What would a modern left/right American Civil War look like?

The only people hoping for a war are those who don’t understand the horrors it brings. They think war is like a video game or shitty superhero movie.

Obviously, I disagree. No one from America is going to stop him, we just reelected him and look at the damage he’s done. America needs to be stopped and it clearly won’t be Americans doing it.

In a global war what happens is that industrial civilization collapses and the survivors scrounge for what they need to survive in the radioactive ruins. No where will be like West Germany anymore. There won’t be an America, because there won’t be any major nations at all. Just local warlords and kings and tribes.

I think that’s a bit pessimistic. Maybe not so pessimistic I can comfortably rule it out. I have hope that not all the Republicans are down for an actual shooting war. An economic war of tariffs, absolutely - shoot yourself in the foot and blame everyone else. But an a actual shooting war with Canada? I think even some Republicans would balk at that.

But everything is contingent on what happens in the interim.

It doesn’t matter, that’s not how it works. Even in more democratic nations than the US you aren’t going to get 100% support for anything, war included. What matters is if enough of the ones in power want it.

And even if they aren’t interested in a war they aren’t going to be concerned about what happens to Canada; that’s the “sin of empathy”.

But it does mean a majority in Congress opposed to a shooting war. Then they could assert their power and act against Trump.

One scenario:

  1. Rural areas start terrorizing cities
  2. Police and military step in to impose order
  3. Surprise, some of the police and military are also white supremacist terrorists, and get in a few licks of their own
  4. Local population starts to resist & sabotage
  5. Certain neighborhoods are designated as full of “illegals” or “terrorists” and get burned out or flattened

A proper industrialized civil war can really only happen if it’s entire economies vs entire economies, not cities vs. rural areas. If it’s not that, it’ll something more low-intensity (but very serious)

It’s hard to predict anything without knowing which way the military breaks. And it’ll be a different story state by state. The military will secure strategic airports, seaports, and transportation chokepoints. If the military backs the rural faction then it will be urban warfare and martial law in the cities. On the other hand if the military backs the urban faction, then rural areas simply get frozen out of commerce until they’re out of food and supplies. The so-called “family farms” are factories that can’t feed large populations without regular inputs from industry and commerce (fuel, parts, fertilizer, etc).

When they aren’t willing to do so even over Trump turning them into an irrelevancy? No, they aren’t going to bestir themselves over foreigners if they aren’t even willing to protect themselves and their own power.