A Second Trump Term Would Be A Hellscape Of Indescribable Proportions

[Celerity]

No impeachment, no 25th Amendment, no indictments. And, worst of all, no election. Nothing.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/a-second-trump-term-would-be-a-hellscape



WASHINGTON, DC -- For some time now, I’ve been trying to crystalize into words specifically why a second term of the Donald Trump poseur presidency would be catastrophic for the American republic. And I think I’ve landed on the central reason why it would be a nightmare of gargantuan proportions. We’ve all witnessed, front row center, the ceaseless firehose of news -- endlessly blasting us in the face, around the clock in some cases, with all varieties of soul crushing nincompoopery, maliciousness, racism, misogyny, indecency and genocide-level death since inauguration day. Indeed, the horrendousness extends further back in time to the campaign, but the existential crisis began when Trump officially kerplunked his way into the White House.

So far, we’ve been rendered mostly powerless when it comes to fighting back. While there have been some significant gains in the House through special elections and, naturally, the 2018 midterms, Trump has been able to continue his disruption of the American system without being truly handcuffed. This is, to me, the primary reason for this sense of powerlessness. When it comes to accountability in a second term, there’s little to no chance Trump will be removed through another impeachment. Even if the Democrats take back the Senate, there won’t be 67 votes to remove -- and that’s if Nancy Pelosi is willing to impeach Trump again. So, while a Democratic Congress would thwart the Trump legislative agenda -- and that’s nothing to sneeze at -- Trump will have little fear of another impeachment.

We also know that Bill Barr’s Justice Department will never indict him, at least while he’s president. That door’s shut, too. Likewise, it should be relatively obvious by now that there won’t be any removal through the terms of the 25th Amendment, either. Mike Pence doesn’t have the guts for it, and Trump’s cabinet is, by now, mostly loaded with sycophants and spineless weasels. As of today, the only way Trump can be removed is through the election, and I know very few of us who are 100 percent confident that Trump will lose. Despite that, Trump is constrained by the fact that he has to run again. Sure, he desperately wants -- and needs -- a second term, primarily to keep himself out of prison for a while longer. However, he knows that if he hauls his ponderous bulk too deeply into the realms of despotism and totalitarianism, he might lose in November. Believe it or not, Trump is absolutely constrained by the accountability of the election. It often doesn’t seem like it, but he is. Along those lines, here’s why a second Trump term would be a hellscape of indescribable proportions.

For a moment, think back through the last four years of Trump, including the deadly incompetent response to the plague. Now, imagine all that amplified by a factor of a gazillion, knowing how Second Term Biff would be operating for another four years completely unfettered by all accountability, including an election. No impeachment, no 25th Amendment, no indictments. And, worst of all, no election. Nothing. Four more years, and literally zero constraints on the blood-curdling horror show that would begin on November 4, should this election go badly for Joe Biden and the Democrats. An unconstrained, unaccountable Trump is what some of the more radical Bernie Sanders supporters don’t seem to grasp. In their effort to kneecap Joe Biden’s general election campaign before it’s barely on the ground, and thus helping Trump’s chances, they’re losing sight of the very basic, textbook aspects of what it’d mean to have a president who didn’t really care about or respect the array of constitutional strictures in his first term, and they certainly haven’t stopped to consider how or why he’d become far worse in a second term. All they care about is their agenda, but their agenda will be set back decades if Trump gets the chance to immolate the foundation upon which that agenda would be built.

snip