I am beginning to re-think how Americans will respond to a terrorist attack.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Let me preface my remarks by saying I hope and pray our nation remains safe. That being said none of us know what the future will bring. My fear was that Donald Drumpf would use it as justification for draconian policies. I now am more sanguine. Outside of his base of Deplorables most Americans will attribute it to his massive incompetence and act accordingly.

If he was smarter he could have subverted our system as his and the Deplorables' wont, but I believe he and they aren't

If something bad happens he won't get the benefit of the doubt.

[Siwsan]

1. I continue to worry about another "Reichstag" situation

There is no doubt in my mind that trump*'s people have little to no boundaries as to what they will do to tighten their control over the country.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. To put it colloquially

If something bad happens most folks will attribute it to his doing stupid shit on his watch.

[Siwsan]

9. People in panic don't always think rationally

He isn't at all interested in doing what's responsible so if he would take it as an opportunity to invoke 'Martial Law', all bets are off.

I really think he is pathologically irrational, along with being pathologically narcissistic. If a power is within his reach, he's going to grab it, to maintain his control. Remember, this is a guy who has gone too far, even for Darth Cheney.

[workinclasszero]

8. I believe we are in maximum danger right now

When Putin's puppets are in danger...a domestic "terrorist incident" would be just the thing to turn eyes off of their traitorous activity and demand obedience to 45 in these troubled times, eh?

Or maybe a war breaking out suddenly with Iran or NK?

Hold on to your hats folks...

[get the red out]

2. Putin bought a flawed product

Trump

[rzemanfl]

5. All traitors are flawed. Him just more bigly than most.

Sad.

[DetlefK]

3. Imagine if 9/11 had happened under President Al Gore.

The Republicans would have howled and demanded that he resign for letting such a horrible thing happen. No outbreak of patriotism for him, because Republicans have a trademark on "Patriotism (TM)". And the press would have gladly helped them, because Clintons.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. In the immediate aftermath of 9-11 Bush's popularity was in the 90s.

Even Democrats gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Drumpf will not get that benefit of the doubt.

[unblock]

11. there's a lot of room for him below 90%

and still get enough powers to destroy what's left of our democracy.

[workinclasszero]

10. No doubt

[unblock]

7. love to agree with you, but, i can't.

if a real crisis happens and the media goes ape as usual, donnie and his brownshirts will act swiftly and forcefully to seize power, insist it has to be done now, national security and all that, we have information you don't, etc.

i agree that there are plenty more people who will look very suspiciously on them, unlike shrub and the gang after 9/11, but there is no institution capable of showing enough backbone to actually stop them.

in the face of a new 9/11 and donnie proposing the enabling act and calling it the "only terrorists oppose this act" act, do you really think republicans will stand up to oppose a strong executive asking for powers to fight terror? democrats will howls and scream, but we need republicans to go against their party in a time of crisis.

i don't see it happening, sadly.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. I have no faith in the GOP. I do think the media and Wall Street can check Trump.

Do you remember what Bush told people to do after 9-11? He told them to go shopping. The PTB is not going to allow Drumpf to destroy the economy.

[unblock]

18. ugh, i have even less faith in the billionaires who control our economy.

they will absolutely orgasm over the prospect of donnie being able to abolish the minimum wage or slash taxes or eliminate regulation with the stroke of a pen.

yes, they will be wary of donnie screwing it up, but they'll be more than happy to give him those powers.

they'll figure, worse comes to worse, they'll end up with pence as dictator.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

34. I don't have a car so I walk everywhere...

There's a Cadillac dealership about four blocks from my home. Folks are not going to want to drop $80,00.00 on an Escalade when there is blood in the streets.

Eliminating the minimum wage isn't going to help rich people a whit if Drumpf sets America's largest cities on fire. Your average Deplorable is still paying off the loan on his 1984 Saturn, and he or she isn't picking up the slack.

The rich will tolerate a lot, but they will not tolerate the end of commerce.

[unblock]

35. agree, but there's a sequence problem.

rich people give powers to dictators in exchange for short-term treats and maybe longer-term hopes.

then the dictator sets the world on fire.

only then do the rich people see the mess they've created, and some of them finance the revolution....

[Locrian]

17. i agree

this site is bubble and doesn't look like a LOT of the population. besides the "deplorables" there are plenty of "patriotic 'mericans" who will fall in line in an attack.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. This site looks like the 55% of the population who disapprove of Trump...

This site looks like the 55% of the population who disapprove of Trump, which is without precedent for a president at this early moment in his administration:

Link to tweet

[Locrian]

28. 55% yes, exactly my point

there's very little "trump supporters" here. Stunning to think, but there are people who think he's doing wonderful "big" things. I aint one of them.

