Galloping towards the Apocalypse
Democrats and progressives have been celebrating their electoral gains in the House of Representatives and in local and state races.
But Republicans will gain one or more seats in the U.S. Senate, and 85 year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg just had a bad fall and broke some ribs.
If the Supreme Court rules that that Trump can fire Mueller or that the House of Representatives can’t investigate Trump, that would cause a constitutional crisis and result in massive civil unrest.
Such rulings are more likely now that Kavanaugh has been confirmed and will be even more likely given the likelihood that Trump will get to appoint a third Supreme Court Justice.
Trump has already threatened to bring the government to a halt if Dems investigate him.
The question is: would voices of sanity in the Supreme Court (maybe Chief Justice Roberts) realize that a highly partisan ruling about investigations of Trump could result in a constitutional crisis?
The right is so deranged, living in a fantasy world of fake news and conspiracy theories. I fear for the future of the nation. Hopefully Roberts and others on the Supreme Court will realize that the nation’s future is at stake.
For an example of craziness, consider: Matthew Whitaker: acting attorney general said judges should be Christian “Trump’s replacement for Jeff Sessions to lead the justice department said judges needed a ‘biblical view of justice’.” Whitaker has also expressed skepticism about the Mueller investigations.
Another example: Spokane GOP leader authors ‘Biblical Basis for War’ manifesto calling for end to abortion, same-sex marriage and death of enemies who disagree. FBI investigating Washington state rep. for manifesto urging ‘all males will be killed’. But the legislator, Matt Shea, won re-election.
Another example: Right-wing Evangelical letter opposing Faithful America, containing conspiracy theories and distortions. The letter, signed by over 4000 right wing Christians denounces, in part:
1. A growth industry trafficking in human baby organs and body parts, funded and defended by the Democratic Party.
2. The abandonment of a biblical view of marriage that protected and liberated children and adults from centuries of pagan slavery, poverty, polygamy and non-life-giving sexuality.
3. The Transgender agenda including gender “reorientation†of our children, also being forced on our neighbors, businesses, schools, military and churches.
4. Socialism, higher taxes and government regulations. These policies stifle human creativity, productivity, family stability and generosity. Such policies increase joblessness, welfare dependency and national debt.
Faithful America also reports: “In Georgia, the Republican candidate for governor used his position as secretary to state to purge more than 1.5 million voters from the rolls and shut down hundreds of polling places – likely enough to decide the election.” Such voter suppression tactics are widespread.
Is it true that 1.5 million voters were purged in Georgia? According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 500,000 voters were recently purged.  “Since 2012, according to federal and state data, Georgia has removed about 1.4 million people from the voting rolls.”
Whatever the exact number, such blatant voter-disenfranchisement is despicable and warrants an organized national response. Boycott of Georgia?
North Carolina and other states enacted similar policies.
Given all this craziness, this well-written article seems quite plausible: America’s Next Civil War. “The United States shows all the warning signs of impending social and political collapse.”  The article describes the extreme divisions in American politics and the failure of major institutions. It envisions the outbreak of violence.
So, progressives don’t have a lot to be pleased about. What’s more, this article, Progressives’ plan for victory just took a gut-punch. Now what do they do?, suggests that progressives flipped few seats in the 2018 election. “Despite a good night for congressional Democrats overall, nearly all of national progressive groups’ star candidates fell short in their contests in red or purple districts and states, potentially slowing the momentum the emboldened left had enjoyed since Hillary Clinton’s loss two years ago.” (Or is that story biased?)
The far left — meaning those who regarded Hillary and the Dems as the “lesser-of-two-evils” and refused to vote for them — may be correct that the mainstream Dems were helping the GOP set the U.S. on a path towards environmental, budgetary and military destruction. But at least the Dems were doing so slowly. Realistically, the mainstream Dems are centrists and, generally, hawks, but they’re not deranged like the Republicans. They would have protected the EPA, the Supreme Court, the separation of church and state, gay rights, labor rights, etc., etc.
The Republicans are galloping towards the Apocalypse, or a Second Civil War.
Progressive Dems — many of them young women — won many races. So there is hope. But can the center hold or will the nation further split into warring factions of Trumpian Republicans on the one hand, and Democrats and other leftists on the other? Furthermore, can the Left heal the divisions between the Democrats and the radicalizing socialists fed up with the corporate, centrist Dems? If the socialists would join forces with the progressive Dems, together they could together kick out the corporate Dems and reform the Democratic Party.