Perfect solutions

We aren't getting out of this one, I feel it is time to accept that, yes the country might survive, yes many people are still saveable, but things are gonna change, an probably mostly for the worse.

We are facing a constitutional crisis in the form of the Muslim ban, the executive branch is facing off against the judicial branch and so far simply ignoring it, while the legislative branch waves it's arms feebly from the sidelines.

Impeachment is a very real possibility at this point, but let's look at that a minute, even if we manage to go through all the procedures of it, even if we then convict The Toddler of something and remove him from office, what then? What if he doesn't go? We don't really have a praetorian guard in the USA to remove psychotic leaders and if you all think he can't find enough people in the armed forces that support him enough to tear the country apart, literally, then I want to live in your reality, it seems nice there. Are the other two branches prepared to push it to war, actual war, to remove a president? I wish I could say with confidence one way or another, but I can't.

But let's say it doesn't come to that, let's say he is impeached and removed from office without major problems. That leaves us with Mike Pence, who appears to be making sure no one is paying attention to him for the most part, possibly in the hopes of avoiding notice if and when it all comes crashing down, Pence is a monster and would have the support of both houses of congress, his agenda would be predictable and less likely to destroy the country, but no less regressive for all that.

Yet he might be the best option now.

The ideal solution would be if the entire chain of succession melted like the Nazis who opened the Ark of the Covenant, wiping the slate clean entirely and forcing us to start from scratch with a newly elected government, but I realize that is not likely to occur.

Is the situation even recoverable? Should we even try? Or is America as we know it an experiment whose time is over? I personally favor the latter, our government is I suspect irreparably corrupt, the mechanisms that keep it in power have had too many protections stripped and too little oversight to fight, the mechanisms by which power is attained are too arcane and too expensive for all but the elite or those with the backing of the elite to use, and let me be clear, when I say elite, I mean the mega rich, and I have been saying it for almost two years on this blog, the rich are not like you and I, we do not share common ground other than our biology, we do not live in the same world and our interests do not align, the government is not representative of the people because the people don't actually put the government in power.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe the next election cycle will show a return to sanity, but I am not sure I believe in it, look at the last thirty years, Reagan was an idiot, but he rode massive actual popularity in his victories and set us on this road, Bush Sr. kept to the same path but lakes the personal charisma of Reagan or Bill Clinton we had eight years of more or less progress, but the far right began showing it's descent into madness with the Monica Lewinski scandal, the there was W, who we elected, maybe, but now the idea that if you win, at all, you have a mandate becomes the party line, and cooperation across the aisle becomes increasingly rare, Obama again tried putting things back on track, but wasn't able to do enough, or possibly didn't try to do enough, to prevent the election of The Toddler, someone who no one saw coming but we all should have expected really based on the trend, maybe we elect Sanders next time, or Warren, or Booker, or someone not even on the radar, but who comes after them? I think it is fair to assume the Democrats won't hold the White House through two presidencies due to a number of factors, not least of which is the fact that the Republicans mercilessly abuse the rules and have no compunctions about selling an utter lie as gospel. And they are backed up by a fourth estate that has absolutely no spine and to whom the idea of investigative journalism and actually demanding answers from our elected representatives is completely alien.

To fix it? Eliminate the electoral college, impose draconian restrictions on campaign financing nationalize the energy industry, demilitarize the police, do away with the concept of "no-bid" contracts, universally fund healthcare and education, refocus resources from the military to infrastructure, and finally break up the major media empires, forcing them to be truly independent competitors.

But that isn't going to happen, the system won't allow itself to be fixed like that, it can only burn and something like it can grow from the ashes.

The country won't survive that, not as it is now, but I don't know that is a bad thing. There are no perfect solutions for us.