As the mid-term elections fall behind us and the 2020 election campaigns are already under way, here's the nightmare scenario that is making me lose sleep:
1. President Donald Trump runs a spirited campaign for re-election much like his 2016 campaign and his rallies in support of Republican candidates in the 2018 mid-terms. He shouts and threatens and insults, and his cheering throngs love it. They love him. They love everything he says and everything he does, not matter what. He is convinced and they are convinced that he will easily win re-election. After all, who could not love such a successful, determined president, the greatest of all times. Just ask him!
2. The Democrats, meanwhile, slowly recognize that their strategy of playing to the many interest groups — racial, ethnic, gender, educational levels and philosophical — is not winning them the votes they need from the disaffected, working class, struggling, left-behind, frustrated, angry voters who abandoned caution in 2016 and swung to Trump. The Democrats develop a new strategy of listening to the disaffected, and not just the poor (another of their faithful interest groups) but especially the workers who have seen their adjusted income and standard of living plummet, their children unable to find work, and the despair all around them that leads to opioid addiction and suicides.
3. So the Democrats get smart and select a presidential candidate who can appeal to the working class without alienating their traditional voters. I cannot see who that might be; the Democrats on the horizon seem to be leaning toward more protective promises for the interest groups instead of attending to the legitimate needs of the workers who have been left behind.
4. Having found the new strategy and the appealing candidate, the Democrats cruise to victory on Nov. 3, 2020.
5. Then all hell breaks loose. A defeated Donald Trump cannot admit defeat. He proclaims that the election was rigged against him, that his second term was stolen from him, and he will fight to right this wrong. A new president has been elected, but Trump has 78 days as a lame-duck president until the new president's Jan. 20 inauguration, and he can wreak havoc like never before. If you thought he was encouraging violence at his rallies before, just wait. He can suggest that voters should rise up to defeat this electoral theft. He's already proclaimed that he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue and never lose a supporter or face consequences. His 2016 supporters were so sure he would win that some threatened massive resistance if the vote tally went against Trump. A president who already sees himself as above the law would have no problem with taking drastic measures to ensure his position.
6. Trump can declare martial law to jail his political opponents. He can waive restrictions on search and seizure. He can create crises that "only I can fix." The country can be divided like no time since 1861. Federal judges will rule against him, but Trump has already undermined trust in the judiciary. Their rulings will just anger the Trump faithful more than ever. Trump can accuse the justices of prejudice and unfairness. He has already done that with far less at stake. Any federal employee of the Justice Department who attempts to enforce the courts' rulings can be summarily fired by the lame duck president. The newly elected Democratic president can file lawsuits, but court victories will be useless if no federal officials are around to enforce the rulings.
7. The United States government crumbles with Trump opponents jailed ("Lock Them Up!") and career federal employees replaced by Trump toadies. Trump's friends in Moscow, North Korea, Saudi Arabia can recognize the Trump victory as legitimate. American democracy will be overthrown.
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