As much as I’d love to just goof on this shit, we need to start thinking seriously about 2024. I think it’s gonna take way more than a coordinated shadow campaign to get us through the next presidential election. The GOP has made it clear that it won’t accept another loss, results be damned, although that insistence comes from the base, not the politicians. If Republican Congressmembers could just sit on their asses and still get reelected, I’m sure they would.
But they’ve wound up their supporters into such a tizzy that they no longer have that luxury. It’s all the same to the elected officials, as long as their corporate paymasters get a good return on their investment (and the officials get their kickbacks, I mean, “donations and cushy corporate jobs after they retire from politics”). The barbarians at the gates might actually lynch some Congressmembers next time, but I’m guessing the Captains of Industry would see those as acceptable losses. After all, there’s money to be made, by God!
Whether they nominate Trump, DeSantis or someone else, it doesn’t look like the Republicans are gonna accept another 4 years without control of the White House. After the hissy-fit they threw last time, I really don’t see them walking off into the sunset, even in handcuffs. The irony is that the Moneyed Elite is perfectly happy with either party. But the inmates have taken over the asylum that is the GOP. The tail is now wagging the elephant.
Of course, this is a rather inverted conception of democracy. In theory, we would want the masses to tell the politicians what to do. But we’re so brainwashed by the elitist version of democracy practiced in the US that, when presented with a populist version, we recoil in horror. Part of that horror is inspired by the evil ideologies espoused by these masses, but some of it arises from a lack of familiarity with the kind of democracy America is supposed to embody.
The midterm elections should be interesting, but I think the real fireworks will come in ’24 when the states are presenting their electoral votes to the House. Regardless of which party’s in control of the House, the GOP-run swing states will be forced to put up or shut up when it comes to “election integrity.” In other words, they’ll have to present Republican electors to Congress regardless of the vote totals in their states, because, if they don’t, their base might just murder them or, even worse, vote them out of office.
Then the question becomes, will Kamala accept fraudulent GOP electors? If we’re to believe the mainstream narrative of Jan. 6th (and the bill recently passed by the House), the vice president has no power to reject the states’ electors. But I doubt Kamala, or any Democratic veep, would accept such an outcome. Can you imagine the furor on the Right side of the aisle were she to reject the results as presented to her and Congress by the states? I think I can, and it would be deafening. They would surely find it a cruel irony after Vice President Pence’s “betrayal” on January 6, 2021.
Alternatively, say the Electoral College goes for Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee turns out to be. If Congress signs off on it (a big “if”), I think it would spark a serious secession movement. These Republican voters are mad as hell, and they aren’t gonna take it anymore. It’s not totally clear what they’re mad about, but they’re clearly very upset and the routine operation of US politics (as currently constituted) seems inadequate to mollify them.
If only they knew that Biden has continued many Trump Admin policies, even resuming construction of his precious wall on the Mexican border. But it’s not the same, the Right-wing (and mainstream) media insist. The White House went from Republican to Democratic hands; therefore, most government policies must have changed dramatically. It seems to be one of the MSM’s (“mainstream media”) prime directives that they have to ignore the huge tracts of bipartisan consensus on the most important (i.e., economic, military and foreign policy) issues.
Getting back to the ’24 scenarios: say Congress refuses to sign off on the results. Then what? Constitutionally speaking, we’d really be up a creek. The election would go to the House, where each state delegation would get one vote. (Gotta love those Founding Fathers! What democratic-minded geniuses! Excuse me: republic-minded geniuses!) Given the dominance of Republicans in low-population states, this would favor the GOP candidate and likely put them in the White House.
But who will accept that result? The winners obviously will
but surely not the losers. Yet again, if the Republicans get the short end of
the stick, I believe they’ll call for secession. Don't believe me? The Texas GOP is calling for a referendum on secession next year. Support for the Union is a mile wide and an inch deep. We're counting on a thread-bare social fabric to hold the country together. Nothing is off the table.
Will the Dems stand idly by and let this happen if they’re the losers? I certainly hope not, although I have my doubts. If they have a backbone (an open question), they’ll mount their own secession movement (after many vain attempts to appeal to the Supreme Court, of course). But they’ll have to rid themselves of their fanatical devotion to the Institutions and Norms. It’ll take an unprecedented mass movement to drag the Dems kicking and screaming into the post-American future, but I think it can be done. We’ll just have to snap them out of their Norman Rockwell daydream.
None of these is a pleasant scenario, but they seem the most likely outcomes of the next presidential election. Of course, the Powers That Be aren’t going to just sit on their duffs and let the Union be dissolved. Oh, no! Far from it! There’s much too much money at stake to allow the American Empire to die. It’ll put all those overseas military bases in danger of closure, not to mention all those “free trade” agreements justifying the expropriation and exploitation of Third World wealth and labor. (I don’t know why I put those two things in the same sentence! Can you figure it out?)
The Power Elite’s first move will be an MSM propaganda campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen before. It will be funneled through the usual outlets, e.g., Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and whichever nobodies are hosting the networks’ nightly news shows these days. They will assure us at all hours of the day and night that our way of life is in peril, that taking the path of secession is tantamount to jumping off a cliff.
There’ll be plenty of Civil War comparisons made, including parallels between latter-day secessionists and their historical precursors, i.e., slaveowners, although I’m guessing that will be deployed most often against the Left. The Captains of Industry will be loath to offend their traditional allies on the Right.
I’m really looking forward to seeing where all those Right-wing grifters come down on this issue. The people who sign (most of their) checks will require them to toe the pro-Union line, but that side will have very little support from their fans. Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire will have to be pro-Union, no matter how devastating it is to their popularity. They have no other significant sources of revenue beyond Big Daddy Fossil Fuels.
But the rest will have a tough decision to make: either lose their sugar daddies or lose their audience. I can imagine Steven Crowder doing a lovely little tap dance around the issue, trying to assure his viewers that he’s still pro-“Mom, apple pie and baseball” while tepidly pledging fealty to the “pedophiles” in DC.
Alex Jones doesn’t have to worry about that, of course. He’s got his audience pretty much in the palm of his hand. He’ll be free to advocate any insane position he wants. He’ll probably lobby to have Austin declared a Free City in the Republic of Texas or the Neutral Zone or Narnia or wherever he thinks he is by then.
Take it from me, though, the Powers That Be will be super-pissed off about secession. They might even try another Business Plot. Most Americans are blissfully ignorant of this little episode, but in the 1930’s a bunch of business leaders tried to get a retired general, Smedley Butler, to overthrow FDR. Lucky for us, Gen. Butler had more of a conscience than your average American general and tattled to Congress about it. (No surprise here: Even though they found compelling evidence for the conspiracy, Congress did nothing. Because who wants to keep a bunch of rich guys from just havin’ a good time?)
If we can withstand all the sturm und drang that will accompany the end of the USA, I think we can actually come out the better for it. I am an anti-imperial socialist, after all, so I have no interest in preserving Capitalism or the Empire. In my opinion, the dissolution of the Union would go a long way toward ending the latter of those things, and maybe even the former. But I would like to avoid a Civil War. To that end, in my next essay I’ll offer some helpful hints to save America. Stay tuned!
