It’s November, 2020, and Donald Trump has just lost the election. Naturally, he’s not taking it lying down. Blaming the outcome on fraud and the votes of illegal immigrants, he has filed a blizzard of lawsuits and is calling on “his” Supreme Court to save his bacon. More ominously, he is calling his supporters out in the streets to do battle with the authorities and keep him in power. Will they come?
Not this time. There is still enough faith in the system–barely–to prevent that. The rest of the GOP finally edges away from him, however tentatively, and the results of the election are respected, even if the Trump wing of the GOP openly considers the new Democratic president illegitimate.
This time, the system works. Next time, with a real man on horseback, maybe not.