# Picking up the Pieces from the Smoldering Ruins: What do Dems do when we take power again?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [February 9, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101 "2025-02-09T21:55:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/41 "2025-03-04T05:27:21Z")
This post is the first one I have seen that makes sense.
There is little the Democrats can do to reverse the destruction MAGA has done and will do.
It is unlikely there will be fair elections in 2026 or 2028. The dismantling of our government will continue and little will be done to reverse the destruction of the Musk/Trump regime.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/42 "2025-03-04T05:46:48Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#):
>
> It is unlikely there will be fair elections in 2026 or 2028.
I’ve been hearing this from one party or the other every two years for as long as I’ve been old enough to vote.
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### Author:  [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/43 "2025-03-04T05:51:00Z")
The boy who cried wolf wasn’t wrong about the wolf, he just had bad timing.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/44 "2025-03-04T06:07:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#):
> >
> > It is unlikely there will be fair elections in 2026 or 2028.
>
> I’ve been hearing this from one party or the other every two years for as long as I’ve been old enough to vote.
I have not. Even 20 years ago, I was not hearing this. Some people were uneasy about Darth Cheney, but no one was really seriously concerned about the end of voting. I have been paying attention to these things since probably before you were born and have never seen a shitshow as bad as this.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/45 "2025-03-04T06:27:42Z")
If they ever get into power again and want to actually accomplish anything they need to _forget_ about the “norms”, civility and bipartisanship. They need to sideline and sabotage the Republicans as much as they can, have their own purge of Trump hires and push as many Democrats and non-cishet males into positions of authority as possible. They need to play dirty and push hard, and forget all the nonsense about “but if they do that, then so will the Republicans” because the Republicans have _demonstrated_ that they’ll “do that” regardless of any restraint by the Democrats.
They need to stop trying to play chess in a street fight. They need to be partisan and hostile right back at the Republicans and stop trying to be reasonable with _un_reasonable people. They need to stop trying to pander to people who hate them, will always hate them, and who have _zero_ interest in reciprocity.
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#):
>
> This post is the first one I have seen that makes sense.
>
> There is little the Democrats can do to reverse the destruction MAGA has done and will do.
>
> It is unlikely there will be fair elections in 2026 or 2028. The dismantling of our government will continue and little will be done to reverse the destruction of the Musk/Trump regime.
Yes, that’s so; democracy in America is going away, and probably modern industrial civilization in the long run. Most likely the Democratic leadership will be imprisoned or executed and the general membership suppressed and persecuted, with at most sham elections. Women will be stripped of the vote and all civil rights, and non-whites deported, enslaved or killed.
That’s against the premise of the thread, however.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/46 "2025-03-04T07:19:20Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> Some people were uneasy about Darth Cheney, but no one was really seriously concerned about the end of voting.
These are just the threads I found from Dubya’s first term.
