It was April 2025. President Trump and the new GOP Congress had just taken a victory lap by abolishing the filibuster and enacting a new federal abortion ban. Governor Newsom would have none of it, however. He made it clear that California would do nothing to assist with the enforcement of the ban.
Trump seized on the opportunity to invoke the Insurrection Act. He sent troops to remove all of the prominent Democrats in the state from power; California would henceforth be ruled directly from Washington, with the assistance of the military, local collaborators, and some red state carpetbaggers. When Newsom challenged these actions, the Trump Supreme Court found that the Act gave the president the discretion to do just about anything he wanted. The remaining blue states subsequently received the same treatment, and dissent was crushed throughout the country. Liberal democracy had ceased to exist in America.
It was Reconstruction in reverse. If you think this can’t happen, think again.