A reelected Trump would mean living under the constant threat of modern-day Brownshirts

As many are aware, the Atlantic devoted its entire latest print issue to examining the likely fallout and consequences to this nation and its citizens if Donald Trump is provided with another opportunity to occupy the Oval Office. As explained by the Atlantic’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, speaking to National Public Radio (NPR), the intent was to provide a frank and honest assessment of those consequences through the eyes of some of the magazine’s most astute and knowledgeable writers—political and otherwise—so that there would be no question whether that publication had appropriately warned the American people at the outset, well before the fact of the election, thus allowing Americans to make an informed decision.

Goldberg acknowledged this in a Dec. 8 interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep:

What we were thinking was that we have to do whatever we can do, while there's time, to put out in plain English what we think will happen if Trump is elected again. At the very least, I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror, and I want to be able to explain to my children and my grandchildren, we tried. We tried to tell people what was coming. And we failed, but we at least tried.

Each of the Atlantic’s writers approached the assignment through their own lens, style, and expertise. But the article written by Juliette Kayyem, formerly assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs for the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, titled “The Proud Boys Love a Winner,” describes one consequence of a revived Trump presidency that for most Americans may be beyond comprehension, or at the very least beyond their comfort zones to consider: the transformation of our governmental structure into an institutionalized tool for violence and intimidation.