Election result opens a vision into a dystopian future

Either way, could this be our future?

     Last night I experienced a mental flash, a quick peek into the future that scared the living hell out of me. It began with the news that a woman had won an off-year election in Georgia. The woman, a Republican, had been quoted during the campaign that she didn't think people deserved to earn a living wage, she didn't care.

     "This is an example of the fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative; I do not support a livable wage," Karen Handel said on Atlanta's WSB-TV in response to a viewer question about raising the minimum wage.

     That was one of several outrageous statements she made during the campaign, but it was the one that stood out for me and I wondered in that flash how anybody in a right mind could vote for someone who said something like that. But the quote and the election victory were only the beginning of the flash; they only triggered it.

     From that moment my mind went to a potentially hopeless situation. I have been able to endure the Trump administration lately because I can almost see a way out of it. As investigations move closer to revealing the corruption there is room for some optimism this horrible era in American democracy can be brought to an end at least by the Congressional election next year. Part of that hope also is that the outrageous situation in Washington will lead thinking people in the country to vote with their minds and turn out the people who are doing so much damage. But with everything that's going on a majority in one congressional district still saw the way to elect someone who does not support a living wage. People elected the very candidate who would do them the most harm.

     Then the thought broadened across the country. Will every election in the near future turn out this way? Will, despite things like a health care act that could endanger as many as 100 million people not discourage administration supporters in the 2018 congressional election. Will people still return those supposed representatives to office to continue the destruction?

     The next part of the flash went to current news about hate crimes and their increase, immigrant roundups with no legal defense, random killings of Muslims, Sikhs, black people, anybody who is "not like us."

     Also news reports have documented the growth of quasi militia groups on the country. People on the edges who train and outfit themselves to fight for their rights. Just recently one such group called for recruits in the coming civil war. A civil war? Who are they going to fight? Aren't civil wars usually fought between governments and upset citizens?  Most of these people seem to be on the side of the Trump government. Then it hit me. The civil war is not threatened against the government, it is aimed at people like me. The threat is if the criticism and investigations lead to an end to the Trump administration, the militias will  hunt down the people they blame, those commie liberals. Here is an exact quote from one such group.

     If the drumbeat of verbal attacks, leaks and otherwise destructive assaults on President Donald J. Trump, his family, those around him and their supporters do not soon abate, expect right-wing militias and other reactive vigilantes to spring into action, resulting in a full-fledged civil war, with blood flowing in our neighborhoods and streets," wrote Larry Klayman a lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor who founded Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch.

     And this one came from everybody's favorite conspiracy twit and apparent confidante of Donald Trump, Alex Jones: "You guys better have some helicopter jump jets and be ready to get out of here real quick if the actual civil war kicks off … You’re going to get wrecked bad. There are a lot of people like Santa Claus been making a list, been checking it twice about who’s been naughty and nice. And you kick off Civil War 2, baby, you’ll think Lexington and Concord was a cake walk."

     The monologue has become more serious and more violent. Granted those making the threats are on the fringe of the political spectrum and don't represent a large number of people, but when you have an enabling president who slyly encourages such violence and turns his back when it happens, what they are saying is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

     So, there you have it. Democrats think the closeness of the Georgia election shows they are on the right track for 2018. But suppose the close victory actually encourages Republicans and gives them the arrogant confidence to continue their destruction of the government and further depressing the general population because they think their money can win tight elections, and then they go ahead and do it. To them it's still a mandate albeit a closer one, and they have the people behind them to continue the disassembly of the Republic.

   If not and if by some miracle progressive heads regain control of our future, are those of us who still can think, going to have to join in arms against marauding goons in camo sporting AR-15s with god and the president on their side?

     Suddenly in a flash last night and then again today walking past the "Resist" bumper sticker on my vehicle and then noticing a mysterious red "X" on the front license plate it all seemed plausible – plausible to the point where I, personally, might have been targeted already. No matter what, I am removing that "X."
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