Teabag President - A Nightmare Scenario

Imagine, if you will, that things really do go South for the Democrats and the President.  The Republicans take over the House and Senate in November, ensuring that nothing meaningful is done about the Great Recession.  The economy stays in the tank, unemployment goes up and it's all blamed on Obama.  With no real ability to answer the charges thanks to conservative media and their water carriers in the mainstream media, we reach the 2012 election.

The Tea Party, empowered by their primary victories in 2010 and successful take-over of Congress, start turning their attention to the Republican primaries.  Traditional and even mildly moderate Republican candidates are attacked as RINOs as the TPers demand that the GOP nominee be one of them.  They win again.

Thanks to the bad shape of the economy, President Obama fails to win a second term.

The new Tea Party President starts acting on their agenda.  Social Security is partially privatized, aid to the poor and the unemployed is scaled back.  All the while, the new President issues denials that any of that actually happened and it is duly reported, unchallenged. 

The Tea Party supporters start talking about the nuclear threat from "communist" Russia (which, to them, is still the USSR).  They defeat efforts to dial back the American nuclear arsenal, which keeps Russia from doing the same.  All efforts to convince them that Russia is now a democracy with no designs on the United States falls on deaf ears as they denounce it as "liberal propaganda."  Tensions rise between the two nations.  Cries for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Russians grow from the neo-conservatives in and out of the administration.

US-Russia tensions grow even more.

Then it happens - an accident between US and Russian submarines destroys the American sub.  All hands are lost. The TPers and neocons scream that it is an act of war and it's repeated 24/7 on their cable "news" channels and websites. War fever spreads, The President reaches for the "football"....

Too much?  Not possible?  Guess again.

We have seen time and time again how information-resistant the far right Teabaggers are but we've kept our criticisms to domestic issues and their crazy positions on them.  There's no reason to think that the craziness would stop at our borders if they were ever to actually gain real power.  I don't think it'll ever get that far but then again, George W. Bush was President for eight years too.

It's not entirely impossible though.  Keep in mind that the current polling is showing that of the probable 2012 candidates for the GOP nomination, coming in second right now is....Sarah Palin. 

Imagine that hand on the nuclear button then tell me that you're going to stay home this year and not vote.