Aftermath of the militia takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters
- Thread starter Cheetah
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BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
Wishful thinking is a product of fanciful imaginings, not reality. Eight years ago, tons of people imagined that Obama would suffer an assassination attack during his term in office. The reality was that he’s just fine and dandy. Now people are imagining that there will be some sort of armed uprising after Trump loses. The reality is that political violence has been on a steady decline in the United States for many years. The reality is that people in the contemporary United States do not use to protest election results. In 2012, Trump called for revolution after Obama’s victory. The reality was no one listened to him then. They will not listen to similar calls now.
Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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Haven't you noticed the unprecedented nature of this election? When was the last time we had a major candidate openly hint at assassinating his opponent, starting a revolution if he loses, and canceling the election and handing it to himself? You seem committed to a rosy view of things despite the growing evidence that things won't be so rosy.
MHO. The revolution talk is all talk. Trump just rolled back his threats of suing all of his accusers. However, in a nation of 300 million people, a single-digit number of incidents is very much possible, and there needs to be a plan for that. Before we have another reverse-Harpers-Ferry attack (which, ironically, could happen literally in Harpers Ferry, seeing as how WV is highly pro-Trump, coal miners, and all that).
BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
Every election seems unprecedented when you are in its midst, a great upending in which the game gets changed in so many ways. In fact, little changes and the only thing you can rely upon is that past is prologue. The evidence, the meaningful and predictive evidence, is the history in contemporary America of resolving our electoral disputes through the civil apparatus.
And you are grossly overestimating the threat Trump and his supporters actually pose. Trump supporters are the type that will piss and moan on the couch, but when Trump calls for them to actually take action, they will be nowhere to be found. And even if they did attempt a violent uprising, it would be promptly crushed by the police and military and we would all go back to living our lives.
Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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Have you already forgotten the attempted terrorist attack in Garden City?
Kozmos
Jew Detective
Not to dogpile, but wouldn't such a move be a serious blow to the unity of the Republic? It might give actual legitimacy to secessionists.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
I'm more of skeptical of that. Deplorables have found their champion. They might lay low, but they will be there, watching, waiting, agitating.
Hey, if secessionists really want to go down that road again, that's their problem. Last time they got stomped pretty hard and they were more evenly matched with the federal government back then.
They failed miserably and were apprehended. If that is indicative of the quality of Trump's "revolutionaries", then the life of any attempted uprising will be measured in hours before it is put down.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
Well I can understand that viewpoint, but aren't you concerned that some generals might take sides with the secessionists? Like the lure of creating formal Jesuslands becomes too strong.
Some generals joined the secessionists last time too.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
True, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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And the result was the bloodiest, bitterest war in American history, leaving wounds that never healed. Yet you seem to be very dismissive of how dangerous a repeat would be.
The problem is, it only takes a few secessionists to band together and actually act. 99.99% of the Trump supporters can talk tough on the internet, but it only takes that 0.01%. And the Feds' options for dealing with it are all lose/lose. You can't just brutally crush it--that means you martyr them and take a political hit. And set a dangerous precedent.
warpus
In pork I trust
It's not like there's going to be another civil war in the U.S. anytime soon. Where are these people going to get tanks, armoured infantry vehicles, and fighter jets? All they're going to have is a bunch of guns.
And information. And several gallons of blood. Therein lies the problem.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
If you have to resort to tanks as the final argument, you have lost something essential that is very hard to retrieve from that point onward without atrocities.
