Fears and Thoughts After the 2024 US Elections

Some things I believe might happen in the next few years, in response to the utterly insane 2024 US election that went to Trump. I just want to get this shit out of my head onto another canvas so it doesn’t circle around in my brain the entire time. I need to function, and that ever-present feeling of doom and dread doesn’t help.

Preface: These are just the high-level thoughts my brain spit out. Don’t get me started on the emotional, person-level fears I have for the human beings who’ll have cruelty inflicted on them.

With that said:

1. Trump has no interest in doing any work, and he’s on his last leg, so this will turn into a quasi-Vance presidency quickly.
2. We’ll get reliable proof that there was some heavy Russian election interference going on, including hacking of voting systems. The ruling US fascists won’t follow-up on this because they got what they wanted.
3. If everyone is bending the knee before the new king, there won’t be any more “checks and balances”.
4. The US will mostly withdraw from NATO, or at least meet its obligations with indifference.
   1. Russia will intensify its war efforts in Ukraine because Trump has already stated he doesn’t care, so … free reign, less backup for Ukraine.
   2. This will embolden China to invade Taiwan because it knows Trump doesn’t care understand. Taiwan no longer being a free country will also have the side-effect of the World’s biggest chip foundry being Chinese all of a sudden.
   3. Russia will start fucking with the other countries which declared their independence from the fallen Soviet Union.
5. The other NATO members will (hopefully) stick together, because they understand what’s on the line, namely Europe. Several countries will re-introduce mandatory service (looking at my home country Germany here).
6. The GOP will continue their good work on building a well-functioning¹ mafia state where everything is beholden to the don, using the successful Putin blueprint. This will take decades to undo, if ever.
7. Britain at least seriously considers re-joining the EU.
8. Climate protection is no longer on the table for the US. They left the Paris climate accord right after Trump’s 1st term started, and they’ll do the same again. The US gov’t will curtail the powers of the EPA (again), with renewed vigor, or shut it down entirely.
   • Remember in 2017, when the US government agencies weren’t allowed to even mention climate change on their websites?
   • Thankfully, renewables have proven themselves in terms of generating money, so that might make it harder to shut down in favor of fossil fuels etc.
9. It’s a given that the climate crisis will worsen, the US will be hit hard, there’ll be some major disasters. (Same thing all around the World.) The US gov’t fascists have already killed off a ton of crisis response departments at that point (“small government!!"), so the responses won’t be enough, and there’ll be rioting. Remember hurricane Katrina? That, but not just once, and much worse.

At the moment of this writing, half the US population is comfortable with Project 2025, a Russian-style mafia state oligarchy, and the “every man for himself” mentality (which is notably not gender-neutral). So where does that leave the other half? I cannot imagine them being accepting of this direct assault on their human rights and core values. Because from what I can tell, they fundamentally reject the “survival of the fittest” and “know your place” principles that underpin the GOP’s authoritarian agenda. Currently, there are laws that address injustices, and courts to handle such matters, but what if that changes due to partisan reconstruction of the legal system?

I certainly think that there’s a lot of civic unrest on the table for the US. It wouldn’t surprise me if the king would get his wish of the military keeping the order – on which side, who knows.

But for the rest of the world, too, this election changes a lot of constants. I certainly hope my home (the EU) gets its shit together, and finally creates a strong, unified, economic and military defense force soon.

Big sigh.

On a very personal level, here’s is what makes my skin crawl the most:

My grandma lived through World War II, her family was decimated by the German Nazis. My parents and I were born and grew up in the former East Germany, a satellite state of “big brother Russia.” The latter was not terrible by any stretch, but it was not freedom. I do not want to see the day when autocratic Russia seeks to return to its imagined former glory by invading its old territories.