The final eleven days within the U.S. have been a loopy whirlwind — and one hell of a experience. Come to think about it, this complete month and yr have been fairly loopy — and a hell of a bizarre experience.
On the finish of 2023, I wrote about “Why 2024 is Shaping As much as Be a Whole Shitstorm.” I adopted up that article with a six-month replace in early July, and largely confirmed most of my unique predictions or observations. However then…
A wild sequence of intestine punches and crises
Out of the blue, the whole lot bought up-ended, and our political and social worlds skilled an unprecedented sequence of intestine punches and crises. In simply over three weeks, we witnessed the next in speedy succession:
· The U.S. Supreme Courtroom affirmed ‘presidential immunity’ for all official acts carried out whereas in workplace and in addition affirmed that every one presidential acts are entitled to ‘presumptive immunity’ except they are often confirmed to be purely ‘non-public,’ private acts. This ruling successfully locations a president above the legislation, or not less than makes it extraordinarily tough to prosecute and convict a president and maintain him/her accountable.
· The Trump-appointed decide in Trump’s stolen paperwork/ obstruction case instantly dismissed your entire enormous case, primarily based on a technicality and a weird far-right interpretation of some arcane (and irrelevant) legalese. The Particular Prosecutor was livid, after all, and is interesting the choice.
· On July 13, all of us witnessed the tried assassination of ex-president and present candidate Trump. MAGA and ‘Trump-world’ instantly went loopy, and began hurling all kinds of baseless accusations at Democrats, liberals, and Biden — for supposedly ‘inciting’ the violence, when the GOP has been the occasion more and more embracing political violence! In the meantime, Trump’s semi-divine standing (within the eyes of his supporters) bought an enormous enhance, since he was clearly ‘saved by God.’
· On July 21, Pres. Biden introduced that he was dropping out of the presidential race, and endorsed Vice-president Harris as a substitute. Harris’ group then swung into instant motion, and a brand new Democratic presidential marketing campaign commenced.
· By July 23, Kamala Harris had garnered sufficient delegates to make her the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. A digital roll-call vote continues to be deliberate to solidify her ascent and unify Democrats earlier than their August conference.
Shades of ‘The Yr That Shattered America’: 1968
That’s fairly a tremendous, even astounding, three-week interval.
The final time the U.S. skilled such a significant cluster of disruptive political occasions was in all probability in 1968 — one other presidential election yr — when there have been two profitable assassinations (of RFK and MLK) and far political and social violence, culminating within the disastrous and violent Democratic conference in Chicago.
Weirdly, the 2024 Democratic conference is being held subsequent month in… look forward to it… Chicago.
Much more weirdly, 1968 was additionally the final time a sitting American president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, determined NOT to run for re-election.
So, is America by some means doomed to repeat or imitate the disastrous yr of 1968, in a weird ‘deja vu yet again’ reenactment?
2024 is each higher and… a lot worse
Nicely, I don’t assume so — and right here’s why. I feel this yr has been, and might be, higher in some essential respects, however a lot worse in others.
I feel will probably be higher than 1968 as a result of we’re unlikely to see and undergo TWO horrific, high-profile assassinations. Particularly now {that a} failed assassination try already occurred, heightened safety measures might be in place and the Secret Service might be on its ‘greatest conduct.’
Additionally, the upcoming Democratic conference may be very unlikely to be the focus of huge political and police violence, as occurred at its 1968 counterpart.
That stated, there’s a powerful chance of mass protest about Israel’s ongoing struggle in Gaza and the U.S.’s too-forgiving help of Israel. These protests may effectively devolve into violent clashes with police or right-wing demonstrators — however will in all probability not attain the extent of intense public violence seen in 1968.
…
Now for the dangerous information. Again in 1968, the U.S. had not but skilled a tremendously divisive and harmful demagogue like Donald Trump, nor had his pathological mendacity or public mendacity generally been ‘normalized.’
Again then, the nation was undoubtedly additionally experiencing extreme divisiveness and social battle, but our fundamental ideas of ‘reality’ and ‘actuality’ have been nonetheless fairly related for many People. Again then, we nonetheless trusted ‘the information,’ and shared some fundamental social agreements — similar to, that public mendacity and overt political violence are dangerous, harmful, and won’t be tolerated.
However over the previous decade, particularly, public mendacity, blatant political manipulation, and even politically-motivated violence have more and more been normalized, and at the moment are deemed ‘acceptable’ by many.
A extremely ‘flamable’ election approaches
This sea change in People’ ethical values is a social catastrophe ready to occur. And once we mix that with the acute divisiveness now plaguing our nation, and the truth that America has cut up into two fully separate camps that get completely totally different ‘information’ and imagine in two utterly totally different ‘realities’ — effectively, the potential for intense battle and widespread political violence is evident and rising.
Since this presidential election includes a convicted felon, sexual abuser, and pathological liar as certainly one of our three candidates for president — and a particularly fashionable one, at that — with the opposite primary candidate being half Black, half Asian, and a lady as well (that’s three enormous counts towards her, on this society) … my, what may probably go improper?
The reply, after all, is — nearly the whole lot may go badly improper.
Our 2024 shitshow continues to swell and increase, and I’ve began considering that the subsequent three months main as much as the election will be the final semi-peaceful months we’ll have within the U.S. for fairly a while.
The U.S. is actually ‘in for it’ come election time
Right here’s why. Trump and his MAGA followers have made it abundantly clear that they are going to solely settle for the election outcomes if Trump wins.
They’ve deserted democracy and fundamental democratic rules, and each they and your entire GOP have adopted a ‘would possibly makes proper’ and ‘my method or the freeway’ angle.
This spells large bother for the U.S. and for the approaching election aftermath. The horrific reality appears to be that regardless of who wins, we’ll be ‘in for it’ as a nation.
If Trump wins, the Dems and liberals might be horrified, huge protests and civil disobedience will doubtless erupt — and in the meantime, Trump and his enablers will instantly begin dismantling the federal authorities and concentrating energy within the government department (that’s, in TRUMP).
If Trump loses, nevertheless, he’ll insist it was all ‘rigged’ and the election was fraudulent (after all!); the GOP and his MAGA followers might be totally enraged; and there’ll nearly actually be many outbreaks of intense partisan violence and right-wing terrorism, all throughout the nation.
Plus, if we add within the ‘inconvenient reality’ (thanks, Al Gore!) that Trump was bested by a Black, Asian lady — effectively, the MAGA people, White supremacists, White Christian nationalists, misogynists, and Trump himself might be each disgusted and livid… and can react with utter rage and widespread political violence, in an(different) try and overturn a respectable election.
We’ve gotten a reprieve — however the worst is but to come back
Thus, I’ve to say: regardless that Biden’s selfless resolution to exit the race and Harris’ speedy ascent to presumptive nominee have been each very constructive developments — within the bigger scheme of issues, the ‘large image’ continues to be terribly alarming, if not horrifying.
Our 2024 American shitshow continues to unerringly intensify… and drag on, and on.
Nevertheless, the rapid-fire political developments of the previous three weeks present that our semi-democracy continues to be functioning in some arenas — for now.
For now, we’ve all gotten… a little bit of a reprieve.
However sadly, terrifyingly, the worst is nearly certainly but to come back.
(And I haven’t even talked about all of the horrors and wild climate disruptions being unleashed by intensifying local weather change.)
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This publish was beforehand printed on medium.com.
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Photograph credit score: Carlo D’Agnolo on Unsplash
