What would four more years of Bush do to America?

[orthogonal]

I want your serious predictions: if Bush wins in November, what will America look like by the end of his second term?

Please skip the hyperbole, and defend your predictions, but give the worst-case scenario: where will Bush take america in four more years?

Tell us what laws, wars, and limits on freedom ("There needs to be limits on freedom", according to Bush) Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft and Rumsfeld will come up with.

[movonne]

1. You will get double of what you got the first 4 years. It will become

a one party country, and a banana republic.

[k in IA]

2. I can't go there - the brain refuses to as a matter of maintaining

sanity.

[Catch22Dem]

3. I think several things are likely

A draft is a foregone conclusion. Not just for Iraq, but within the next 4 years, the US will occupy Iran and Syria as well. In the meantime, China and N. Korea could see an opportunity to build a massive force while the US is focused on the "crusade" for oil.

Do I think it would be the end of the world? No, but it would be the end of the world as we know it. (No offense to REM)

[whistle]

4. FUCK IT UP ROYALLY!

[Hornito]

5. Mass suicides...., and/or, a revolution.

n/t

[FlemingsGhost]

6. How do you defend speculation?

What consitutes a serious prediction, from nonsense? They are all illusions. And if I know DUers, it will mostly be fear-driven doom and gloom visions of their darkest nightmares.

So what's the point?

[Cleita]

7. Obliterate the USA probably.

The rest of the world isn't just sitting back watching us self-destruct. They are making plans.

[Walt Starr]

8. Seriously

Liberals will get more pissed off. The DLC will blame the liberals and Nader for the loss. The Republicans will get more arrogant.

That's about it.

[Oddman]

9. Lots of dirty bombs

lots of terror attacks.

lots of depressed people

lots of dead people

lots of people in prison

lots of new prisons


“Cripes . . .I can’t even spell Preserdent . . .”

[NashVegas]

10. If We Have a Country Left

I'd be pretty hopeful that people would finally be awake enough to turn things around. The Pentagon will finally have a chance to use all those nifty crowd control devices they've been working on, too.

[lumberingbear]

11. No Campaign Promises kept!!

Like, sure NASA will get money for moon and Mars exploration.
Like that's going to happen. (He just wants more votes in
Florida from space center people.)(Where would he get the
money anyway, it's all gone or soon will be!!!)

The lousy medicare presciption benefits that he gave for
retirees probably will disappear. (What a joke that was!!!)

etc. x(

[Cleita]

13. Welcome to DU!

You got the message loud and clear.

[lumberingbear]

16. Thanks

Thanks for having me :) 

[newyawker99]

31. Hi lumberingbear!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Fovea]

12. What America?

I don't think the Union would survive it.

[freeforall]

14. The doors of the international community

will slam shut on the US. They will not receive help from anyone, and will become even more fascist, isolated, and paranoid. International leaders (who may have given him the benefit of the doubt the first term) will not deal with him.

If he is re-selected, either by a large margin, or even a legitimate slim majority, the global community will believe that he a)stole another election or b)that Americans - by selecting him - are incredibly stupid.

[libhill]

17. When I consider

everything that the Bush poeple have gotten by with, I`d have to choose the latter.

[PartyPooper]

15. Does anyone here remember the fall of the "Roman Empire"?

Well, by then...in another 4 years it (the U.S. as we know it ) will be gone forever just like Rome.

I'm becoming more convinced that Junior and the evil Bu$h regime knew they only had four years to wreak as much havoc as possible before the end came.

If you gave them another 4 years...well, God forbid!

:eyes:

[libhill]

18. I don`t think the country will collapse

overnight, but we will definitely be reduced to irrelevance, and marginalized.

[candy]

22. We already are reduced to irellevance and marginalized--

But we have term limits and will survive.

[DieboldMustDie]

19. Short term, the rich will get richer, the rest of us poorer...

Three or four more Scalia clones on the Supreme Court will lead to further destruction of civil liberties and the end of Roe v. Wade. Continued foreign military adventurism will bankrupt the treasury and lead to societal collapse. That's if the crazy bastard doesn't start tossing nukes around and destroy all of what we like to call civilization. :shrug:

[moondust]

20. Robert Reich's crystal ball.

W"s Second Term

[libhill]

23. That`s frightening -

n/t

[WLKjr]

21. Wars that will come about

North Korea (they will or we will use a nuke)
Syria
Iran
and then Saudi Arabia

WWIII breaks out, and the next great generation goes to fight and die for ones country, but this time, for a pointless cause. That cause being a resource war.

More attacks will happen and we will lose more and more of our way of life becuase it is meant to "protect us".

Maybe that is a little extreme but I am pretty tired right now.

[mike1963]

24. At this point, I'm more worried about the next 4 MONTHS!

Obviously, if Chimpy manages to steal another "election", it's all over but the shouting, but I can't help being very afraid of what he might do between now and then or even between Nov. and the putative inauguration date...

[checks-n-balances]

25. Robert Reich answered this question very well recently in an article

(Edit: I didn't realize someone else had already posted this link while I was searching for the article, but I'll still keep this post how I left it.)

W.'s Second Term: If you think the first is bad ...
By Robert B. Reich
Issue Date: 04.01.04

...Bush will slash all domestic spending outside of defense. He will also argue that Social Security cannot be maintained in its present form, and will push for legislation to transform it into private accounts. Meanwhile, the few shards of regulation still protecting the environment and the safety of American workers will be eliminated.

...After Chief Justice William Rehnquist resigns, Bush may well nominate Antonin Scalia for the top slot -- opening the way for Scalia and Clarence Thomas to dominate the Court. Such a court will curtail abortion rights, whittle down the Fourth and Fifth amendments, end all affirmative action, and eliminate much of what's left of the barrier between church and state.

<snip>

Finally, the Federal Communications Commission will allow three or four giant media empires -- all tightly connected to the Republican Party -- to consolidate their ownership over all television and radio broadcasting.

Nothing is more dangerous to a republic than fanatics unconstrained by democratic politics. Yet in a second term of this administration, that's exactly what we'll have.

More depressing stuff at:
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=7507

In other words, the nightmare will continue and get even worse.

[Valerie5555]

26. Oh good lord, how much anyone is willing to bet on a

terrorist incident or attack on WASHINGTON D.C. and PERMANENT "WAR MEASURES ACT" like conditions AKA MARTIAL LAW.

[NickB79]

27. It will look lovely

You've seen how beautiful the moon looks at night with all those craters, right? We're gonna get craters too! Nice, city-sized, radioactive FREEDOM CRATERS!!!

[SoCalDem]

28. The "foreigners" will blame US this time..

They all know that he was illegitimately placed in office, and they can accept the fact that we were a bit "stunned", and like us, they hoped that everything would still work out.. It has NOT.. This time around, if he is "selected", they will KNOW we are idiots..

[hang a left]

29. OK I'll play.

First of all if * does manage to steal it, the people are gonna know it. Not just DUers but other real Americans. There will be riots in the streets, there will be civil disobedience (sp). It will be crazy. There is no way that this America will sit by and cheerlead on the neocons next adventure. They would have to impose some type of marshall law in order to have any order in this country. The economy will crash. It will be living hell.

[jeff5]

30. Civil War [n/t]

.