I’m starting to get more and more curious as to what could potentially happen if the USA manages to have another election (doubtful at this point), and the dems actually manage to get back in.

The rightwing/trump has now ‘normalised’ sending in gestapo to blue states to terrorize them into obedience. They openly encourage war crimes internationally. They accept bribes with a shrug. They destroy any form of paper agreement the second the whim strikes. They have no reservations about witholding funding for things like disaster relief, based on tertiary political projects / initiatives.

Like realistically, internationally, one of the few ways I can see the USA trying to salvage what’s left of their tattered reputation, would be to do the unthinkable: offer up their people for the international criminal court and allow people like Hegseth to be tried for war crimes. Internally, the steps they’d need to take to prevent a repeat “next time around with the republicans”, would likely need to be equally harsh – like impeaching/removing most of the supreme court, firing all of Trumps “loyalty” appointees and trying them, quickly, for treason. Holding ICE accountable as a terrorist organisation, leveraging terror tactics against American citizens - abolishing it entirely in the process. They’d need to hold all the epstein pedos accountable, and burn many of the rich oligarchs empires to the ground.

Those steps would almost certainly cause the 30-40% of americans who still support the republicans, to take up arms / protest more violently. When they lost an election, they tried an insurrection – imagine what they’d do if you threw their fascist leaders in prison? But taking half-measures / apologising / forgiving the actions of the republicans during this term, would likely not be enough for the majority of non-democrats – cause, as noted, it’ll just repeat, and continue devolving.

Honestly not too sure where they go from here. It feels like it’s going to be a steady, albeit somewhat drawn out, descent into civil war.

As much as I would personally like to see those responsible held to account I think you’re right in that it would cause untold amounts of harm. It is the right thing to do but there would be huge fallout.

Personally I think America and it’s reputation would benefit much more from putting in place robust laws, even amendments to the constitution to openly and definitively show the world “guys, we’re really sorry. This will absolutely not happen again. Ever”. That’s the only way.

If you prosecute those responsible without changing anything then they will be back with even more vengeance and even more extreme and messed up ideas.

Yeah, though, they tried half measures before, after the attempted coup. The result was that the republicans came back worse than before. So realistically, I can’t imagine half measures being enough for anyone that isn’t “all in” on the fascism thing. Cause you’ve literally got people doin nazi salutes in the administration’s orbit, and the more you compromise, the more you inch towards their goals – and the dems have done that so consistently over the years that it’s lead them to this point. The frustration with the dems habit of compromising, is likely also why there are more younger sorts challenging older dems: people are pissed off with the lack of action / accountability currently on offer from the democrat elite.

And implementing laws, isn’t likely to be viewed as an effective control / result, considering the current administration just ignores the laws / courts / constitution. If the military is completely under the command of the commander in chief, and its so massively lopsided in funding compared to anything else in America, and the commander in chief decides to turn it on the people, there’s nothing stopping the next iteration of American Fascism really. If you only have two parties, and they’re able to collude/scheme between all levels / branches of government, it invalidates the concept of checks and balances. Those sorts of issues are core to the current failure we’re seeing in American politics, but they’re also core to how American politics has “functioned” for decades. Changing those sorts of institutions, again, feels like it’d require that descent into civil war.

Like let’s say analysts come together and figure out one of the major contributors to the current mess was the electoral college setup – a legacy configuration left over from the times of slavery to redistribute votes for racist reasons etc. And the consensus amongst all those analyst sorts, let’s say, is that the fix is to get rid of it: doing so would help to move towards elections being based on a majority of the popular vote. But it’d also give the dems a huge boost, likely angering most “red” states. It’s the sort of change that likely couldn’t get made without the red states agreeing, and it’s the sort of thing they’d refuse to do, even after having followed a pant-shitting felon and alleged pedophile down a path of self-destruction for the country. These same red states are the ones that have been providing ICE troops for deployment to places like Minnesota, shooting civilians in the streets without a care. They’ll absolve themselves of any wrong doing, and demand concessions for any initiative pushed forward by democrats, concessions that will basically infuriate the terrorized victims in the blue states. idk.

Like imagining myself in the shoes of a Minnesotan, seeing that Texans (iirc?) apparently feel totally fine rolling in and shooting people in your streets as part of a gestapo force – and seeing all the red states cheer this shit while FOX and the administration accuse your dead neighbours of having been terrorists?? I really don’t think a couple extra laws is gonna be enough to make me ok with that. I’d be demanding all those agents be held accountable for their reign of terror at my door. Hell, I’d be in favour of having state-level military/measures, specifically for the purpose of opposing such future federal terror campaigns / over-reach.