SOME contend that the coming election is the most critical since that of 1860, where the Lincoln presidency led to our Civil War. If this be the case, what is the source of this consternation and, more importantly, what is the likely outcome?
The first stirrings of the Civil War were seen by 1830, with the emergence of the Abolitionist Movement. War was a foregone conclusion before Lincoln assumed Executive office. On the contrary, Donald Trump’s faction of the GOP (this author retains the belief that this faction comprises only about one half the current GOP voting base) arose only with the mere election of, and not the ascension to office of, President Obama. The first was a long-term development of social consciousness and the latter a challenge to the legitimacy of our constitutional form of government, actively created and promoted by a significant segment of the GOP.
Now that the lines have been drawn, a Russian pretender to the throne of Stalin seeks to curry favor with the one presidential candidate whose rhetoric and actions on a daily basis approach our legal definition of insurrection. Donald Trump has chosen, under the tutelage of The Pretender, to adopt the Leninist tactic of disparaging our imperfect liberal democracy. The Donald hopes to establish a following for his impending media network while The Pretender hopes to gain credibility in his own steppes, as his own power wanes.
As in Russia, our majority population considers putch politics childish (of course, the Tea Party elements of both countries are, in fact, quite childish). Unlike Rome, Caesar is not on our horizon, Ted Cruz and Jason Chaffetz notwithstanding. The road to Babylon proceeds not through Aleppo, Antioch, Moscow or Tartus, but through the remnants and ruins of the GOP, sans Augustine, Charles Krauthammer or George Will.