Bush seizes power past his term - what's next?

The cliche conspiracy is that Bush will find some way to beat the next election and remain President past Jan 20, 2009. I'm sure Cheney would be right with him on that.

So here's the question - let's say they succeed - what happens next?

In this thread, it's posited that a terrorist attack will be staged to take out one of the Presidential candidates and create enough chaos to allow Bush to delay the elections:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Let's use that scenario. What do you think the American public would do? Would they accept the seizure of power like they have the attacks on the Constitution in order to "stay safe" or would they rebel?

What would the military do? They're not too happy with Bush because of the whole Iraq war thing, but would a seizure of power be enough to make them oppose Bush, or would they still follow along and make plans to invade Iran?

What would the Secret Service do? Would they go along with Bush, or would they act to protect the Presidential candidates?

Would outside nations intervene if Bush attempted to seize power? Would they take sides? For example, would the Saudis support Bush, while France supports those who oppose Bush? Would these conflicts lead to global violence?

If Bush succeeded in gaining power in this way, would it enbolden him so he refuses to EVER give up power?

Would it lead to civil war in the United States, or assassination of Bush and/or Cheney once they got rid of elections? What would the CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies do?

Would they come up with a new Constitution that isn't so inconvenient for what they want to do (violate civil rights, suspend habeus corpus, get rid of political opposition, torture, etc.)?

How would this type of unrest in the US affect the rest of the world? Would it destabilize the Middle East? Would the economy crash? Would martial law be so serious people couldn't go to stores and buy?

Would Bush stop with the invasion of Iran, or would he push on to other countries and try to take over the world like Hitler did?

Would Bush get rid of Congress and just become a dictator?

Are there any other effects that you can think of that I haven't mentioned?

Since this type of scenario is the cliche, I'm interested in what people think might happen if that scenario turned out to be accurate rather than tin foil.

I forgot to post how I think this would play out.

First off, I don't think the American people would accept this well at all. There are some who would sit back and do nothing. But there's a lot of anger out there and it wouldn't take too much to ignite it. I think Washington DC would get innundated with protestors and the national guard and/or whatever Bush forces would have to respond. I would envision something like Kent State, that would in turn beget more violence.

I think destabilization of the US would scare the world to death. Everyone would be watching while chewing on their nails. But players would come out trying to get on the right side of whatever power would emerge from the chaos. Others, like Al Qaeda and other opponents of the US, would attempt to use the chaos to their advantage.

I think the Secret Service and other government entities would be torn based on ideology. Those who support Bush would stand by him even if he were trying to seize dictatorial powers. Those who oppose him would become more vocal and violent and attempt to band with others to get more power to fight.

I don't think Bush thinks much of Congress and he would just send them all home. How Congress would react is an unknown, but I figure if they object too loudly, Bush would just send them to Gitmo or something since he can suspend the Constitution along with declaring martial law.

Once Bush got that kind of power, I don't think he could give it up. He would attempt to stay in power as some kind of dictator. I also think Iran wouldn't be enough, and he would push on into other countries for whatever resources his cronies lusted after.

Commerce in the US would take a serious hit, and I think Bush would take serious steps to try to avert that since he's a big business tool. There would be an ongoing conflict between the need to allow people to go out and spend money and the need for control. I can see the "rules" of martial law swinging back and forth based on their economic effects.

I can envision friends of Bush using their power to seize assets from others, creating more violence.

That's what I can think of at the moment. What are your thoughts?

I can't say for certain what the response would be from the "Average American" but I can say "May God help him if he even tries it!" I know for a fact that there are enough above-average Americans who would not stand for such nonsense - and the bulk of them are retired military!

I think that things would end very, VERY badly for Bush and his ilk.

Originally posted by kozmo
I can't say for certain what the response would be from the "Average American" but I can say "May God help him if he even tries it!" I know for a fact that there are enough above-average Americans who would not stand for such nonsense - and the bulk of them are retired military!

I think that things would end very, VERY badly for Bush and his ilk.

That's why I suspect it would end in civil war. I agree there are many Americans who wouldn't react well to a Bush attempt to seize power. The problem is that Bush also still has some pretty rabid and loyal supporters. They might get a bit violent if they thought people were going to do bad and violent things to Bush after a power grab.

It might be the Civil War all over again, and we don't have any Abraham Lincolns to pull our backside out of the fire.

Whoa kids, hold on! Let's not say things we can't take back later!

First off- A. Lincoln was a tyrant in his own right, possibly worse than W. Sic semper tyrannis! Maybe I'll start a thread of my own, but the guy was deluded his entire life.
As a vet, and a close follower of the "other" thread you mention, I can say with great certainty that the majority of the active military would NOT be "on board" for a dictatorship. I can say this with 100% certainty for the Marine Corps without question. It was postulated that the Nat'l Guard would be used to impose martial law if the event in question actually happened. Think about it: These are our "citizen soldiers". Our friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. Can you honestly resolve this happening in your head? I can't.
The next logical choice for "muscle"? Mexican troops.
I don't know about you, but last I checked the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution was still valid. There's alot of private citizens out there that have their own little private arsenals.
Start worrying when legislation is passed repealing 2nd Amendment rights. Until then, just sit back and watch the show.

reply to post by AWingAndASigh


Hi Wing,.... I have thought about this scenario for awhile now, and created a thread about it awhile back.

