Wikipedia describes Civil War as follows: 

A 2024 dystopian film written and directed by Alex Garland. It follows a team of journalists traveling across the United States during a civil war fought between an authoritarian federal government and several regional factions.  

Naturally, it’s all too easy to envision a new Trump administration as that “authoritarian federal government,” with blue states cast as “regional factions.”

Trump inciting civil war

The reality is that Donald Trump has made civil war romantic again. Moreover, his Jan. 6 insurrection telegraphed how willing his MAGA followers are to fight another lost cause. This, even though everyone knows that Trump would readily make of them the cannon fodder Putin is making of Russians in Ukraine.

Even more troubling, however, is that far too many Americans seem possessed of a morbid curiosity or fatalism about Trump turning American democracy into a dystopian autocracy. Frankly, it seems the whole country is following his norm-busting lead, eyes wide shut.

Red states vs blue states

No one embodies this secessionist zeal more than Texas Governor Gregg Abbott. On every issue — from abortion to immigration and voting rights — he’s leading red-state governors in defying President Biden’s federal authority. Most notably, red states are trolling or provoking blue states by dumping migrants on them with civil war-like contempt.

Red states are clearly jonesing for a civil war. And they’re taking steps that seem hell-bent on making one a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Biden had better nip this red-state defiance in the bud before it grows uncontrollable thorns. Because Republicans are in for a rude awakening if they think Democrats are just going to roll over and take it. 

But what if Civil War comes true, and we find ourselves living in a Putin-style autocracy with antebellum values? 

I suspect it would take less than a year for MAGA Republicans to begin pining for democracy. And their pining would be so acute that those Republicans would lead a people’s revolution to make America democratic again.