Gearing up for a "Nero Decree"

I think it's safe to say that if Joe Biden beats Donald Trump in fifty days, Trump won't go quietly.

Biden is already gearing up and staffing up to counter any Trump shenanigans. Colorado has successfully enjoined Louis DeJoy's United States Postal Service from mailing deceptive material about the election. Several states are also suing to roll back changes at USPS which could possibly hamper vote-by-mail. We are winning on many fronts.

However, such measures would have been unimaginable even in 2016. In 2020, we have to sue and sue and prepare to defend the election results, which right now seem to be pointing to a massive loss for the Republican Party.

But over the past couple of days, something darker has emerged.

Take, for example, this quote:

“I think if Biden wins, the world is over, basically,” adds Arthur. “I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasn’t an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.”

Or this, just from yesterday, from an official in the Trump "administration": 

The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus made outlandish and false accusations on Sunday that career government scientists were engaging in “sedition” in their handling of the pandemic and that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.

Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump, even if that opposition bolsters the Covid-19 death toll.

Mr. Caputo, who has faced intense criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump’s pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger from opponents of the administration. “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get,” he urged his followers.

When Nazi Germany was facing complete defeat, Adolf Hitler issued what was known as the "Nero decree":

Nothing was to be spared that might potentially aid the Allies. “Our nation’s struggle for existence forces us to utilize all means,” Hitler proclaimed, “to inflict lasting damage on the striking power of the enemy.” The order applied to all production, communication, and transportation facilities. Railroads, bridges, communication lines, docks, public utilities, factories and mines were to be demolished. Hitler entrusted to the military commanders as well as to the Reich Defense Commissars and Gauleiter, Nazi Party administrative officials known for their fanaticism, the task of carrying out this draconian edict. There were to be no exceptions. 

Now, this is not to say that I expect Trump to do something like this. He will try to do as much damage as he can, as any cornered animal will.

However, from the two quotes above, I think it's safe to say that we will see a reaction to his defeat and expulsion, the severity of which we cannot know right now.

Germans, in the face of advancing Soviets, committed suicide rather than be at the mercy of the Russians. And there was a short-lived resistance movement after the war in which Nazi fighters struck at Allied occupation forces.

When a totalitarian or authoritarian political movement meets its demise—a movement which maintained itself through means of brain-washing propaganda—how its followers react can run the gamut from exhausted resignation and a getting on with life under a new order, to suicide—either singly or en masse—to violent opposition. We'll see all three in the aftermath of the fall of the Trump regime. Most people will accept their fate and get on with their lives; the survival instinct is an evolutionary imperative to most humans. But some will, like Arthur above hints at, commit suicide, either singly, or taking others with them. And then a minority will, like Caputo, lash out in violence against those they see as destroying their way of life.

We can expect that Trump will do nothing to dampen the fire he created. No, he'll pour gasoline on the flame, in an effort to make this country ungovernable for the incoming administration. There will be a transfer of power; of that have no doubt. But it won't be easy, or even peaceful. I can see the current regime not briefing the incoming Biden staff about what's going on. (Granted, their briefings would be useless, as prevarication is their meat, and Biden would already be receiving briefings from career government officials. But this country has transitioned from one government to another peacefully for over two centuries, and the Trump regime not honoring that tradition is not beyond the pale of imagination.)

As citizens and believers in democracy and humanity, we have to be prepared for actions such as these, from people taking their own lives so as not to live under a "Biden dictatorship", to isolated violent incidents from die-hard Trumpists wanting to sow fear in the populace which rejected their Messiah.

November 3rd won't be the end. Neither will January 20. The rot in this country has been festering for decades. The country is changing for the better; the reaction, across class, race, and gender, to the call for justice following George Floyd's killing is testament to that. But that doesn't mean we're on calm seas. There will be plenty of rough water to traverse before we reach harbor. We have to be ready for that, and not despair if things seem to be going slow. Recovering from an illness, as COVID-19 shows, can be a long, excruciating battle. But there's nothing else for it but to set to the work.

President Obama always said: We are the ones we've been waiting for. We have a better world to create. This is the task which we have to take up, as points of light.