Don't underestimate Trump's danger to us all just yet...
I know, before the election, that a lot of people were worried about him taking drastic actions to remain in power. Once the race was called, many expressed relief that he was merely restricting himself to not publicly conceding and seeking redress through one futile lawsuit after another. And, when Biden started getting approval from GSA to begin the transition, we may have assumed it was "game over" in Trump's mind, even if he wasn't willing to admit it out loud, and figured that he'd just restrict himself to planning for 2024. I think that's a dangerous underestimation; more to the point, it assumes (against all previous evidence) that Trump is capable of thinking logically (if from a thoroughly self-centered basis) and keeping to a consistent plan of action, whereas we've all seen he has a child's level of impulsivity, and will change course as often as he feels such a change will serve him personally.
And right now, between his rant of this morning and the ominous thoughts from close associates Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, I have to wonder if he's skewing back toward a scorched-earth attempt to cling to power. As I wrote on another forum:
Basically, people have been taking too much comfort in the fact that Trump didn’t go full-dictator the moment the election was called for Biden. But look at the pattern: First, he called on the courts to reverse the outcome. When the courts proved unwilling, he called on state legislatures to simply appoint electors who would hand him a second term. When the legislatures proved unwilling, his supporters started talking about having congressional Republicans refuse to certify the EC results. Now, when it seems doubtful that Trump would have a Senate majority in favor of such a drastic action, several of his close supporters, who seem to have the special “in” with him that would mean they know what he is thinking, have gone directly to calling on him to institute a state of emergency that would make him a military dictator, to be “confirmed” by a subsequent managed “election,” and Trump himself echos their sentiments. In the words of the great philosopher Robert Zimmerman, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
I suspect that, as Trump sees every other avenue close before him, he's likely to seize on ever-more-extreme measures of keeping power. After all, as I noted before, it's likely that he sees the only choice in his future to be between the White House and the "big house," and, feeling so trapped, may try anything. I have little doubt that the Chiefs of Staff will remain resolute in their insistence that the military owes its allegiance to the Constitution, not to any individual, but frankly, I don't know how many lower officers or rank-and-file soldiers, sailors, etc. may see loyalty to Trumpism as being equivalent to loyalty to the country. I fear the possibility for "interesting times" between now and late January remains as strong as ever. Keep vigilant!
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