> [@If Bush Were to Suspend the Constitution, What Would WE Do?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bush-were-to-suspend-the-constitution-what-would-we-do/378320):
>
> Okay, to set the stage, I’m going to take a highly improbable scenerio for how this comes about in order to try and keep this thread from getting hijacked into unimportant areas. In June of 2008, a car explodes near where Bush is speaking. The owner of the car (who is killed in the explosion) is a muslim. Bush immediately announces that it’s obviously the sign of a large Al Qaeda operation in the US and suspends the Constitution in order to take what he deems are the necessary measures to sto…
> [@Postponing Election Day? We Laugh But The Government Considers It](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postponing-election-day-we-laugh-but-the-government-considers-it/254621):
>
> We’ve had threads in the past asking and discussing the topic of a possible postponement of election day. IIRC, most are in the vein of would the Administration postpone, or even cancel, election day. One would have to have their tinfoil hat firmly attached to one’s pointy head that any postponement/delay could even occur, lest we have a backdoor attempt at subverting the will of the People. Well, … Source: [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html) This count…
> [@Welp, Democracy was fun.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/welp-democracy-was-fun/252956):
>
> Hey, guess what? The U.S.'s 230-year-old experiment seems to have run its course. Okay, that’s hyperbolic, I admit it. Still, at least one Republican in charge of a major government voting commission is starting to make preparations for “postponing” the election … just in case, y’know, some big terrorist plot happens. God forbid, of course. [linkiepoo](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040625/ap_on_el_ge/election_terrorism_1) (Emphasis mine.) Ha! I’m sure they didn’t comment. Ol’ Soaries opened the lid a little too soon, did he? But … um … canceling the electi…
> [@President Bush wants to become a dictator?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-bush-wants-to-become-a-dictator/247226):
>
> This might be more of an MPSIMS than Great Debate, but I’m putting it in here anyway, because I can see this getting heated. I’ve noticed recently a kind of histeria that some people seem to have when talking about the President and current administration. They seem to be convinced that the administration is not just wrong, but evil, and that if the administration had their way, the President would become dictator for life and take away all our rights. Am I the only one to notice these attitu…
> [@If they stonewall the 9/11 report, can they hold the election?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-stonewall-the-9-11-report-can-they-hold-the-election/238452):
>
> asked if America will be able to see the report before the Nov 2 election, Mr Kean answered: ‘I have no guarantees.’ – AFP As Crawford lays the groundwork to send americans to the polls in continued blissful ignorance, does this news add any weight to the concerns of those who fear the aborting of democracy via state of emergency, grounded in a real or contrived terror incident? Would they dare to hold an election while sitting on the report? Am I the only person who thinks that would be a f…
> [@Can President Bush suspend the 2004 Presidental Elections?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-bush-suspend-the-2004-presidental-elections/231304):
>
> I’m concerned that Bush will suspend the Presidental Election in november. Can he do this?If he can, what can be done to prevent it from happening?
> [@Is the US trying to become a dictator nation?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-trying-to-become-a-dictator-nation/168680):
>
> Several years ago, I took a fascinating course at Harvard on the history of dictatorship. Comparisons between many societies in which despotism had arisen had been made to creat the course material. One of the points made was that societies ruled by an aristocracy generally fall into despotism when the ruling class loses control of the military. In my opinion, the mamber nations of the UN Security Council unwisely set themselves up after World War II as a kind of “aristocracy” among the nation…
> [@Can elections be postponed in a national emergency?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elections-be-postponed-in-a-national-emergency/166081/13):
>
> It’s true that a President saying “the election is cancelled” has no weight of law, but we can postulate a worst-case scenario where a bonkers President starts dispatching federal troops to bust up polling stations and whatnot. Those sorts of shenangians have happened in plenty of places, though I personally doubt the U.S. could ever get that far. Reading some of the Pit threads about Bush and Rumsfeld suggests quite a few SDMB members feel otherwise.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/47 "2025-03-04T07:21:46Z")
So? The trajectory toward dictatorship _was_ obvious even back then. More people were in denial, is all.
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### Author:  [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/48 "2025-03-04T09:56:24Z")
The OP rightly picks up issues of governance and domestic policy, but leaves out foreign policy. This is going to be a major problem.
America is no longer trustworthy.
I don’t mean: Trump isn’t trustworthy. Or a Republican government isn’t trustworthy. (Although they’re not). I mean: America can no longer be trusted not to fall into this shit again.
Let’s say, for example, that this putative Dem government announces it’s fully committed to NATO. So what? Does that tell us anything about America’s level of commitment in 10 years time? Nope, sorry, not taking that bet.
How about action on climate change? Is the US a reliable partner there? Of course not.
If we go back to using, as we currently are, American data centres for cloud computing, will they be reliable repositories of valuable and private data? Hahahaha no of course not.
Should we regard the dollar as a stable reserve currency? Can we be sure any major research programmes involving the US won’t be cancelled or abused in future? Is the US a stable place to make long-term investments? Should, e.g. highly educated people of colour seek to make a long-term home in the US?
