The future of America might be in contention between the transhumanists and the ethno-nationalists -- elements of the Trump coalition -- but at this point, the social justice warriors and their overweening bureaucracy are (arguably) mere relics of the past.
I've thought about this, and, in my view, there are two really bad long-term possible outcomes for Trumpism:
1) Something absolutely catastrophic happens while Trump is in power. This probably means a highly destructive (possibly nuclear) war, but it could also mean another pandemic, a depression or permanent sabotaging of efforts to contain climate change.
2) The MAGA movement has staying power once Trump is dead or incapacitated and the US becomes a truly fascist state like North Korea where Trump occupies the role of beatified "dead founder". We see this with, for instance, Lenin and Kim Il-Sung. For this to work out, someone would have to wrangle control of Trump's supporters and they would have to be a savvy operator. The "second generation" would be less reliant on charisma if they can invoke Trump's charisma and if this extreme fascist version of government becomes culturally normative.
I don't have a clear sense about whether or not #2 is really viable. Americans are a fractious people without a multi-generational experience of tsardom or royal dominion. Our tendencies towards social unjust domination -- slavery and Jim Crow -- did not depend on charismatic individuals or singular government actions, but rather in-grained social attitudes and the grinding mechanisms of law. I also don't get the sense that any of the powerful people around Trump are savvy operators. Musk has some of that potential, but he is so drugged up and spastic these days, that he may not have wherewithal most commentators attribute to him. JD Vance, who has the best position to take up Trump's mantle, is intelligent, but so far hasn't shown any particular talent at organizing personalities and bureaucracies around his will (compare Vance with someone like Dick Cheney or Lyndon Johnson).
I'd be curious if you have any feelings about this?
So many words, ifs and and buts. What we see with our own eyes and hear from the voice of so-called power, Mr. Trump negates every sentence in the concept of the his fall being in question. The settings for Trump's outreach to the public now has demonstrated his unfortunate brain decay and difficultly with ordinary discourse, let alone any conception of wasted time talking flippantlly about real wars like he thinks they're fantasies that he can play with for two weeks, while he pays for flag poles to be erected (the shameful word? he couldn't say in public that is not sexual) though his mental frame disallows it to be an actual verb for building things. Bless the poor soul, but use the 25th amendment to the Constitution already. VP is a rabbit in a rat's costume. He'll be awful and manipulative, but he cannot, nor Trump, succeed in '28. The Democrates have good talent in leaders already in place that get both sides' vote. All governors with stable and strong minds who can fix issues rather than play with their and other people's e-word parts. Onward USA and our 3-tiered governing establishments, and our 250-year history of rule by the people. This is nonsense, what we have to see and hear from fighting babies. And the meandering mind of a man with onset dementia whose family claps while he clammers for what is already lost on him.
I'd say Tucker Carlson is more anti-democracy than anti-war. Putin's invasion of Ukraine isn't just okay with him, it eventually led him to visit Moscow, gush about the wonderfulness of all things Russian, and interview Putin himself (who reciprocated with favorable talk of Tucker Carlson in the Russian media ― Tucker claims other journalists refused to interview him, but in reality Putin turns down real journalists.)
Eh, I don’t see anything changing unless Musk aggressively downweights the right wing influencers on X. Even then I’m not sure how much it would matter.
"Mump politics". It is popcorn time but also one of the most horrible times in the modern US history.
The future of America might be in contention between the transhumanists and the ethno-nationalists -- elements of the Trump coalition -- but at this point, the social justice warriors and their overweening bureaucracy are (arguably) mere relics of the past.
Berny--
I've thought about this, and, in my view, there are two really bad long-term possible outcomes for Trumpism:
1) Something absolutely catastrophic happens while Trump is in power. This probably means a highly destructive (possibly nuclear) war, but it could also mean another pandemic, a depression or permanent sabotaging of efforts to contain climate change.
2) The MAGA movement has staying power once Trump is dead or incapacitated and the US becomes a truly fascist state like North Korea where Trump occupies the role of beatified "dead founder". We see this with, for instance, Lenin and Kim Il-Sung. For this to work out, someone would have to wrangle control of Trump's supporters and they would have to be a savvy operator. The "second generation" would be less reliant on charisma if they can invoke Trump's charisma and if this extreme fascist version of government becomes culturally normative.
I don't have a clear sense about whether or not #2 is really viable. Americans are a fractious people without a multi-generational experience of tsardom or royal dominion. Our tendencies towards social unjust domination -- slavery and Jim Crow -- did not depend on charismatic individuals or singular government actions, but rather in-grained social attitudes and the grinding mechanisms of law. I also don't get the sense that any of the powerful people around Trump are savvy operators. Musk has some of that potential, but he is so drugged up and spastic these days, that he may not have wherewithal most commentators attribute to him. JD Vance, who has the best position to take up Trump's mantle, is intelligent, but so far hasn't shown any particular talent at organizing personalities and bureaucracies around his will (compare Vance with someone like Dick Cheney or Lyndon Johnson).
I'd be curious if you have any feelings about this?
So many words, ifs and and buts. What we see with our own eyes and hear from the voice of so-called power, Mr. Trump negates every sentence in the concept of the his fall being in question. The settings for Trump's outreach to the public now has demonstrated his unfortunate brain decay and difficultly with ordinary discourse, let alone any conception of wasted time talking flippantlly about real wars like he thinks they're fantasies that he can play with for two weeks, while he pays for flag poles to be erected (the shameful word? he couldn't say in public that is not sexual) though his mental frame disallows it to be an actual verb for building things. Bless the poor soul, but use the 25th amendment to the Constitution already. VP is a rabbit in a rat's costume. He'll be awful and manipulative, but he cannot, nor Trump, succeed in '28. The Democrates have good talent in leaders already in place that get both sides' vote. All governors with stable and strong minds who can fix issues rather than play with their and other people's e-word parts. Onward USA and our 3-tiered governing establishments, and our 250-year history of rule by the people. This is nonsense, what we have to see and hear from fighting babies. And the meandering mind of a man with onset dementia whose family claps while he clammers for what is already lost on him.
I'd say Tucker Carlson is more anti-democracy than anti-war. Putin's invasion of Ukraine isn't just okay with him, it eventually led him to visit Moscow, gush about the wonderfulness of all things Russian, and interview Putin himself (who reciprocated with favorable talk of Tucker Carlson in the Russian media ― Tucker claims other journalists refused to interview him, but in reality Putin turns down real journalists.)
Eh, I don’t see anything changing unless Musk aggressively downweights the right wing influencers on X. Even then I’m not sure how much it would matter.