Restoration or Chaos?

To me, it feels creepy when my blog gets visits from the Russian Federation. Can't help but envision busy little hackers and trolls seeing what sorts of things they might misuse. Hopefully, they will just realize straightaway that my blog is of no importance whatsoever and move on. Or perhaps the visits are perfectly innocent. Unfair, I suppose, to view the whole world of Rusksies with suspicion. 

I was reading in an international forum on Facebook of the general fear among non-Americans, and especially Europeans and Australians, for America and the American people. They are shocked by all that has happened to our country over the past four years, and of course even more helpless than we as we all watch it unfold. At least we can vote. 

But voting this time around, and the results of the vote, comes with it's own horror scenarios, given that our president has said that he may not accept the result of the election. If he loses, that is. In short, it will not be valid because too many people have voted against him.

I do believe that too many people will have voted against him to make this assertion sensible in the least. In fact, I think that he will lose the election outright on election night. It is thought by many that Trump may be either been winning or very close on election night, given the assumption that more Republicans than Democrats will vote in person on election day. I could be so, but I just have the gut feeling that it won't be. 

If this is the case, however, Trump will turn the table on the predicted scenario and claim that all his votes are coming in through mail-in ballots (exactly the issue that he has been haranguing against in the run-up to the vote). As the mail-in votes are tallied and continue to show a Trump loss, he will then revert to the old scenario, insisting that millions have voted illegally. 

Here, in my mind, is the real danger facing us, because during this long delay, serious unrest may arise throughout the country, militiamen may decide that their hour has come, clashes between citizens will follow, as will lethal clashes with the police, the national guard, and the military--all this leading to a general national chaos. In short, civil war. 

And what then? Who knows? This is where chaos takes a path of its own and leads all by the nose. 

I read an analysis recently by a wargame designer (of all things) wherein four outcomes were laid out, none of which were pleasant. The most hopeful scenario was of an overwhelming Biden win. In this case, there would still be trouble in the months following the election such as we have never seen, but eventually power would be transferred and life would go on. I tend to agree that this will be the case--that as weak and frayed as our institutions have become, they will bring us through nonetheless. I do hope that America and the values of democracy are still that strong. I hope so, I say, and yet I must admit that such extreme dissolution as has happened over the past four years once seemed impossible to me. 

I hope that we can get a grip. I really do. The world depends upon it.