So, the authors are suggesting that the DHS be called into crush a right-wing insurgency when the right controls congress and the President is a squishy center-right moderate? Mitt Romney is a lot of things, but Abe Lincoln ain't one of them.
Although if Mitt really did cut spending to the level the article suggests, the Tea Party wouldn't be in armed revolt; they'd be out campaigning for his reelection and looking to add him to Mount Rushmore. Even if the taxes rates remained high (which is somewhat hard to fathom assuming the right controlled the legislative and executive branches), the benefits of reduced government spending would hurt the progressives and their special interests, not the middle class Tea Party types. It's the middle class Tea Party section of America that winds up paying for programs they don't use. Conversely, it would be left who'd be ready to fight back and draw blood if those programs were cut.
But people who work for government think tanks don't get paid to consider a left wing / statist revolt in protest of lower spending, now do they? In reality, this scenario only makes sense under Democratic rule, which makes me wonder why they'd avoid the obvious 'Obama is reelected and everything goes to hell' storyline, which fits their overall narrative much more neatly. Unless they find it politically unthinkable to admit that Obama + reality = failure. That's possible. Ideology often trumps honesty in government. When you maneuver around 'unthinkable obstacles' because you don't like the implication, it invariably leads to cartoonish analysis. And here we are.
The authors' scenario seems more like a liberal self-delusional alternate reality rather than anything I can accept with any stretch of credibility. These people are falling victim to their own spin.
It is my assertion that the "Progressives" (and media, and strap-hangers, and all the rest of that ilk) should be damn glad that "we" are not the folks that "they" constantly accuse us of being. The fact that "they" remain free to continue to denigrate and slander those with whom they disagree, instead of hiding in fear of their lives, proves that "we" are not the violent, knuckle-dragging, illiterate bigots that they constantly and loudly claim we are. Do you suppose any of them ever stop to ponder this?
Ideology often trumps honesty in government. When you maneuver around 'unthinkable obstacles' because you don't like the implication, it invariably leads to cartoonish analysis. And here we are.
As you said: here we are. Our tax dollars at work.