Wow, Trav...that was something.
However, I wanna go back and pull a “Harry Turtledove” on you....
Towards the end, “Jacinta” said the President failed them by not ordering the arrest of the right-wing commentators and shutting down the “hate networks”.
What if he had? Could things have turned out differently? Any comments? Not trying to stir up any trouble, but my mind wandered in that direction. So, I thought I’d ask.
The part where they wanted to shut down Fox and the remaining conservative media? At that point, it sounds like they were pretty well boned anyway. Their problem at that point wasn’t the press so much as that pretty much all of them had to worry about getting shot. That meeting sounds like the bunker scene in “Downfall”, except with the staffers having the meltdown instead of the boss.
Actually, I could very easily see Barry greenlighting something like this, off the record, of course, giving Jacinda and Dennis and the gang the wink and the nod that he’s with them all the way on their plan, right on, comrades, and then bailing out if it goes bad, leaving the plotters in front of the speeding bus. I could even imagine him feeding Fox the “putsch” story, or feeding it to somebody to feed to Fox, while he’s up in the residence “thinking” about the arrest orders. I mean, when he’s not packing and planning his flight out.
No, it still wouldn’t have worked. But Jacinda had to blame somebody for the failure.