Do you see the U.S. being headed for a second civil war?

[RickeyM]

View from the Left: "A politically-violent mass movement" is underway in the U.S.

I believe there are those who want "action" to get their way are counting on to some degree disbelief among others. Meanwhile...

An estimated 21 million Americans (primarily underemployed, less-educated men) not only believe that fallacy (stolen election), but consider violence justifiable in returning Trump to office. With an estimated 20% of our adult population detached from reality, coordinated acts of subversion, even a coup, are numerically possible.

We may not end up in a civil war but IMO we're too damn close to it.

[Rajoo]

This article from NYT is well worth reading and hope its not behind a pay wall. This is from Enid, OK and the group that has totally taken over local politics is (guess), Enid Freedom Fighters. And this group was formed to fight mask and later vaccine mandates, the Red Shirts.

From a Mr. Waddell, black veteran who was booted out as a city council member for voting for mask mandtes:

Mr. Waddell thought it had to do with fear. He said America is in a moment when the people who ran things from the beginning — mostly white, mostly Christian, mostly male — are now having to share control. Their story about America is being challenged. New versions are becoming mainstream, and that, he believes, is threatening.

“You don’t just get to be the sole solitary voice in terms of what we do here, what we teach here, what we show on television here,” he said. “You don’t get to do it anymore. That’s where the fight is.”

He sees it as the next chapter in the story of what it means to be an American, of who gets to write this country’s story. But he does not see the country getting through it without a fight.

“We’re going to have an explosion,” he said. “Whether it’s literal or figurative. It’s going to be bad.”

For Mr. Waddell, the past 18 months have been the most painful of his life. He said the experience changed him, and left him feeling that Enid, as much as he tried to build a life there, no longer feels like home.

He said he is working on forgiveness. But he is also applying for jobs outside Oklahoma: Several applications in Arizona look promising.

Of the City Council election, he said: “I think the process worked. You elect representatives that reflect your ideals. And these folks do. They reflect the ideals of Enid. And I’m OK with that.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/u...oma-masks.html

[BigElCat]

Yesterday, the ATF started seizing products similar to bump stocks without DOJ authorization. And guns converted with said products.

The right wing, second amendment folks are going nuts. A couple of YouTube stars have been arrested, along with numerous vendors.

I'm glad I didn't buy one of these when I was tempted to do so.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee3jMgidOVk

[JCricket]

back to the OP

are near a civil war - Trump decides that. If it gets him power then absolutely.

Stated in the OP, republicans will do anything to power...........
I disagree. I do think that way too many republicans have swallowed hook line and sinker the trumpian lies. But I also believe that most of them dearly love our country and constitution. If they though trump had really lost the election the entire landscape would look different. I am just hoping the Jan 6 committee can pull enough dirt and crap out to get him disgraced in the eyes of the world. Charging him with a crime and even jail wouldn't help.

[BigElCat]

Originally Posted by JCricket

back to the OP

are near a civil war - Trump decides that. If it gets him power then absolutely.

I disagree. No political leader has ever been the Casus Belli of a war.

It would spark from something like 'you can't play with your clever fast guns anymore'.

Trump would then ride this to power.

[JCricket]

Originally Posted by BigElCat

I disagree. No political leader has ever been the Casus Belli of a war.

It would spark from something like 'you can't play with your clever fast guns anymore'.

Trump would then ride this to power.

This is my point. Trump will make up something to outrage the right even more and then issue a fight call(get your guns and storm the capitol, but I am not to blame).

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by JCricket

This is my point. Trump will make up something to outrage the right even more and then issue a fight call (get your guns and storm the capitol, but I am not to blame).

Just a bunch of American patriots acting to save their country, right?

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by JCricket

back to the OP

are near a civil war - Trump decides that. If it gets him power then absolutely.

Stated in the OP, republicans will do anything to power...........
I disagree. I do think that way too many republicans have swallowed hook line and sinker the trumpian lies. But I also believe that most of them dearly love our country and constitution. If they though trump had really lost the election the entire landscape would look different. I am just hoping the Jan 6 committee can pull enough dirt and crap out to get him disgraced in the eyes of the world. Charging him with a crime and even jail wouldn't help.

My take on the subject. I that those "Republicans" know the big lie is a lie. They love power. tRump has corralled the base like no other before (in this country at least). That is power. They have sold their souls for access to that power. What tRump wants they want. They know that tRump lost the election but they know that to turn on him would lead his base, the majority of the Republican party, to turn on them. It would be political suicide. tRump will never call for a civil war but there are those who will for him.

[RickeyM]

When oh when will Biden start calling out tRump on his lies? Joe, acting like nobody's listening to tRump is going to be the downfall of your presidency and our democracy.

[icenine]

I think it will not be a civil war but a white supremacy insurgency.
Sort of like the IRA, people blowing up things.

My impression is that the red states think they will somehow end up controlling the Federal Government, and things like the Social Safety net i.e. Medicare, Social Security, Tricare and the Veteran Administration will be theirs to run and reward those that support them.

Stopping this process would probably save the United States in the long run.

If I was a Democratic president and red states decided to nullify the mid-terms in 2022 I would cut off Social Security payments to the citizens of those states. I might keep Medicare payments going for a while. It might wake some people up. And if you were Joe Biden you might have to ignore a Supreme Court ruling on the basis that the court was not legitmate because of GOP gerrymandering and Mitch McConnel's radicalism.

In other words a President might have to become an autocrat just to save the more or less "democratic Union' we have had since 1776.

The Trump base thinks that the worst thing that can happen is brown people crossing our
border in order to live here, not understanding that the real threat isn't people escaping Latin American governments but rather our government becoming more and more like those governments in Latin America that immigrants are trying to escape.

That is the problem when a political party abandons the concept of a "loyal opposition".