US Government

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PAL
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Re: US Government

Post by PAL »

Thanks. Good points and analysis.
And hopeful, somewhat.
Pearl Cherrington
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mister_coffee
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Re: US Government

Post by mister_coffee »

Well, there are some hard truths in that article but also I think they miss a few key points. I do think we should be vigilant and not fall prey to complacency, but we also need to be realistic.

Historically most autocratic regimes had broad popular support, especially when they initially came to power. Hitler and Mussolini were popularly elected, after all. Unless such a regime is externally imposed, I find it hard to imagine how such a regime could hold onto power here for very long: the most likely result is they would botch things terribly very early on and we would fall into chaos.

In America we have too many streets and not enough tanks. This is a large country with an enormous population, and our armed forces and law enforcement (especially federal law enforcement) are tiny in proportion to our population. If you consider Iraq and Afghanistan, it was shown that even with an all-out effort of our armed forces and reserves we were unable to keep countries less than a tenth our size down.

Building the kind of oppressive apparatus you'd need to stay in power would take time and cost an enormous amount of money. Spending money on something like this is something that Republicans oppose deeply and they won't do it unless they are forced to. While CBP staffing increased modestly after 9/11, it only really starting to massively increase in 2005 and peaked in 2012. In spite of all of the border drama, CBP staffing was essentially flat during the Trump years. Source: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files ... 9%29_0.pdf

So my own opinion is that an attempt at an unpopular regime will likely fall flat on its face very early on. That doesn't mean that it wouldn't do enormous damage and might break our whole country up. It is just unlikely that we will find ourselves living in _The Handmaid's Tale_ or _The Man in the High Castle_ in the near future.
:arrow: David Bonn :idea:
PAL
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US Government

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Pearl Cherrington
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