Should our intelligence agencies ever again share secrets with the US? That would be an act of treason.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, this can’t happen overnight. America is enmeshed in the global system in ways that will take some time to unpick. And it will remain the global hyperpower for a while. But all engagement will skeptical and transactional, and a lot of investment will go in to building up capabilities with a view to isolating a one-time partner. Even if government reform takes place, it will be decades before anyone on the outside is prepared to stake anything at all on America not losing the plot again.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/49 "2025-03-04T15:39:26Z")
For what it’s worth, I have fewer doubts about that kind of worst-case scenario than I did in 2003. It wouldn’t even have to be federal troops, just some Proud Boy-type MAGA goons at polling stations in certain neighborhoods in certain swing states… _and no intervention by law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, to stop them._ Trump’s willful inaction for several hours on January 6th 2021 clearly demonstrated his paper-thin commitment to law and order.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/50 "2025-03-04T15:45:52Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Trump’s willful inaction for several hours on January 6th 2021 clearly demonstrated his paper-thin commitment to law and order.
Donald Trump’s “commitment to law and order” has a measurement in real dimensions?
Stranger
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/51 "2025-03-04T17:12:39Z")
We have to be extremely careful right now. The simple dynamic is obvious: create an outrage that drives protests (cf the BLM/ACAB protests of a few years back), salt the protests with RW troublemakers, call them riots, claim the left is out of control, declare martial law, start rounding up the “wrong kind”. The situation we are in is perilous. The current administration makes Bush/Cheney look like choirboys.
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### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/52 "2025-03-04T19:10:01Z")
I am not saying elections will be cancelled. There will be elections in 2026. But I seriously doubt DJT and his minions will respect the results if it they lose control of either the House or Senate. Johnson can refuse to seat a member or call for their expulsion if they drum up accusations of irregularities with the vote. I fully expect that to happen if enough red seats flip blue and give the House to Ds. Having the Senate flip is less likely but who knows what can happen between now and then.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/53 "2025-03-04T19:24:08Z")
If the biggest threat to the Trump kleptocracy is the next election, then expect the next election to be targeted in multiple ways.
Crashing the economy and declaring a state of emergency is a tried and true method of autocrats past.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/54 "2025-03-04T23:05:44Z")
Well, it involves numbers that are both negative and imaginary, but it’s probably there.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/55 "2025-03-04T23:19:16Z")
To the contrary. Violent suppression of protesters is the only way to ignite enough anti-MAGA outrage to drive them from power. We should be goading Trump into violence, not shrinking from it.
“The tree of liberty must, from time to time, be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Yes, I believe it’s that bad.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/56 "2025-03-04T23:49:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> Violent suppression of protesters is the only way to ignite enough anti-MAGA outrage to drive them from power.
Just one data point, but:
1970 - Kent State.
1972 - Nixon wins 61 percent of popular vote.
You could counter with, say the 1963 March on Washington. But Martin Luther King wasn’t goading the police, and the speakers were measured in their criticism of the administration (otherwise, Kennedy and Johnson would not have met with King).
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/57 "2025-03-05T00:07:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> These are just the threads I found from Dubya’s first term.
Almost all of those are phrased as far-fetched hypotheticals.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/58 "2025-03-05T00:30:25Z")
That they were phrased at all proves the point I was making.
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I’ve been hearing this from one party or the other every two years for as long as I’ve been old enough to vote.
And I haven’t even gone looking for the “The CEO of Diebold said he was rigging the election for Bush” threads yet.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/59 "2025-03-05T00:35:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> That they were phrased at all proves the point I was making.
It absolutely does not.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-up-the-pieces-from-the-smoldering-ruins-what-do-dems-do-when-we-take-power-again/1014101/60 "2025-03-05T00:40:36Z")
Scortched earth anti-corruption, strip Musk of any clearance, nationalize Space-X, massively expand IRS enforcement, expand SCOTUS and the House.
The last two being even moderately palatable would probably mean the next 4 years get really bad.
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