The government has nukes, and if the degradement of the military command structure is as bad as they say, they will use them on regionally balky areas as an example to “the rest of us”.
are you really suggesting that the US government and the US military would use nuclear weapons on its own soil against its own people? I don’t think a post nuclear apocalyptic wasteland scenario would help them get what they want. They’re pretty limited in what they can do about the 200 million or so firearms located within the US.