No matter what happens tonight on election night, it’s just the beginning.

It might get called in 12 hours — it might take 12 weeks.

Either we are going to begin unraveling democracy into a Trump fantasy land of executive orders, loyalty oaths and political prosecutions, or we will slide into the middle lane of an Obama redo.

Pick a fork.. it is going to be a long road in any direction.

Even if the Democratic wet dream of an overwhelming vote makes this an easy call tonight, it’s likely there will be multiple lawsuits, made up “media controversies” and charges of voter fraud. Why not? It’s been a Trump theme since 2016 — even when he won.

His childish need to always be “the winner” will never let him admit an honest defeat. He won’t be rejected because a majority of people hate him. In his addled little Adderall brain, his “enemies” have to cheat to win.

It may take weeks or months or years to wring those lies out of the system. Tonight would only be the start of defending even an overwhelming vote. A close vote may never be fully accepted. Imagine if Gore had continued to re-litigate the 2000 election the way Trump harps on 2016… It might still be in the courts.

We could all hope a huge defeat would send Trump home like Nixon with his tail between his legs. But Trump is a bigger asshole than that little Tricky Dick.

Trump’s enablers and minions will happily spread his propaganda like manure on rye grass. It helps them undermine the idea of majority rule. When Republicans only have 40-percent support, their only hope to hold power is to suppress, depress and deprive at least 15-percent of the vote.

They will continue to gerrymander, close polls, spread lies and slow down the mail to get their way. As long as the map of states leans in their favor, they will protect and defend the electoral college over every other part of the constitution. They have to. Unless they change their message and messangers, it’s the only way they can win.

With cries that America is a “Republic and not a democracy,” they will have to continue to undermine the oldest democracy in the world.

If Trump wins the electoral college (he’s got no shot at a mandate of the people) it will accelerate their process to pervert American “democracy.” They need a minority rule of the wealthy and religious manipulating the aggressive (who’s paying the Proud Boys bills?) to divide and conquer the over-thinkers, the literate, the powerless and the poor.

No hope for fast change

If Biden’s votes fall into the right counties and states so he wins the electoral college, don’t look for big changes anytime soon.

Even if the Democrats’ dream of getting the Senate come true, the checks and balances of our system will slow down every plan or promise they may be trying to make.

Mitch McConnell has made a fine art of obstruction. He will put the purple hand of distraction and destruction on every Green Deal idea.

Trump and McConnell have colluded to fill the courts with every deluded Republican jurist with a law degree. That third branch of government will be cut into a switch to beat back any changes.

Lawyers and lawsuits funded by corporations and wealthy donors will clog the courts on every tax change, every regulation to cut carbon, every protection for voters or the poor. SCOTUS will further restrict the federal government’s power to regulate with bullshit arguments of original intent and states rights. But when states take a turn to the left, SCOTUS will push back from the right to limit expanding civil rights and backing the power of corporations to do as they wish.

Where the courts fail, astro turfed rebels will jump in. Remember 2010 and the Tea Party? A Biden administration will see a similar backlash. It might not start as soon or have the same sting — after all Biden doesn’t have “too much” pigment. But it will come.

What will also come is the Democrats’ unique ability to self-destruct. When the evil orange witch is dead, they will split and fracture and fight like every dysfunctional family on the “Jersey Shore.”

Like Obama, Biden will waste months (maybe even 2 years) courting bi-partisanship and building “unity.” The Republicans will talk and delay and make noises about compromise until the momentum is gone. When the Democrats finally realize the window is closing, it will be too late.

The original Jackasses are a party of plural opinions — most of whom are self-righteously convinced of their own morality and unwilling to bow to the will of their own party.

The only change that will come quickly is rhetoric. There will be no talk of walls. There will be many messages about masks. The POTUS won’t be waking us up with Twitter.

And maybe that new talk will be enough to limit our high anxiety. Maybe it will calm down the media, so they can go back to standing in front of natural disasters, calling in from war zones and telling us about far off international conflicts. Maybe that’s enough.

But no matter what happens tonight, it’s going to be a long road to change…