Friends, I published the original version of this article exactly six months ago. Since then, most of my (scary) predictions and extrapolations have come true, although one or two did not. With less than five months — 146 days, to be exact — until the dreaded 2024 election, it’s quite appropriate to again review what’s been happening in these Dis-united States.
Unfortunately, we’re facing a true nightmare scenario — and I mean this quite literally. What’s happening in today’s America IS the stuff of nightmares — and our worst, craziest nightmares are all ‘coming to life’ and inundating our society like a vast tsunami of lunacy.
Here are some things I predicted/imagined that have already happened, or keep happening, in the run-up to the election: Trump is inciting people constantly with his claims that he’s being ‘persecuted’ (not prosecuted) by a weaponized DOJ intent on destroying his campaign. His followers are seething with paranoid rage — as intended… while Trump keeps goading them into hate and sedition, and reveling in his intense desire for ‘retribution’ against all his ‘enemies.’
And in a pathetic display of blind fealty and opportunism, the GOP has totally capitulated to Trump, and is willing and eager to do his bidding.
Meanwhile, the Democratic side is in turmoil because Biden’s poll numbers continue to be terrible, plus many Dems still do NOT want Biden running again due to his age, supposed mental ‘decline,’ unpopularity, etc.
But Biden has a lock on the Democratic nomination, nonetheless — as Trump does on the GOP nomination.
It’s a goddamn nightmare.
All along, Trump effortlessly dominated the GOP field — again. He easily dispatched all his opponents despite his status as a violence-inciting, quadrupley-indicted former president facing a staggering 91 criminal counts against him — not to mention losing ‘bigly’ in several high-profile court battles and being fined over a half-billion dollars.
This utterly unprecedented political scenario is truly astounding — and horrifying — in comparison to any prior nomination process.
GOP hypocrisy and seditious idiocy reach a new low
Here’s the latest super-dangerous escalation of our American nightmare: in the wake of Trump’s 34-count conviction in his so-called ‘hush money’ trial (which was really about election subversion), his MAGA supporters and most of the GOP reacted with total fury; verbally attacked the trial, the judge, and the jury; and relentlessly attacked and undermined our judicial system.
That’s right, the former ‘law and order party’ is doing its best to undermine the rule of law, destroy trust in our justice system, and ensure that Trump’s (long-delayed) trials and the upcoming election are incendiary, violence-prone horror shows. That’s how far the politicized insanity has progressed in this country; that’s how utterly nightmarish this is all becoming.
Think about it: we’re talking about the GOP, the supposed ‘law and order’ party — tearing down our entire federal justice system and trying hard to destroy our functioning as a ‘nation of laws’! Not only are the GOP’s current actions and attitudes totally unheard of politically, they are edging ever closer to outright sedition and open incitement of political violence.
We’re in extremely dangerous territory here, folks — and the damn election is still five months away.
*News flash: Hunter Biden, long a target of the GOP, was just convicted on all three counts in his drugs-and-gun-ownership court case. You can bet the GOP will be celebrating their ‘victory’ — and won’t say a thing about it being ‘politicized’ or ‘unjust.’ Suddenly, this verdict — unlike Trump’s — is seen as ‘righteous’ and fair… and as for our venerable justice system, now it’s suddenly respectable and trustworthy.
How’s that for total hypocrisy?!
A society-wide downward spiral
The thing that alarms me most, though, is that in today’s U.S. there are parallel arcs of rapid decline on ALL levels — psychological, emotional, social, political — which are all combining into a pervasive, society-wide downward spiral.
And once such a potent downward spiral takes off and starts accelerating — it’s very hard to stop or even slow down. People often (naively) wonder how horrendous events like the Nazi takeover in Germany, or the Rwandan genocide, or Pol Pot’s murderous rampage in Cambodia can even happen.
Well, I think we’re seeing the answer unfolding in front of us right now: it’s a form of socially-sanctioned mass hysteria and murderous hypocrisy… a kind of mass social blindness and surging collective rage.
In both form and content, it’s very much like a really bad nightmare come to life. The horribly inhumane attitudes and actions behind spreading social atrocities gradually come to be accepted or even embraced by many people… and then the madness and atrocities just keep growing and intensifying.
Welcome to our dark American ’Twilight Zone’
And yes, ‘it’ — fascism — certainly can happen here, even in the supposed ‘land of the free.’ Not only can it happen here, it clearly IS happening here — and still accelerating.
