While we’re treading water waiting for the election I have to admit my anxiety is split about evenly between what actually happens with the vote before and on November 5th, and what happens after that. To be honest, I’m more worried about the latter.
I’ll break it down into my four biggest fears.
Violence
Do I think there will be violence? I do. To what degree I don’t know. From what quarter I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised if the MAGAts and insurrectionists don’t have some sort of Maskirovka in the works to try and force the Department of Justice (which they don’t control) to take some action. Which brings me to my second fear:
Merrick Garland
I have no faith that Merrick Garland will do the right thing in any event, violent or no. He’s proven that he doesn’t understand that not taking action is as political as taking action. Frankly, this could easily be my number one fear.
SCOTUS
If whatever happens ends up in front of the Supreme Court, we’re screwed. I don’t see any other possible outcome.
The Body Politic
I have no way of knowing what’s going to happen with the vote or its aftermath. Consequently I have no way of knowing how our body politic is going to react to whatever that will be. I just fear that we’re sitting on a knife’s edge that has been honed for far too long. Does this mean going back to Fear #1 above? Not necessarily. I fear we could also end up in a situation when disillusionment settles in one way or the other that could be just as dangerous in the long run as violence would be in the short term.
Someone, somewhere on the Internet described our anxious waiting as akin to a national waiting for the results of a biopsy. I think they were spot on.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 