Ominous signs of impending upheaval
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It appears there may be trouble ahead.
With little more than two weeks to go until Election Day, signs are surfacing that America may be in for a very rough ride, beginning Nov. 5.
In the past several days, stories have started to emerge, suggesting that real turmoil may erupt if Trump wins back the White House.
Viewed in isolation, such accounts are concerning, but when examined together, they're downright alarming, as collectively, they indicate a season of anarchy may be bearing down upon us.
SABOTAGING CERTIFICATION
For much of 2024, Democrats insisted that they would refrain from weaponizing the certification process if Trump were reelected.
"We're not election deniers,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, assured voters in March. "This is all about the ballot box. So this is about democracy, and the voters get to decide who they want to have as their elected officials."
Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA), who oversaw the former president's second impeachment trial, agreed. Objections to a second Trump term "would only be legitimate if there's an actual problem with a particular vote in a particular state," said Rep. Lieu. "I don't think people should object just because they don't like the outcome of the election. That's what Republicans do, and that's just called being sore losers."
This was the core of the Democratic Party's carefully-crafted narrative:
To block certification would be to stoop to MAGA's level, and party members are above that. Democrats are liberty-loving, "for the people" people. They have too much integrity to debase themselves by impeding the transfer of power. Trump, not Harris, is the power-mad authoritarian; the salivating fascist; the would-be despot eager to incite insurrection. Harris wants to lift Americans up to new heights; Trump wants to crush them beneath an iron boot.
In the waning weeks of summer, however, DC watchers began to discern a shift in messaging among some Democrats.
In August, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, gave a startling assessment of what America may expect from his party if Trump wins. "It's going to be up to us on Jan. 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he's disqualified," Raskin said, "and then we need bodyguards for everybody and civil war conditions ...."
"For the Democrats, democracy is when they win, and fascism is when they lose," political analyst Michael Knowles warned in response to Raskin's inflammatory rhetoric. "When the people elect Donald Trump, that's a threat to democracy. ... They're just redefining words ... in the same way that they redefine the word 'woman' ... to them, an election is only legitimate if they win."
Earlier this month, Raskin doubled down, telling Axios that if the former president "won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it." But, the Maryland Democrat added, he "definitely" does not believe that Trump will employ "free, fair and honest means" in his bid for re-election, accusing the former president of "doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process ..."
Representative James Comer (R-Ky), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, slammed Raskin for his comments, calling him "the ultimate hypocrite."
"He talks a big game about 'saving democracy' yet actively undermines it by sowing seeds of doubt in America's free and fair elections when it benefits him to do so," Rep. Comer observed.
Meanwhile, last week saw a surge of reports indicating that Democrats are preparing a series of barriers to employ in the event of a Trump victory, including a Politico piece indicating the scale of Democratic efforts now underway:
"The Harris campaign is already involved in dozens of lawsuits – one official we spoke with last night boasted about winning nine out of ten cases that have already been decided – while assembling what they are calling the 'biggest voter protection operation in presidential campaign history.' Hundreds of lawyers are on call for Harris in all 50 states ...."
CONFLICT IN THE COURTS, AND BEYOND
In the battleground state of Georgia, Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that election boards must certify results, even if voter fraud is suspected. The decree struck down several new provisions enacted by the State Election Board designed to strengthen election integrity, including "a requirement for all ballots to be hand counted by three county election officials after they had been machine tabulated to ensure the totals match."
Meanwhile, in Virginia, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice filed suit to prevent a purge of noncitizens from the state's voter rolls, claiming the clean-up came too close to Election Day.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, blasted the DOJ's action as a "politically-motivated" attempt at election interference, and vowed to fight it with every weapon in his legal arsenal:
"Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia's election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period."
"The real fireworks," forecasts Politico, will erupt "after Election Day. With as many as seven swing states expected to be closely contested within a percentage point or two, litigation could dominate the weeks after ballots are cast."
Clashes may well accompany a Trump win outside the courts, as well – in the office, in the home, and in the streets.
In a sobering interview with Tucker Carlson last week, journalist Mark Halperin predicted that if the former president emerges from Nov. 5 victorious, it will spark an eruption unlike anything the United States has ever seen.
"I say this – not flippantly – I think it will be the cause of the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country," Halperin warned. "I think tens of millions of people will question their connection to the nation, their connection to other human beings ... their vision of what their future, for them and their children, could be like. ... I think it will lead to trauma in the workplace ... I think there'll be alcoholism; there'll be broken marriages."
"The fact that under a fair election, America chose by the rules, pre-agreed to, Donald Trump again – I think it will cause the biggest mental health crisis in the history of America, and I don't think it will be kind of a passing thing, that by the inauguration, we'll be fine; I think it will be sustained and unprecedented and hideous, and I don't think the country's ready for it.
I think there'll be some violence. I think there'll be workplace fights; there'll be fights at kids' birthday parties; I think there'll be protests that will turn violent ... I think it'll be less anger and more a failure to understand how it could happen ... like the death of a child ... something that's so traumatic that it is impossible for even the most mentally healthy person to truly process and incorporate into their daily life."
"I think that's what's going to happen for tens of millions of people," Halperin added, "because they think that ... their fellow citizens supporting Trump is a sign of fundamental evil at the heart of their fellow citizens and of the nation."
Writer, editor and producer Stephen Wynne has spent the past seven years covering, from a Catholic perspective, the latest developments in the Church, the nation and the world. Prior to his work in journalism, he spent eight years co-authoring “Repairing the Breach,” a book examining the war of worldviews between Christianity and Darwinism. A Show-Me State native, he holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pepperdine University and an Executive MBA from the Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The last time Trump won, I was pushed four separate times at a karaoke location because I was the only older person there (the 20 and 30 somethings figured I must have voted Trump). I never had problems there before or after that day.
Meanwhile, at my workplace, the racial problems disappeared immediately!!
I can't argue with anything in this report; I've cancelled travel plans which would have happened after election day....because I think Trump is going to win. The "summer of love" violence is the template for what we can expect...and must prepare for.