For almost three years, I’ve been writing about how easy it is to undermine and bring down a society — and we’re witnessing this very thing happening all across the U.S. Trump and the GOP, in particular, have been working relentlessly for the past nine years to undermine and destroy today’s multi-cultural, multi-racial, more equitable America, and bring that entire ‘liberal’ enterprise crashing down.
Yet their sleazy, seditious efforts are all couched in the proud language of ‘patriotism,’ ‘freedom,’ and ‘restoring America’s greatness.’
The nightmarish, (bad) dreamlike elements of all this — which I’ve often referred to as America’s wacko ‘Twilight Zone’ reality — cannot be overemphasized. The exact same types of moral, emotional, and social hysteria that underlie Nazism and various tyrannical or genocidal regimes have been spreading and accelerating fast throughout the U.S. — and nothing and no one seems able to slow or stop them.
This is not just worrisome — it’s terrifying. If you’re an American and you’re not deeply worried and terrified by what’s happening here… well, you’re either in big-time denial, or you haven’t been paying close attention.
Six realistic (horrific) scenarios
(If you read this section in the original article, you can skip most of it and go straight to Scenario #7.)
Here are some examples of our fast-worsening societal situation — focusing on the upcoming election. The problem is, the emotional, social, and political components of our American nightmare-come-to-life are already out of control, and their negative effects are spreading like a voracious late-stage cancer.
So, here are six realistic (horrific) scenarios I’ve been imagining for the 2024 election and its aftermath. [Note: almost all of these scenarios are still the same as when I first wrote them up, six months ago. The 7th scenario disintegrated with Nikki Haley’s loss to Trump.]
Scenario #1: The race is between Biden and Trump, and Biden wins a very close election — barely winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College. For many months, Trump has endlessly repeated that the election would be rigged against him — so any result other than him winning is ‘fraudulent’ and totally unacceptable. Trump being Trump, he refuses to concede, insists he ‘really’ won (of course!) — and his supporters go bonkers, keep screaming about ‘another stolen election,’ and chaos and violence erupt … and keep erupting, more and more.
Attacks on election officials, courthouses, judges, and ‘liberals’ mount quickly. The U.S. reacts way too slowly — too little, and far too late — and life in society starts to grind to a bloody standstill. The period between Biden’s ‘win’ and his hoped-for inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 devolves into ongoing mass protests on both sides, and mass right-wing violence as well. Chaos reigns, and the police, FBI, and National Guard are all totally overwhelmed.
Scenario #2: It’s a very close election in which Biden wins the popular vote (barely) but Trump wins in the Electoral College — and thus wins the presidency. Democrats and liberals are outraged and disgusted, and massive protests erupt — both here and around the world. Trump’s MAGA devotees react with rage and fury, and violent attacks on ‘liberal’ demonstrators start spreading. Meanwhile, Trump gloats, and starts detailing all the ways he’s going to exact revenge and take down the ‘elites’ and the ‘deep state’ — and anyone who ever opposed him. He informs America that on Day One, 1/21/25, he WILL consolidate more power into the executive branch — by executive order, if needed — and thus assume semi-dictatorial powers. The Dems and liberals are in total despair, and some start making plans to leave the country. The nation is hopelessly divided and dysfunctional. Anger and chaos reign.
Scenario #3: It’s a close election in which Trump wins the popular vote (barely), but Biden wins in the Electoral College — and thus wins the presidency. Republicans and MAGA types are furious, and violent protests erupt. Trump starts yelling about ‘massive fraud’ and ‘another stolen election,’ and insists he ‘really won’ since he won the popular vote (never mind our actual election rules). Then Trump/MAGA supporters start filing hundreds of lawsuits designed to challenge and overturn the election results. Violent clashes start intensifying, and electors’ lives and families are threatened across the country. Biden’s team and the Department of Justice try to contain the violence, but it keeps spreading — and their efforts fail. Trump keeps inciting more and more seditious violence, and the U.S. teeters on the edge of total chaos and anarchy. Anger and violence reign — and it’s very unclear if Biden will ever truly be inaugurated and resume his presidency.
