Dark Knell

Ever since the day after the election of 2016 I have been hopeful.

Not optimistic – optimism is for idiots – but hopeful.

In the now-eternal interim, that hopefulness has waxed and it has waned.

But it has remained as a factor in my ongoing assessment of the viability of the Republic.

The mid term results in the House were a harbinger of hope – weren’t they?

Beto O’Rourk’s, Stacy Abrahms’ and Andrew Gillum’s near misses seemed to be reason for hope, didn’t they?

If Georgia and Florida republicans were not so effective with voter suppression it is likely we would today have the first African American Governors in those two states; that is almost hopeful, isn’t it?

Bright spots among the drab hoard of Democrats running for President - those bright spots being Mayor Pete, Crazy Bernie, Elizabeth the Capitalist and Andrew the Droll -  are reasons for hope aren’t they?

That’s the sort of thing that I have been saying to myself since 9 November 2016.

But recently I realized that all of that stuff is just dust in the wind: when the real chips are in the game, as they are in the battle to keep control of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States of America – probably, if I understand what Mitch, donnie, Bret and the boys have in mind – hope disappears.

Here is what is going to happen election night 2020.

Beginning almost as soon as the Polls begin to close there are going to be exponentially increasing reports of ransom-ware attacks on the polling apparatus of America.

That is going to create a rolling tide of “results in abeyance”.

Remember 2000 and the “hanging chads”?

“Results in Abeyance” is going to be  their latter day descendant.

The problem is that “results in abeyance” has an optimistic tinge to it (optimism being for idiots, remember).

“Results Held Hostage” is a catastrophe.

So donnie will tweet out that he is declaring a national emergency, martial law, and calling out the military to take control of the cities; that will be a dog whistle call to the militias; they will take over the country-side.

By midnight on the East Coast it will be over.

Since there will be no way to unscramble the ransomware mess “results in abeyance” will become the basis for the “New American Compact” (the hurriedly promulgated replacement for the Constitution).

I don’t need to describe that document: its source tells the tale; but the terms “president for life with dynastic ascendancy” stand out.

As the history books will say, “it was endgame; bells everywhere were heard to be tolling darkly; the inaugural crowd in 2021 was the largest crowd ever assembled on this planet”.