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The Dominator's friends have been talking about the fine literature they're reading. As ever, the Dominator instead reads paperback books that usually cost 50 cents, though they go for a dollar here because charities in Seattle are affluent and greedy.
The latest paperback is "Breakdown" by William W. Johnstone, about a 1990s right-wing rebellion in the United States, kind of like the modern-day "Tea Party" rallies with guns. It turns into a three-way civil war among the Gov, the good militias, and the evil militias.
- In the story, the U.S. armed forces are pretty useless because they won't fight against Americans, every convoy has to look behind every bridge for saboteurs, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all hate gays... Well, that was back when the height of Army tolerance was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
- Lawbreakers just fold up when militiamen enforce severe penalties against (for instance) playing loud music in your car.
- The rest of the normal people just go about their business, because they're either outnumbered or powerless against militias... The writer may have underestimated the readiness of the nation's public to go buy guns if guns come into fashion.
If a rebellion like this were to happen in the real world, things might be different. Factions will be kind of like in the book, though.
- U.S. National Guard. Even if the regular Army can't be bothered to come off base or home from overseas, someone's still going to be protecting Statehouses.
- Evil militias. The most highly motivated militiamen will be evil loonies. In the book, the fundamentalists and the neo-Nazis were teaming up.
- Good militias. Okay, the Domination will accept for the sake of an exciting story that there are so many people ready to take up arms against the U.S. Gov that they won't all be evil. But they'll probably be fighting among themselves. And every gun shop will probably tell new gun owners where to go for free training. So expect a lot of militia recruitment.
- Policemen and concerned citizens. Militiamen won't grab everything, and neither will the regular Army. That leaves a lot of "no man's land", or business as usual. Unless there are a lot of...
- Rioters. But remember, the "concerned citizens" will probably be sporting guns too.
One way or another, every city will be controlled by an armed force. They already are, if you count policemen. The Domination has been thinking about what kind of force will control each city that has served as EilerBase.
- Speedway-Indiana and the west Indianapolis suburbs: Police departments.
- The National Guard will be seven miles away at the Statehouse, or conveying lawmakers to wealthy neighborhoods on the north side of town.
- The west side may have gone downhill in recent years, but there's still a lot of wealth running through town, so the citizens might be slow to get discontent.
- But if anything is rumored to be about to happen to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, look for a sudden militia influx.
- Palatine-Illinois and the northwest Chicago suburbs: Police departments. There are some housing projects there, so there might be some spontaneous rioting, but probably not organized.
- Bothell-Washington and parts of the Seattle suburbs: Concerned citizens. Or maybe good militias. Judging from the number of guns in the pawn shop, there will be no shortage of gun-toting citizens.
- South Lansing-Michigan: National Guard.
- The Guard has a base right there, a mile and a half from the Statehouse. If they bother to secure all of Lansing that's within rocket launcher range of that base, that'll save the old Great Hall of Eiler at least.
- South Lansing has lots of potential rioters. But it also has lots of Neighborhood Watch. Even where the authorities can't make it, concerned citizens who suddenly have guns will know where to go.
- North Nashville-Tennessee: Rioters.
- The Statehouse is a mile in one direction, and the state Medicaid office is a mile in the other. The National Guard will probably think to protect the one but not the other.
- In between there are yuppies, housing projects whose residents already try to prey on yuppies, some fancy hotels that'll probably shut down, and a concrete factory that would make a good staging area for an evil militia bombing run against housing projects and government offices. Anything could happen.
- Douglas-Massachusetts and the nearby countryside: Good militias.
- The New England landscape is filled with gun clubs. But gun owners in southern New England would usually rather go to a bar than a church, and religious people there would usually rather play golf than fire a gun.
- Still, things could be interesting in Douglas. Watch out for religious militias from out of state sneaking onto the Douglas Camp Meeting grounds!
Hmmm, this would make a good novel after all, full of human drama. It just so happens, the Domination's fiction-blog is going there this year.
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