Will the US survive?
The US (and other Democratic/Republic nations) have a tradition that when the Party in power is voted out of office and a new Party takes the reigns of government, it is a peaceful transition. In my lifetime, which stretches back to Harry Truman, there has only been one stretch where one party held the office of President for more than 8 years (Reagan/George H. W. Bush) and only one where a sitting President was not reelected (Carter). The point being that each time there was a peaceful transition of power. The campaign for the Presidency might become hot and heavy with attacks and counter-attacks by the candidates, but once the election was over the losers conceded gracefully and the winners accepted graciously. Never in the history of the United States have we attempted to prosecute a former President or Presidential Candidate for something they may (or may not) have said or done in the performance of their previous governmental positions. Additionally, every serious Presidential Candidate was expected to have some background in government it they were to be taken seriously. Certainly there have been candidates with no experience who have run - Nader and Perot come to mind, there have been others - but they were never considered to have a valid chance.
In the last election, the Republican Candidate, John McCain, gently but firmly repudiated the birther/Muslim/non-citizen meme being pushed when he told a woman that Obama was a good and decent man who was born here, who was a Christian, and that he was just someone that McCain had policy differences with. Note that the birther myth may not have originated with Donald Trump, but it was certainly fanned into a driving myth by him.
This election is radically different. The GOP has nominated a man with absolutely no background government, has never been elected to any office and is running on a platform devoid of any real policy, simply one of hate and fear. He has threatened to imprison his opponent after the election, he has threatened to destroy the First Amendment. He seems to have absolutely no real understanding of how our Federal Government operates. He has suggested that his supporters assassinate his opponent, he has preached to his supporters that if he doesn't get elected it will be because the election are rigged. He claims that the media (including any newspaper, TV station, radio personality, or blogger) who disagrees on anything he says is part of a vast cabal that is out to 'get us' and 'destroy our very civilization'. He has suggested that his followers go armed to polling places in black neighborhoods and 'challenge voters' - apparently anyone who might be thinking about voting for anyone but him. He has actually claimed that "[He] is the only person who can save us".
He has engendered a tidal wave of hate and fear that hasn't been seen in this country in nearly 60 years. Perhaps this sort of thing has to happen every few generations. The Constitution was ratified in 1789. Seventy years we had the Civil War. Ninety years later the Civil Rights Movement began, and sixty years later we have Trump. Perhaps we need to be shaken out of our complacency every now and then.
But now is a different time. Things that were once 'unthinkable' are not 'thinkable'. Blowing up buildings to 'try and start a race war'. Shooting up a school full of kids. Start with High Schools and work you way down to Sandy Hook. Blow up a Government Building and work your way down to shooting up night clubs. The violence of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement is at least understandable, the random violence of today is not.
I will go vote early on November 8th. I will go to my strongly Red precinct and cast my ballot for every Democrat on the ballot from Hillary on down. If there isn't a Democrat running for a particular office, I won't vote for anyone for that office. Then I will go home and wait for results. I will have food stocked for the next couple of days. I won't go out. I will 'shelter in place'. Regardless of the outcome I expect 'civil unrest' and I have no interest in being part of it. Will the Trumpers grudgingly finally come to accept that their candidate actually lost because a majority of Americans voted for someone else? How long will it take? Will Trump fade quietly away as some new con catches his eye or will he continue to try and tear down 'the shining city on the hill' to appease his insanity and monstrous ego? Will Trump start up his own network to compete with FOX and preach his brand of jingoism and authoritarianism with messianic fervor, a new Rush Limbaugh/Benito Mussolini/Adolph Hitler or will his narcissistic massive ego send him hurtling off in some new direction?
Will we, as a nation, survive?
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