If you once thought this was America’s worst nightmare:

Or even this:

Then perhaps you haven’t considered this:

The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 set out the following order of succession in the event of the death, resignation, or incapacity of the U.S. President (for the sake of simplicity, I have only listed the first seven):

Vice President
Speaker of the House
President Pro Tempore of the Senate
Secretary of State
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Defense
Attorney General

Our country has been taken over by an autocratic, xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, narcissistic, mentally incompetent fascist. Armed military troops and tanks are patrolling our city streets; innocent people are being disappeared into concentration camps simply because of their ethnicity; the mass media are being stifled; our highest courts are being rendered impotent. And as we Americans wake up to the bitter truth, calls are being heard for the tyrant’s removal from office.

But is that really the best answer? Because — believe it or not — things could be even worse.

Let’s look at that order of succession again. At this time in our history — when the entire governmental structure has been stacked with Donald Trump’s openly corrupt and totally unqualified cronies — it is terrifyingly clear that the alternatives may be as bad as, or even worse than, what we have now.

Just consider who currently fills those seven seats:

> Vice President: JD Vance

> Speaker of the House: Mike Johnson

> President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Chuck Grassley

> Secretary of State: Marco Rubio

> Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent

> Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth

> U.S. Attorney General: Pam Bondi

*. *. *

So we might want to rethink the best way out of this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. Is impeachment really the best answer? It would be unspeakably disruptive and demoralizing for the entire nation; and with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, it’s unlikely to result in a conviction. That, in turn, would simply send Trump into a tailspin of fury and retribution greater than anything we’ve seen so far.

But the members of that very Congress — along with the Supreme Court and the presidential Cabinet — have the power to put an immediate stop to the madness. All they have to do is wake up to the fact that they outnumber the madman in the Oval Office, and collectively they outrank him. They have the strength of the United States Constitution behind them. They can simply grow a set, stand up to him, stop kowtowing and enabling him, and force him to obey the oath of office he took on January 20th.

And if he still refuses to do the right thing — if he decides that General Custer had the right idea in making one last stand — then, but only as a final resort, impeach and convict him, and physically escort him out of the White House.

If that were to happen, what successor would have the guts to follow his example?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/29/25