I think what would happen next is a nasty thought, but probably true none the less.

There would be a round - up of all violent dissenters, and a cleansing of the prisons just for starters.

The rest is summed up in this thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

But I sincerely hope none of this comes to pass.

Later,...... Ausable_Bill

Originally posted by cbianchi513
Whoa kids, hold on! Let's not say things we can't take back later!

First off- A. Lincoln was a tyrant in his own right, possibly worse than W. Sic semper tyrannis! Maybe I'll start a thread of my own, but the guy was deluded his entire life.
As a vet, and a close follower of the "other" thread you mention, I can say with great certainty that the majority of the active military would NOT be "on board" for a dictatorship. I can say this with 100% certainty for the Marine Corps without question. It was postulated that the Nat'l Guard would be used to impose martial law if the event in question actually happened. Think about it: These are our "citizen soldiers". Our friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. Can you honestly resolve this happening in your head? I can't.
The next logical choice for "muscle"? Mexican troops.
I don't know about you, but last I checked the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution was still valid. There's alot of private citizens out there that have their own little private arsenals.
Start worrying when legislation is passed repealing 2nd Amendment rights. Until then, just sit back and watch the show.

The problem, as I see it, is that Bush either 1) continually misunderstands the environment in which he acts, or 2) doesn't care what the American people think.

That being the case, I can envision him acting to pull off some sort of coup. Once that happened, all kinds of chaos would ensure. I've talked to enough dedicated Bushies to know that a lot of them would follow him no matter what. I just can't see how violence could be avoided if Bush were violently opposed if he should seize power.

How that violence would play out is a major unknown. People would choose sides based on their own ideology. Bush would use religion to try to make himself out to be some kind of cultural savior, and his opponents as godless satan worshippers. There are some who would accept that reasoning and react accordingly.

So perhaps those he has out there enforcing his martial law might end up being the true believers who would follow him no matter what they do - Bush's citizen Christian soldiers.

In areas of the country other than the south, that wouldn't go over well either.

If Bush were desperate to stay in power, which he would have to be to try something like this, he might use all kinds of propaganda to get the support he needs among his followers.

WE should ask no_one817. He seems to know the answer to everything and nothing! Oh sorry, i forgot, doubt he'll be able to answer anything from a federal prison.

Originally posted by TEMELUCHUS
WE should ask no_one817. He seems to know the answer to everything and nothing! Oh sorry, i forgot, doubt he'll be able to answer anything from a federal prison.

Naah... they get internet in the FED.

Seriously though, let's get terms straight.
If there were to be a coup, it would come from the military against Bush. He's already in power, right?
There is no secession thus far, no visible division of regions/states within the country, so civil war is out too.
What we're looking at here is a honest-to-God, real life, second American Revolution! (or 2AR, as I've been calling it for a little over a year).
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and many other founding fathers foresaw this happening if the Constitution was ignored or not followed. Now those guys were the REAL patriots. I proudly consider myself to be more closely aligned with their ideals than Lincoln's, whom I equally proudly despise.

[edit on 7/2/08 by cbianchi513]

Originally posted by cbianchi513
Naah... they get internet in the FED.

Seriously though, let's get terms straight.
If there were to be a coup, it would come from the military against Bush. He's already in power, right?
There is no secession thus far, no visible division of regions/states within the country, so civil war is out too.
What we're looking at here is a honest-to-God, real life, second American Revolution! (or 2AR, as I've been calling it for a little over a year).
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and many other founding fathers foresaw this happening if the Constitution was ignored or not followed. Now those guys were the REAL patriots. I proudly consider myself to be more closely aligned with their ideals than Lincoln's, whom I equally proudly despise.

[edit on 7/2/08 by cbianchi513]

OK, we'll call it domestic unrest. I don't see it playing out as a state against state type thing. I think it would be more this side against that side in the streets, much like the political infighting that's already going on.

Bush is power mad, that much is clear. A lot of his followers are just as power mad, and they've gotten used to the idea that they can do whatever they want and the other guy just has to put up with it.

There's a point when the opposition stops putting up with it because they reach the breaking point. IMO, a Bush attempt to delay the election would be just such an event.

That's when the violence would erupt. One side would be vehemently opposed to what Bush was doing, and the other side would be just as vehemently opposed to anyone stopping him. That kind of thing inevitably becomes violence.

And I can't see all those Bushbots standing idly by while crowds of opposition break into the White House for a little lynching. They'd be recruiting military, CIA, and anyone else they could get to put down the revolt.

