politics

So I want to try to look at all of these from the eyes of a sane person.

He will indict Biden and his other political enemies.

This is one of those things that, if it would have been said by literally any other person, would have signalled the end of their political careers, full stop. But this is Trump. This should scare everyone outside of the extreme MAGA community, but there is a scary enough number of people who are willing to accept this, even if begrudgingly.

He will round up, intern, and deport undocumented immigrants

This wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing if done properly. Prioritize getting those who have committed serious crimes out of the country first, work your way down from there. A proper plan to identify and increase the rate of deportations would probably appeal to a lot of people, but we all know Trump's version is to just round all the brown people up and ship them to wherever.

He will send the military to the border

I'm actually going to say I don't really see a problem here. I will admit to being right-leaning on immigration, and states like Texas that have to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden that comes with illegal immigration do have a point. There's 2000 miles of border to guard. I certainly don't want our military just blindly shooting at every person that comes across the border, but having the national guard to help out with border patrol duties isn't a bad idea.

Of course, the problem is that Trump will just devolve it to "Just shoot the brown people."

He will invade Mexico

There's an argument to be made that a joint US/Mexico exercise could easily take out the cartels, who openly admit that they'd be no match for US forces. And I believe such an exercise would be of great benefit to both countries. But Mexico doesn't seem to have an appetite for it, and the US should not be once again unilaterally deciding that Mexico suddenly needs to have freedom sent over to them via ballistic missile.

Once again, there's something that could be appealing if done properly, but we all know Trump will just go back to "Just shoot the brown people."

He will round up the homeless and send the National Guard into cities to fight crime

So let me get this right. It's going to be the National Guard vs. the Homeless. And what are all those gun-toting, 2A doomsday preppers going to do when they welcome Trump's national guard in with open arms, only to find out that since they're the ones carrying all the guns, the national guard looks at them as the threat?

He will bring back the death penalty in a big way

It never went anywhere. The death penalty is already an option at the federal level.

He will make stuff more expensive by taxing all imported goods

You know what? If done properly, I'm actually OK with this at the retail level at least. Not for imported goods that we need for essential services or anything. But if it'll help cut down on all the low quality Chinese garbage at Amazon and in places like Walmart in favor of US goods, I'm all for it. But we all know how this would go: Critical goods will be heavily taxed, but Trump will make exceptions for whatever countries or companies line his personal pockets.

He will reevaluate America’s participation in NATO

There's an argument for saying that the US is going to scale back funding for NATO until other countries who have been slacking off start to pay their share. I could see that. But let's be realistic: The US withdrawing from NATO would effectively signal the end of NATO. And that should be looked upon by anyone with more than 2 active brain cells as batshit insane.

He will roll back all of Biden’s climate progress and reinvest in fossils fuels

I'm not saying I necessarily like the idea or anything, but an argument can be made that some of the goals and deadlines that have been established to combat climate change may have been too ambitious. Re-evaluating those goals and setting more realistic deadlines is a good idea; keeping idealistic but unrealistic deadlines will only lead to more missed deadlines which just leads to diminished enthusiasm and apathy with regard to climate change. Better to have goals that are realistic and achievable vs. pie-in-the-sky ambitions that were never realistic to begin with that will only cause disappointment.

He will construct “freedom cities” filled with flying cars

So he's trying to secure the "8 year old boy" vote? Someone may want to tell him kids can't vote.

He will try to overhaul the education system in the MAGA image

They're already doing that now.

He will torch the First Amendment by going after non-MAGA media

To be fair, we really are relying on a document that is almost 300 years old and was written by people who couldn't even begin to conceive of how life would be in modern society. In an ideal world, I could see the argument that the Constitution needs to be severely updated not only for clarity but also to reflect the realities of modern life. This would actually include increasing media protections, for example, in an era where doxxing of sources is a very real option, and toning down the 2nd amendment to allow for the self-defense that our founders envisioned while keeping weapons that those founders could never have dreamed of out of the hands of ordinary people.

But there is NO possible way I would want a Constitutional Convention to happen in this political climate or anything like it. We'd end up living in the Handmaid's Tale.

He will legally delegitimize trans Americans

There is some debate over what kind of care that trans children should receive. Should they be allowed to go through life-altering procedures such as puberty blockers? Are they capable of making those kind of life-changing decisions at all? How do you handle trans children who are competing in sports where some biological differences between the sexes (Bone density, lung capacity, etc) come into play and give trans children a significant advantage? What bathrooms should they be able to use?

Both sides have legitimate points on issues like this, and we as a country need to come up with a solution that all can agree on. That much I can understand. But again, that's not what would happen. We all know that it would just be "Round up every boy wearing a dress, throw his parents in jail for abuse, strip the doctor of his license for treating them, and don't forget to fire the 3rd grade teacher that referred to the child as 'her' that one time."

He will pardon the Jan. 6 rioters

The entire presidential pardon system has been abused by every single president in modern history. Trump is hardly the first one to pardon cronies, family members, people of influence, etc. He's just threatening to do it en masse and right away, instead of just waiting until his last day in office and just writing up a blanket pardon 5 minutes before the next guy's inauguration like past presidents did.

He will gut the federal government and take unprecedented control of what’s left

This is the scariest part. Because there's no reason to believe that the Supreme Court wouldn't back him up. And especially if he manages to control Congress like he did the first half of his first term. If that happens, it's all over. There will not be another election. Our system was divided up into 3 branches in such a way so the other two branches will be able to constrain the third if one goes rogue. The problem is that Trump is proving that the system is in no way equipped to do anything about it if two branches, or even all 3, collaborate to take over. The SC has already signalled its willingness to be on board, and most of the GOP congressmen are campaigning on essentially jumping on the train as well. There is a non-zero chance he may get his wish.

Vote. I don't care if it's for POTUS or your neighborhood dog catcher. Vote. Because the GOP have spent decades building the party from the ground up by establishing themselves at the bottom and working their way up from there. If we're going to combat that, we're going to have to start doing the same thing.