Scenario #4: It’s a close election in which Trump wins both the popular vote and the Electoral College (perish the thought!). If Trump wins both, he’ll believe he has a powerful mandate from the American people — and his narcissism and dictatorial ambitions will know no bounds. The death of our semi-democracy and a rapid descent into full-on autocracy are almost assured, then — so the Dems and liberals are in total despair, and many start making plans to leave the country. Huge protests and demonstrations erupt and keep happening, all across the nation — and the entire world — and MAGA types start ruthlessly attacking the protesters. Violence escalates, and anger, chaos, and darkness reign.
Scenario #5: Trump’s trial dates keep getting delayed, so almost all his criminal cases are in limbo, still, as the election nears. Only one case has been decided — and that case ended in 34 guilty verdicts against Trump, as noted, causing a tremendous right-wing and GOP backlash. Meanwhile, Trump keeps using his ongoing legal jeopardy to rile up his supporters against the U.S. and the Department of Justice. (Can anyone say: sedition?)
His MAGA devotees, predictably, are enraged that their ‘dear leader’ is still being persecuted (not lawfully prosecuted); his poll numbers keep going up; and due to severe oversights in our Constitution, Trump remains the leading GOP candidate. [Note: there is nothing at all in our Constitution that prohibits an indicted person or even a convicted felon from running for or even being our president!] Any Democrat-led efforts to have Trump disqualified from running are soundly rejected by our Supreme Court, so despite his many active indictments Trump keeps running — with continuing, strong GOP support. Next comes … (see #1–4 above).
Scenario #6: Prior to the actual election, the GOP nominee — Trump — is tried and convicted of serious crimes and seditious actions against the U.S… as we all recently witnessed. A few Republicans finally have had enough, and they try — unsuccessfully — to have Trump disqualified or replaced as a candidate. (See above note.) Then Trump and his MAGA devotees go apeshit, and viciously attack all these ‘traitorous’ Republicans as ‘RINOs.’ Some are forced to resign, while others go into hiding. Trump’s poll numbers go up, and due to a severe lack of guidelines in our Constitution, and despite many Democrats’ ongoing (futile) efforts to have him disqualified, Trump continues as the GOP nominee — and his followers are even more fired up and enraged. Next … (see #1–4 above).
Scenario #7: [Note: this scenario was already proven impossible.] In an unlikely turn of events, Nikki Haley or one of the other (dismal) GOP ‘contenders’ challenging Trump actually gets close in the polls, and ends up vying with Trump for the GOP nomination… uh, NO. Not even close.
Trump triumphed, yet again.
From ‘possible’ to highly likely: the danger mounts
I could keep spinning out likely scenarios — but the point is, ALL of them are both quite possible and horrendous. ALL of them would be disastrous for our society and our nation.
And over the past six months, they have rapidly moved from ‘possible’ to highly likely.
Every single scenario is really bad — and very ominous concerning the survival of the United States as a functional semi-democracy. I keep thinking that at some point more Americans will wake up and ‘get’ what’s really going on here… but over the past nine long, terrible years it’s never, ever happened.
I’ve persisted in thinking (silly me!) that many Republicans will finally wake up, smell the coffee, and firmly reject Trump and his dangerous MAGA movement — but over and over again, they don’t.
And the servile, seditious way the GOP is reacting to Trump’s 34-count conviction makes it crystal clear: they will back him all the way no matter what he says or does, and no matter what transpires legally.
An endless parade of lunacy
Given this apparently endless lunacy, I’d have to be a total fool to think that it’s somehow going to change in the near future. All the signs point to the exact opposite: the continuation and intensification of all this nightmarish insanity.
How did the Nazis come to power and enact so many ruinous, genocidal policies? How did the Rwandans collapse into furious ‘ethnic cleansing’ and murderous chaos? How do tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong Un maintain their iron grip on power?
Now we know — or are starting to glimpse — the answers to these vital questions. Now we know — because we’re seeing the exact same nightmare tendencies, beliefs, and heavily amoral actions spreading and multiplying, right here at home.
The big question is: What will it take for us to wake up from this nightmare — if we ever DO wake up?
Will it take tens of thousands of people dying in murderous rampages and riots? Will it take a total collapse of our political and judicial systems? Will it take years of living — or suffering, or even dying — under the thumb of a selfish, cruel narcissist-dictator and his hateful MAGA enablers?
Again, I ask: What will it take for America to wake up from this intensifying nightmare?
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
From The Good Men Project on Medium
 |
 |
 |
 |
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—–
Photo credit: visuals on Unsplash
