What Comes Next?

Trump not attending the inauguration then.

Must be an early tee off.

Sunstone said:

What comes next? Increasing violence? More to the point, does anyone still think this is all going to go away at noon on January 20th when Biden is sworn in?

How should we best navigate as a country the next few days and beyond?

Click to expand...

Perhaps a program to promote critical thinking, objective reasoning, fact checking, scientific literacy, etc.

We shouldn't have had so many who so easily "drank the kool-aid" in what was supposed to be an exemplar first world nation.

Even when Trump is gone, we'll still have this "redneck uprising" trying to drag our nation backwards.

Secret Chief said:

Trump not attending the inauguration then.

Must be an early tee off.

Click to expand...

Maybe he's afraid there might be trouble there?

crossfire said:

Maybe he's afraid there might be trouble there?

Click to expand...

As if he was in on it, perchance.

Jayhawker Soule said:

Unity? Andrew Johnson was great ...

... if you were white.​

Click to expand...

I was referring more to U.S. Grant, but thanks for playing.

Heyo said:

I wasn't thinking that far, that's beyond my boldest dreams.
I was just thinking about the culture that led to Trump.

Click to expand...

Well, when you refer to the culture that led to Trump, I think we're talking about the same thing. Trump didn't invent that culture, though. The culture you're referring to existed before Trump was even born. Trump is a product of that culture, as are most of his followers, as well as those who oppose him. That's what so bizarre about these debates, as so many people act like they never even heard of America prior to 2016.

Rooting out people and laws that made it possible for Trump to ruin democracy in the US. The Weimar Republic wasn't militant enough, it didn't have the tools to prevent fascism. It seems the US also lacks those tools and, unfortunately, the mentality.

Click to expand...

Democracy has not been ruined in the U.S., not by any measure that I'm aware of. Certainly, Trump isn't capable of doing that. In fact, for as much as people have been saying Trump is a fascist, another Hitler, etc., Trump actually turned out to be just what many of us expected - a blowhard, filled with nothing but hot air.

The U.S. is still plugging along. There's only 12 days left until Trump leaves office, and from all indications, he will be gone by then. Even Trump has said as much, so I would offer that as clear evidence that the U.S. does have the tools to prevent fascism.

I'll admit my knowledge of German history may be somewhat cursory and incomplete, but did Germany have any sort of democratic tradition or structure prior to the overthrow of the Kaiser in 1918? A lot of Americans have no real conception of what it's like to live under a monarchy. Our country was founded by very staunch anti-monarchists, so the idea of a king or a tsar or a kaiser is somewhat alien to us. It's that notion which has kept Trump in check, since most of his supporters would never go for the idea of Trump becoming a king. That's simply not America.

I also believe that Germany was in much more dire straits in the years following WW1 than anything America experienced. But if nothing else, the post-WW1 settlement and aftermath might suggest that harsh punishments and vendettas might not necessarily lead to the desired result. The Allied post-war treatment of (West) Germany after WW2 was much different than after WW1. Yes, they did put the top Nazis on trial and engaged in de-Nazification, but they also poured a lot of money and investment to help rebuild German industries and infrastructure. They needed German cooperation against the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.

However, as I writing that last paragraph, an idea came to me as to how we can resolve this mess. If people want to put Trump and many of his law-breaking followers on trial, then so be it. We can have a Nuremberg Trial and deal with that, but there must also be a tremendous influx of investment in the impoverished regions of this country. Industries must be rebuilt, factories restored, infrastructure upgraded, and job opportunities for all. A kind of "Marshall Plan" for America. If we can do it for Germany, we can do it for America.

Shadow Wolf said:

Unfortunately Republicans are not uniform in condemning Trump's lies and renouncing the fallout. Some are still feeding into it as I type this.
And, unfortunately, I fear the inauguration may have a more violent turnout today. So many people are convinced Biden's presidency is illegitimate I just don't see this coming to an end then.
It will continue in 2022. Maybe 2024 as well.

Click to expand...

Hate to say "I told you so"...but I made a thread about this very thing happening months ago.
The 30+ days that could define the next four years
Do you remember when I tried to talk about the possibility of violence back then you said of the Trump supporters that they were "powerless" and "let them". Well here we are.

In terms of violence, I really think the worst is yet to come. And Biden/Harris are about to give our current Police State a massive dose of extra strength steroids.