Age Of Trump. But no one really reads this blog in real terms, so I’ll indulge myself a minor flight of fancy.

Let me set the scene — I was getting wasted at this “secret” bar near my current abode when I found myself talking to a Judge Jeanine Pirro devotee. She was hard core. She was a little older than me but she was definitely the type of person Maggie Haberman would fall over herself to talk to– a middle-aged female Trump supporter. In fact, I said that to her. I made it very clear that there were people at The New York Times who would just love, love, love to talk to her about why she continued to support Trump.

Anyway, things went well — for a while. Once we established that NO ONE was above the law, things quickly went haywire. She wanted to talk about “Crooked Hillary.” Once I agreed with her that I thought that in 2016 the case could be made that Clinton could have been indicted things quickly went haywire. She would not admit that if I agreed to Clinton falling under the rule of law that Trump, too, had to fall under the same rules.

She just could not process the truth bombs I began to drop on her. The moment I mentioned “Individual #1” she started to shut down. Once it dawned on her that I had a rhetorical counter attack for each of her talking points she just locked up.

Soon enough, she bounced. She just left the bar.

And, so, I would say THAT is the source of the current Republican panic we see in Washington. While I generally believe the Republican Party is a criminal and fascistic organization at its core, when the common folk who support Trump don’t have a ready answer to criticism of Trump that’s a pretty big problem.

I have no doubt that Republicans are willing to ultimately defend the absolutely indefensible. They are completely unmoored from the norms of liberal democracy. “Democracy” exists only as a means to an end — that being more power for them. They are ready to ride the MAGA pony down to a Singularity of corruption, abuse of power and tyranny. In the end it won’t be politics that fells Trump, it will be Trump himself.

I still think Trump’s going to mentally explode. We’re going to have an actual mad man president for a few weeks, maybe more as we sort the situation out.

In other words, whatever your worst case scenario is at this point, that’s pretty much what’s going to happen. Buckle up.

‘We Have Seen The Enemy & They Are Us’ — The Dark Truth About Impeachment

The End.
Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I love running informal scenarios in my mind. All the scenarios I have come up with in regards to impeachment lead to one thing — the America we once knew is over.

I say this because even if we somehow magically rid ourselves of Trump politically — likely because he goes bonkers — we will earn ourselves only a brief respite from an inevitable descent into autocracy. The MAGA base will remain and half a dozen would-be younger, more passionate and organized successors to Trump will be waiting in the wings. And that doesn’t even begin to address all those young hack MAGA judges who will do everything in their power to make sure Trump’s vision of American Carnage is finally a reality.

What’s more, I coming to believe that the Republican Party will embrace impeachment-related violence. Hell, they may even do it themselves. Their partisan devotion to Trump is now absolute that the decision for 20 Republican Senators to vote for acquittal is now a very simple political equation. They feel the MAGA will support them as long as they vote to acquit. Republican Senators will believe time is on their side and independances will have forgotten their vote for acquittal whenever they have to run in a general again.

And, really, the only reason I think Trump has any chance of possibly losing in the Senate is his mental state will explode. He will have a very, very public meltdown as impeachment proceeds and there may come a point where his behavior grows so fucking alarming that Republicans will feel absolutely forced at last to The Pence Pivot. Even then, Moscow Mitch might feel as though he’s finally gotten as many young hack MAGA judges on the Federal bench so, lulz.

In other words, we can delay the inevitable by a few months or years, but when half the electorate is MAGA friendly to such an extent that they don’t really care about facts then, well, I don’t know what to tell you. There’s going to come a point far sooner than any of us realize when leaving the country might be one’s best course of action if you’re center-left.

The Worst Of Times, The Best Of Times — Two Impeachment Endgames

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I love running scenarios in my mind. In fact, I’m kind of obsessed with it. When it comes to impeachment, however, as of right now it’s impossible for me to come up with an endgame. Both possible outcomes have such factual reasons for one to believe they will happen that I’m not going to try to pin down one. Here are both scenarios. You can figure out for yourself which one is more likely at this point.

