Regarding the coming November election, I can’t help but go back to 1985 when my wife and I were teaching in Samoa. We befriended Esad Sadikovic, a full-of-life Yugoslavian U.N. ear, nose and throat doctor. He said to us, “You don’t understand hate like we do in Yugoslavia. You are lucky you are American. War will break out in Yugoslavia. It will eat everything.”
And he was right. It did. More on that later.
The general consensus and fear is that President Trump will have a numerical edge by the election evening of Tuesday November 3rd and he will declare himself the winner. However, within a few days mail-in ballots will give Biden the election.
But… the President of United States has informed his supporters he cannot lose unless the Democrats cheat. President Trump has attempted to delegitimize Democrats, the FBI, the CIA, the Postal Service, Voice of America, the media, Amazon, the US military, the U.N., the CDC, and now our election system.
Repeatedly he has encouraged and promoted violence
Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell … I promise you I will pay for the legal fees! I promise! I promise!
Get him out! Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court! Don’t worry about it!
I love the old days! You know what they used to do to guys like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks!
I’ll beat the crap out of you!
I’d like to punch him in the face!
Maybe he should have been roughed up.
I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will.
There are many frightening reasons for us to wonder what will happen in November. As a gun owner I find it shocking that it is nearly impossible to buy ammunition. The shelves at gun stores are empty. Absolutely totally completely empty from Connecticut to California. Why? Our President and the NRA have riled up gun owners and made them believe a civil war is coming. Most recently Trump’s HHD leader Mr. Caputo said, “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen.”
I do believe there will be violence. Our president has set the tone. There will not be a civil war. Although some militias may try their best to precipitate one.
A prediction and I hope I’m wrong. When Trump loses, his followers (Militias, Q-ANONs, Proud Boys, 3 percenters, Boogaloos, lone wolves, and more) will react with violence, much of it gun-based. They will act in groups and alone. They will target institutions, and democratic leadership. President Trump has filled them with imagined victimization and the right to perform with violence.
If Trump wins, those infuriated by Trump’s many outrages will be unable to constrain themselves. They will protest and riot in the streets. Cities will burn.
I’m sorry to say my Yugoslavian friend Dr. Esad was more than right. Tribal poison destroyed Yugoslavia. It ate everything, even him. In 1994 he was abducted off the streets of Prijedor, in full view of his two young children. He was thrown in Omarska concentration camp and executed by a Serbian military decree. His body was one of many in over 70 unmarked mass graves near the concentration camp.
It is my dearest hope it never gets to that level here. So let’s just vote and wait. No bullets, no bombs, reduced venom But few saw the flames of Yugoslavia burning early either.
Now we mostly have smoke – lots of it. My fear is there will be blood.
Paul Karrer
Monterey
