Tuesday open thread: This is untenable. Something must give.
 |
| An image from the Chilean coup of 1973. |
As I've written before, my favorite science fiction television program is not any of the Star Trek iterations. It is, instead, the seminal series by J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5.
Throughout its first four seasons, there were two interrelated story arcs: the battle against the ancient evil of the Shadows, and a creeping fascism at home in the Earth Alliance. The president of the Earth Alliance turns out to be in league with the Shadows, instituting martial law and forming a fascist state. This leads to a civil war, with large parts of the Earth's military rebelling against illegal and unconstitutional actions.
Babylon 5 was much on my mind as these three stories came across.
Donald Trump Closes Key Military Base as the CIA Sounds the Alarms
I've stopped trying to predict what's going to happen. I was under the delusion that at least a bare majority of my fellow-voters were intelligent enough to not put a felon into the Oval Office. So I have no idea what's going to happen.
But I am getting serious Babylon 5 vibes now. What Donald Trump is doing is not only changing America's foreign policy, but openly siding with America's enemies. Whether he's doing it because he is in fact a Russian asset, or out of a simple hatred of a society which sees him as a buffon, is immaterial. His actions are those of a traitor to the nation and the Constitution.
Could the security services intervene before Trump turns this nation into a satrapy of a third rate power? I don't know. I know nothing any longer. Up is down and night is day. The Founders never foresaw this. They provided for a republic of liberty and virtue. As children of the Enlightenment, they thought the edifice they constructed would bar a man like Trump from gaining power. Of course, they were wrong. (About so many things, of course. Slavery being the worst of their sins.)
We are literally in uncharted waters. There be monsters here.
Another show which has stuck with me was a short-lived series from the late 1990s called Freedom. I would be surprised if anyone reading this piece remembers it. It came and left in seven episodes. In that series, Air Force one is destroyed, killing the president. The military assumes control, and establishes a dictatorship. Before any of us start cheering for the possibility of a coup, we must be cognizant that such an event would not lead to a restoration of our democratic norms, but their final expungement.
Damn every single person who got us into this situation where we even have to entertain the unthinkable. All Trump voters. All third party voters. And all eligible voters who couldn't be bothered to turn off the television and vote to protect this nation. We are the most coddled and incurious electorate in the democratic world. This weekend Germany went to the polls. Turnout stood at 84%. I doubt it has ever reached that in this country. If we lose our Republic, it will be because its citizens just didn't care about it.
I both yearn for and dread the intervention which I feel is coming. It didn't have to be like this. However, it is where we are, and at least for me I won't go down willingly.
I must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.
This is your open thread.