If you ask me, it looks like Bush and Cheney have had enough of being hated and destroying the earth. When I see them now, they look defeated and tired. I think they want out, but they want to be able to entrust their secrets to the next admin.

[edit on 7-2-2008 by Silenceisall]

Originally posted by Silenceisall
If you ask me, it looks like Bush and Cheney have had enough of being hated and destroying the earth. When I see them now, they look defeated and tired. I think they want out, but they want to be able to entrust their secrets to the next admin.

[edit on 7-2-2008 by Silenceisall]

But would their "handlers" allow that? They have all those cronies making big time $$$ off of them that might not allow them to abdicate or give up power without a serious fight.

I'm not sure McCain would play ball in just the same way. Don't know if they'd like working with Huckabee, and there's no one else.

"Bushbots"- I'll have to remember that one, classic.

Yeah, the terminology is really just splitting hairs on my part-multi lingual from a family of language teachers, sorry.
I agree for the most part with your theory, but I'm not certain that any "lynch mobs" would even know where the POTUS and VP would physically be if and when that eventuality ever came. Remember the days after 9/11? Where were they then? Heck, I'm convinced Cheney stayed in his little hidey hole until at least 2004!
No way, NO WAY that free thinking citizens would stand for slaughter and murder of American citizens. Tyranny will always be tempered by the masses acting in solidarity. Period.

Originally posted by cbianchi513
"Bushbots"- I'll have to remember that one, classic.

Yeah, the terminology is really just splitting hairs on my part-multi lingual from a family of language teachers, sorry.
I agree for the most part with your theory, but I'm not certain that any "lynch mobs" would even know where the POTUS and VP would physically be if and when that eventuality ever came. Remember the days after 9/11? Where were they then? Heck, I'm convinced Cheney stayed in his little hidey hole until at least 2004!
No way, NO WAY that free thinking citizens would stand for slaughter and murder of American citizens. Tyranny will always be tempered by the masses acting in solidarity. Period.

As you say, they could be in hiding and still putting out orders even with the people in revolt. As long as they have followers willing to carry out those orders, they would stay in some semblance of power. The only way to end it would be to FIND them first. Or eliminate all their followers so they're hiding all alone with no contact with the outside.

Knowing those two, they might off to some foreign nation and let their tools take the heat while they stay safe and secure from all the violence.

If they try to hide out on AF1 like they did after 9/11, at a point those guys would just land the plane and leave the tyrants to the mobs.

Since Bush, Cheney & Co. are just the current puppets of the PTB, I don't think there will be a dictatorial grab for power from Bush. Hillary is the PTB's pet and they probably would welcome hardline "There will be other wars" McCain, too.

Here's my prediction how the next year(s) will play out:

While the US economy is going to sh** and people are scrambling to make ends meet, Bush and his Israeli friends will create a diversion by attacking Iran under false pretenses. Maybe a nice "9/11 -- the sequel" would help, too, to convince Joe Sixpack that we have to nuke the evil Arabs.

If Russia and China aren't happy, this could start WW3 and make the average American, glued to his boob tube for news from the war, temporarily forget about his depreciating home value, depreciating dollar and empty fridge. Besides, world wars have proven to be good for the economy -- worked for Roosevelt after the Great Depression. Let people make arms and bombs and send them off to get whacked... tah-dah, economy doesn't look so bad anymore.

Conveniently, the economy's dire situation could also be blamed on the war and the "terr'rists" and within 6 months everyone will have forgotten that the downfall of the economy actually started BEFORE all that.

WW3 -- which might involve nukes, maybe on US soil, and will therefore require the proclamation of martial law in major cities and maybe nationwide -- will finally be interrupted by a mega natural disaster of such huge proportions like no one has ever seen.

End of story. Now go to bed, children.

[edit on 8-2-2008 by sylvie]

Just imagine for a second that bush and his band of merry men ARE thinking of doing something to keep power beyond the time they have,do you think they would have emergency plans already written up if there was some sort of mass protest from all corners of the U.S??

What would they do if people marched on washington??
The army's stood firm against him??

Then again he could give up office like presidents past with a smile and a hand shake to the next pres

Imagining for a moment that there was any chance of this happening at all...beginning descent into madness...

First the House of Representitive and the Senate would convene impeachment hearings so fast the world would shake...'course if he seized power like this, what's that worth? Not a great deal, I suppose, other than making the following legal...

The military would be obligated under their oaths to remove him, forcibly if neccessary. They'd have plenty of help as well from "Joe Sixpack".

The trial for treason would certainly be must see TV. Primetime coverage, I'm sure...

Beginning ascent out of madness...

Personally i think bush is a man just waiting to go. He does not seem interested anymore.

reply to post by andy1033


He's deep down bone tired. Just like Bill Clinton was. The Presidency ages those men. It's killed more than one. I can't even begin imagining wanting the damned job as a lifelong dream...lunacy to my mind, and a sign that maybe that particular person shouldn't ever, ever have it.