The Thousand Year Trump

Jan. 20, 2025

Though it was an unusually warm January day, Donald Trump was, as usual, grumpy. Kim Jung Un had walked with him down Pennsylvania Ave in a spirit of world peace. Press Secretary Hugh Hewitt gushed on Fox News that Trump’s friendship with Kim assured “a thousand years” of peace and prosperity across the globe. Trump had finally bested all his opponents — even the Constitution — and was now about to begin his third term. Much of his the mid-part of this second administration had been consumed with a snap Constitutional Convention he had managed to force the convening of under the pretext of a Balanced Budget Amendment.

Of course that was a ruse. The Convention went rouge and radically transformed the Constitution into a Federalist Society wet dream. Among the many “improvements” was his personal ability to run for as many terms as he liked. Trump had weighed not running for a third term because of his age, but his ego, as always, won out. He did decide to name Ivanka his Veep and Don Jr., Sec. of State.

Trump allowed himself a moment of rare introspection. DHS Sec. Stephen Miller was now “disappearing” vocal critics of the House Trump on a regular basis. Miller was building ICE camps so fast it was growing difficult to hide the pictures from the People’s Assembly. The residents of some of the more populous military districts were unhappy, but they were always unhappy. He smirked at the notion of “blue states” and how quaint it seemed now.

Trump had finally crushed The New York Times when Peter Thiel offered Pinch an sum so enormous that he felt forced to sell. Though a lot of the more liberal reporters had left The Times, its new executive editor Maggie Haberman assured that he would get the coverage from the paper that he had so long craved.

The United States was now great. About half the wall had been built to the tune of a $1 trillian. The massive public works had helped ease the nation’s pain during the Second Great Recession. Trump was also pleased that the new Internet PIN was being rolled out. The Kurdish terrorist attacks in LA had helped push that measure through quite nicely.

Trump was at last a man in full. He had absolute power in the United States. He had founded a political dynasty that would last a thousand years. Occasionally Trump would, just to troll FOX News, shoot out a dick pic or tweet the n-word. He needed to do something big soon, Obama’s treason trial was about to be broadcast and he hated the idea of Obama being the center of attention, even it was entertaining to see him in the dock.

Trump was alone at last in the Oval when the door opened. He smiled broadly — Putin would finally get to sit at the Resolute Desk. Trump loved it when a plan came together.

A Dream….Not Delayed

Election Night, 2020

President Nancy Pelosi sighed deeply. She felt she had finally fulfilled her Constitutional duty. She had just finished a brief congratulatory phone call with President-Elect Warren. The two women giggle like school girls as the magnitude of the event sank in.

But the cost had been incredible.

In the end, had not been politics that fell Trump, but Trump himself. Though his mental condition had shown signs of decline before his official impeachment, his problems accelerated after the House passed the measure. Trump, in short, snapped. His tweeting went from objectionable to transational. He began to rant about the size of his genitals. He repeatedly told MAGA to hunt down and murder The Squad.

Republicans had, at first, simply either ignored the situation or said Trump was “joking.” This grew more difficult when members of the Freedom Caucus staged a putsch of sorts by rioting on the House floor and picking off Democrats they did not like with hand guns they had smuggled into the Capitol. The death toll was too large for her to bear to remember.

Though Republicans had attempted to message this tragedy as a sign that the cost of impeachment was too great and it must be stopped immediately, this is not how the nation viewed it.After the National Memorial service for the fallen House Democrats, the pace of impeachment accelerated rapidly.

In the end, it wasn’t even close. Trump was convicted by the Senate. He then held up in the Oval Office for close to three weeks. He was finally physically dragged from the White House under cover of night. Trump’s mental condition had deteratied by that point that he was hospitalized to an effort to stabilize him. Pence was president briefly until the outrage over the attempted Republican putsch in the House grew to powerful even for him.

But that was almost a year ago. President Pelosi had done her best to heal the nation. Her caretaker administration was a who’s who of people who had found themselves in opposition to House Trump. American politics was in total chaos for much of the presidential cycle with both sides struggling with how to deal with the sudden return of liberal democratic norms.

She sighed again.

The Union was again strong. The Republic safe, for now.