A gloomy prediction about America's post-November future

Neil Buchanan takes a series look at what would happen if Trump continues into a second term in How Much Worse Will Trump Become, and How Quickly? Verdict/Justia 02/13/2020.

Obviously, any serious look at that question is not going to provide a pretty picture:

After all, brutal dictatorships ... — even Hitler’s Germany - were not an unending horror for every person in those countries, from one second to the next, day after month after year. Many people suffered horribly, but as Trump’s supporters might as well be arguing: “What about all of the laws Trump didn’t break (this week, anyway)?” Or, in this context, what about the people who will not directly be affected by Democrats being prevented from winning elections?

Thinking about this question, of course, must of necessity involve thinking about how things will change over time. It will take Trump and the Republicans some number of years to do all of the things that they surely will do, if only because they will go through a process of breaking the habit of thinking that something might stop them. “That’s right, we can do this now, can’t we? Why were we still restraining ourselves?” [my emphasis]

The gradual process he describes allows some people to tell themselves at each step, "Things aren't really that bad." While things keep getting worse.

But he sounds downright fatalistic about this part:

There is now virtually no question that the following predictions will come true:

1. Trump will deny that he lost and will refuse to leave office.
2. Republicans will enthusiastically support him. (Remember, 75 percent of Americans wanted the Senate to hear witnesses last week, and 90 percent of Americans want background checks for gun buyers, but Republicans do not care. This is no longer a majority-rule system - nor even a “huge-majority-rule” system.)
3. The Supreme Court will not stop him.
4. Even if the Court does try to stop him, Trump will channel Stalin’s “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” invocation of raw power and defy the Court.

There are then two possibilities. First, Trump’s opposition acquiesces and hopes for the best. Second, they do not acquiesce, and we have what amounts to a civil war (quite possibly one in which the word war is not rhetorical).