The Contingency Plan
It came on a newscast, on the television. Another day of talking heads on some cable program yapping on about this or that about the Trump fiasco. The off-hand comment was casually thrown out there by someone who asked “What are we, the country, going to do when the time comes for Trump to vacate the White House and he refuses to go? What is the contingency plan for such an event?”
The musings started early, not too sure when. But the idea had been planted that 8 years just wasn’t going to be long enough. The tweets about the unfairness of being limited to such a short time. The comparisons to FDR; not withstanding that the world was at war back then. His own little forays into Korea and Syria, even though they just didn’t last long enough to be called Great Wars or World Wars.
His second term almost was a forgone conclusion. The Dems were in a frenzy coming into the election thinking that they could beat the Trump. How could they not? It seemed like a never-ending exhaustion of breaking news and scandals provided a litany of abuses they could capitalize on. A litter of potentials, some 22, decided they could take him on and be coronated. Lurching from the far right came a counter far left candidate in the Bernie mold that imploded into a red socialist agenda that scared everyone with their nationalization plans and higher taxes to stick it to everyone. The anticipated blue wave turned into a red tide that was farther reaching than his first election.
Shut down. After swearing in the new administration, the far right agenda took over. There were no more special investigations or committees. Sweep it all under the rug. The government more resembled a mafia don family with favors and kickbacks that an actual functioning republic. Comparisons to Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic multiplied.
It was about then that the commentary started about “extending” the term of the President for another 4 years, or more, or life. Depended on who you talked to. “He deserves it.” “ There is no one else who can save us than the Trump.” “ Who else could do this job as good as me?” as many many famous tweets would ponder.
The runaround for constitutional conservatives became an exercise in apologetics deciding that the existing constitutional amendment wasn’t really a real amendment. #fakeamendment was actually a trending topic. Not surprising since so many other hashtag fake items had been thrown out over the previous years. Knowing they didn’t have the votes for such a thing, they looked for other super judicial ways to get around the limits. Creative thinking abounded. Skip the election. Just run for a third term. Have a placeholder run as the puppet, like Putin did. Petition the courts. Appeal to early American history. Maybe just steal it. It was not for lack of ideas to throw everything out there against the wall and see what sticks.
The contingency plan committee. More like a collection of the never Trump people venting their venom at the possibility of such an outrage. But they effectively neutered themselves with their noise. By being so loud they just attracted attention. Too much attention. Many members found out they were being watched, followed, stalked, harassed, and even arrested. It was minor things. Nuisance bothers. Ways to intimidate and shut down people before the movement, if you could even call it that, could gain momentum and gain adherents. One could see the parallels between so-called Russian opposition to V. Putin and the opponents of D. Trump. Maybe not outright killings or poisonings…but you never know….
No, the real contingency plan was a quiet group of concerned military people who were always a little uncomfortable with this President, but always followed orders and went along with the program. They sat up and started to take notice around year 6 after the midterms. The coordinated offensive to get Trump a third term became hyper vocal and started alarm bells going off in the higher reaches of the shadow government. Although the dysfunction of the White House never improved from day one, the rest of the state continued to operate and keep the lights on and the trains running. These were the patriots who started a quiet conservation amongst friends to voice their concerns.
It was always a one-on-one conservation with another person, never some dark cigar smoke filled room with multiples coordinating some devious plot to overthrow the government. More like a WTF moment for most of them. Then the concern, the outrage led to the idea that we needed a plan. Ideas were thrown about, nothing was off the table. Should we use the courts? The public opinion? Military coup? Assassination? Appeal to the VP and cabinet to step up and remove him? There was no clear consensus. There was no precedent for any action; as far as anyone knew, this situation had never happened before. The decision of George Washington to limit himself to two terms set the original precedent, only disrupted by FDR during the Second World War. Many people had urged George to become King George I. But he decided to retire and let this American experiment play itself out.
Was this the Rubicon moment? Was this the point at the river where Caesar pondered his next actions? How long did he linger on that cold shore in the winter, looking at the flowing waters and thinking that this was the end of the Republic? That his direct actions, no matter what the intentions, would lead to consequences that maybe even he could not foresee. The barbarians at the gates were none other than we ourselves and us. How did it come to this place in the history of our exceptional country?