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!