One night during a global pandemic, comfortable in my privilege, I sat chatting to friends across the world.
We were discussing America. And how it might be time to take steps.
America is currently being besieged by rebels calling out for the execution of elected representatives. Their crime? Slowing the spread of the global pandemic mentioned earlier. This sort of thing gets you thinking; a dangerous pastime in any era.
These rebels, complete with wooden painted machine guns and spent husks of rocket launchers, are marching on government buildings, posing with their buddies and complaining at the lack of common services like hairdressing. It hardly needs to be said that while this service is easily done at home, it important to remember Thomas Jefferson “the tree of liberty must be refreshed time to time with the blood of patriots”. That said, Jefferson also put into his Canon, “Never trouble another with what you can do yourself”.
Jefferson also said: “The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster cruel vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging three headed beast like god one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes fools and hypocrites.”
Which I can offer no argument against.
But what’s the future hold?
It might seem a little hysterical but America is not well. The thesis goes:
- If in November 2020, President Trump does not get re-elected to the highest office in the country, the outburst from loyalists will shake the very foundations of the Republic. If the angry white men can march, armed and armoured, on the Capitol building because they want haircuts, imagine what will happen when they’re told that Trump lost the election due to foreign interference. Liberals wring their hands, Conservatives make shells.
- If in November 2020, President Trump does get re-elected, it’s possible to expect Washington, Oregon and California to begin secession. It’s been talked about before. The US has been a single country in name but never united politically or culturally. Whether or not you think the two party system is desirable or not, it exists. And if these states move to secede from the Union, even through a legal process, expect the military to be used to force them to stay.
The status quo therefore becomes totally untenable. Needless to say, conversations will begin again in the GOP about allowing a president to stay longer than two terms and with their control of the Senate and the Supreme Court, who is left to challenge them?
But as I said above, it may be time to take steps. Even while we recover from the grips of the pandemic, there will be a need to take in refugees from war-torn America. Gird yourselves.