4/14/23

Designated Survivor is a blueprint for the Trump insurgency

Tom Kirkman was Secretary of Health and Human Services when the entire federal government died in a massive attack on the US Capitol during the State of the Union address. As designated survivor he is immediately sworn in as POTUS then cast into the crocodile-infested swamp that is US politics. 

Every day brings a new crisis heaped onto national tragedy while the White House assembles a new federal government as state governors appoint new senators and arrange for the elections needed to rebuild the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court of the United States is slowly and achingly refilled amid the rubble of American democracy where an untested former academic sorts through the conspiracy that took down the federal establishment. 

A Republican former POTUS is an antagonist with ties to the conspiracy who beguiles then thwarts President Kirkman at nearly every opportunity and Democrats prove to be equally treacherous.

The West Wing is a virtual war zone as staff with their own story arcs scramble to prop up a beleaguered chief executive widowed in a suspicious car crash while a few trusted aides investigate then uncover the Russia-backed billionaire who destroyed the Capitol and blamed Islamic militants. 

Often prophetic, it’s as if Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Patrick Davis and Brad Parscale memorized the entire script then put every villainous catastrophe they concoct into play. In the penultimate episode there is even a racist who engineers a virus to sterilize or kill people of color to erase the Democratic voter base — the defining feature of the Trump term

Republican 44th POTUS, Texan Cornelius Moss is a conniving, deceitful traitor who ultimately runs against Kirkman. Tom is a committed social justice warrior who grows into the office as a fiercely independent anti-partisan politician who’s not afraid of a fight — the betrayal of his late wife’s transgender sister notwithstanding.

Donald Trump's designated survivors were VA Secretary David Shulkin (2017), Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (2018), Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (2019) and Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt in 2020 — a veritable Who's Who of Earth haters.

Honestly? I’m terrified the GOP will assassinate our POTUS and VPOTUS then install the Republican Speaker of the House who would name Herr Trump his Veep then step down so having Kevin McCarthy second in line for presidential succession should scare the spit out of every American.

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