But I think that if we were attacked (contrived it may be), it won't look like 911's 80-90% - but it would probably tilt majority at whoever is in charge.

[workinclasszero]

21. I'm sure many theocratic republicans would welcome the suspension of the Constitution/Bill of Rights

Bannon and his cult want to transform America into a religious dictatorship anyway and that would make it possible.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. I don't share your optimism. Fear works. But this is one instance where I'd love to be wrong. nt

[dawg]

13. That depends upon us being willing to stand up and call them out on their incompetence.

If Democrats try to play nice again, it'll be 9-11 the sequel.

[alarimer]

14. I think you may be right.

Bush was given the benefit of the doubt, because he was a "normal" president. That is, his administration was at least minimally competent and knowledge and expertise were not yet derided as unnecessary by Republicans.

But Trump is incompetent and all but the die-hards know it. He will NOT be given the benefit of the doubt. They are not even good at propaganda because different people say different things AT THE SAME TIME. They will not even be able to get the story straight.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. For all her flaws Condoleeza Rice gave off the air of normalcy.

Look at the Flynn imbroglio.

[Initech]

19. I'm starting to think that the GOP is intentionally trying to provoke one.

That's why they're throwing intelligence and the press under the bus. That's Trump is blabbing national security secrets out in the open. He wants to be America's dictator, and a terror attack would allow him to declare martial law, enact his mass deportation strategy, and go to war with Iran and/or China. That's where I think this is heading. Trump thinks he's above the law. A terror attack would allow him to declare himself above the law. It would be like Bush after 9/11 times a million.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. A war with China?

We couldn't even control Iraq with 34,000,000 people. How would we control China with 1.400,000,000 people?

[Initech]

24. I'm sure the assholes who run the military industrial complex would find a way.

It's scary to think that Trump is provoking the South China Sea on Twitter and that the Chinese wouldn't do anything to retaliate. I'm sure they would impose sanctions against us the second we lift ours against Russia. We lose in all of these scenarios.

[workinclasszero]

25. Trump Asks, If We Have [Nuclear Weapons], Why Cant We Use Them?

By Hrafnkell Haraldsson on Wed, Aug 3rd, 2016 at 12:24 pm
During a foreign policy briefing several months ago, Trump asked three times in an hour, "If we have them, why can't we use them?"
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-if-nuclear-weapons-them.html

Here's the answer to your question.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

29. Of course we are stronger militarily than China.

That is beside the point. Given its size and distance from us we could never subdue them.

[workinclasszero]

33. China's military manpower is far greater than ours

I supposed we may still have a tech edge on them and our Navy is far superior I believe.

But yes we could not subdue China by force, it would be crazy to attempt that IMO.

"Anyone wanting to commit American ground forces to the mainland of Asia should have his head examined." Gen. MacArthur

And they do have nuclear ICBM's as well that can reach the continental US so theres that.

[world wide wally]

23. We can never forget that Republicans have no sense of, or regard for patriotism, history,

or tradition. Nobility for patriotic duty is a foreign concept to them .
All they care about is having the power to make the wealthy more wealthy.
In other words, they are every bit as ruthless as Putin if they can get away with it so don't expect any "doing the right thing" from this Congress.
If anything is going to save this country, it is the people en masse.
Act accordingly.

[Initech]

26. Yup they only care about two things: wealth and power.

And their never ending quest for both is going to kill us all.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

27. I believe you are correct...

although we must spread this belief as much as we can. I try to fit it in to most every political discussion I have with people. Preemptive statements can offset fear. Pointing this out now is rather easy the WH is a dumpster fire. People will believe it's his incompetence if we point it out without pause and with complete conviction.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. This might seem like out of left field.

I was watching a gangster movie last night. Dutch Schultz ne Arthur Fledgenheimer got owned by Lucky Luciano because he was impulsive, lacked self discipline, and was given to pointless violence. Lucky Luciano was none of those things.

[hollowdweller]

31. I don't think the Dems would waste the opportunity again.

We allowed the horrible Bush admin by coming together after he ignored intelligence and 9/11 happened. We didn't hound him over fake intelligence that brought us to war. We didn't attack him viciously over tax cuts that broke the budget.

Despite this we were able to regain congress but since we did not discredit him we were unable to hold it.

THEN Obama failed to condemn the financial crisis using his bully pulpit as the culmination of trickle down and deregulation policies by the GOP.

I PRAY after Benghazi, and Clintons emails and the total shutdown of the gov't by the GOP we have learned a lesson. This is not he GOP of the 1970's or even 80's. This is one that's core ideology will bring down our country and is pro capitalism but anti democracy.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

32. I didn't go gaga after 9-11 over Bush. I did give him the benefit of the doubt.

At least his administration gave the appearance of competence.