Oh, yes. There will be many, many posts from me exploring the disastrous election of 2014, and the consequences it will have for many years to come. The lowest voter turnout (36%) since 1942 (uh, war going on? FDR satisfactorily in charge?) resulted in some truly ghastly results.
For those of you who get upset when my posts are down, please understand that this one is deliberately designed to show the worst case scenario that could come from this election. I will do one next week that centers on the optimistic view of this election. Be patient.
No legislative fixes will pass. Any bill that needs to be corrected to make it work better for the American people will not get adjusted. That means for vital legislation like the Affordable Care Act, things that need to fixed will not be. The law will become less effective as a result, and the American people, in their infinite wisdom, will blame the law and the President instead of the Republicans who are blocking its progress and damaging it, including at the state level (don't like how Obamacare is working, Georgia? you only have yourselves to blame).
The only chance of any immigration reform is for a small number of punitive measures. No comprehensive reform will take place. If the Republicans are smart (from their perspective - not mine), they will give the President a tiny bone, and build a Wall to rival the one in A Game of Thrones, and build up a hostile military force on our border. This will increase tension with Mexico, and if their own politics slide into increasing their own income equality gap, it could create a potentially very explosive situation.
Nothing will happen to stop or reverse the effects in global warming. In fact, we will probably gallop in the direction of accelerating it. Expect the President not to have the strength to stop the Keystone Pipeline. This will not solve our energy problems, and only lead to further environmental degradation.
The minimal Wall Street reforms that passed will be gutted and left toothless. The new Consumer Protection Agency will be an empty shell.
States may move forward on minimum wage, but the federal government will not. Many Southern states will slip further and further behind, with their wealth gap increasing, and more and more people living like serfs.
Women's right to choose, in most of the country, will be a shadow right, that only exists on paper. The dream of equal pay for women will become a fantasy.
The Supreme Court will stay in the hands of right wing corporatists for many years to come, as even if a replacement is needed, the Senate will not approve a nominee unless he is right wing of Attila the Hun, All other Presidential nominees, whether for the judiciary or the cabinet or ambassadorships will be stopped cold. Any that pass, the President will be made to pay a high price for.
It is likely the budget deficit will go back up and the economy falter. Defying all logic, President Obama will be blamed.
The President, to pass anything, will have to concede virtually completely to the Republican agenda. He will not credit for it. The progressives will hate him for being weak and caving in. The Republicans will brag about how they pushed him around.
If the President has the audacity to veto their crap legislation, their poison pills, their attempts to push the country back into the 19th century, they will howl that the President is the obstructionist. It is a battle he cannot win. It is a battle he will not win.
But the true target of RepubliCorp will change. It will no longer be the President, It will be Hilary Clinton. They will spend 24/7 attacking and destroying her. Fox and its media friends will convince you that she is Satan's spawn. And many will believe it. This is all in an attempt to clear her from running for the Presidency. Because they believe she is the only one that could possibly beat them, and no one else on the Democratic side would be competitive.
So the Republican nominee will run against either a vastly weakened Hilary, or someone they perceive as a George McGovern type (a Democratic version of Barry Goldwater). Their nominee is most likely to be a corporate candidate, like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or John Kasich.
When the Republican is elected President, the Affordable Care Act will fully be repealed. Nothing will take its place. We will likely be going into more wars overseas. Tax rates for the corporate and the wealthy will hit new lows. Income inequality will gallop to feudal proportions. The federal government will once again grow in size, via the military and corporate welfare. Deficits and debt will balloon.
Some will start to wake up to this. But it will be far too late. Because by then, global warming and its effects will be severe and undeniable. But we won't try to stop it anymore. Oh, no. Instead we will engage in huge and costly resource wars, battling not only over oil, but even water. The world's countries will turn on each in savage brutality, fighting over dwindling resources from a seriously damaged planet. Any attempts at progressivism will be defeated, drowned out by xenophobic self interest.
We will rule a broken Earth with our overwhelming military resources. The rest of the world will hate us more and more. Terrorist incidents directed at us will increase, further fueling our violence against them. It will be a vicious downward spiral as we move further and further from any sense of true Christianity or humanity.
Fear of the other rules. Fear that the less deserving will take something of yours that you worked hard for. Fear that other countries will not let America have the resources they are entitled to. Fear of other religions. Fear of science. Fear of everything.
Eventually, dust sweeps against our heartland, its agriculture gone. Coastal cities lay partly underwater. Pollution runs unchecked as the EPA and any regulation is gone. Women are imprisoned for having an abortion, even interrogated when they miscarry, made to carry their rapist's babies, vaginally probed by government mandate. Corporate power rules, everyone else drools Wealth is further and further consolidated. With no estate tax and extremely low income tax rates, power is concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer grotesquely wealthy families. Maybe you could get a job as their gardener or perhaps a handmaiden ( let's ask Margaret Atwood how that might work out - that would be a tale, wouldn't it?). I mean, the antebellum South wasn't that bad, was it?
All rather hopeless and dire, isn't it? Who knows? History is not a straight line, but I do think this scenario is not outside the realm of what's possible.
But wait! There may hope!
Stay tuned for next week's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life 2014 Mis-Election" post!
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