And the USA’s diminishing levels of intellect.
Actually, they all feel like they are under attack from big business in league with cultural liberals. That’s why they are so reactionary against outfits like Disney and InBev (aka Anheuser-Busch, brewers of Bud Light) they feel they can still influence them in ways that will “stem the tide of wokeness” that’s taking over our society, and they rely on undemocratic influence in politics (Supreme Court, Senate and electoral college, gerrymandering the House and local politics) because they feel they are outnumbered and under constant attack.
They may not feel “screwed”, per se, but they feel like they are under siege and engaged in a battle they’re currently losing. And that’s why they’re dangerous, and emphasizing that the U.S. is “a republic, not a democracy” because they know the antidemocratics points in the political system and they’re working them for all they’re worth, but that’s only going to last so long.
I walked away from the GOP in 2016 with the intention of returning once they returned to their senses. Any hope that they’d return to their senses evaporated in the wake of the January 6th insurrection when Republicans rallied around Trump trying to gaslight the national that nothing really happened. So now I vote Democrat. Not because I support their entire platform, even if I’m voting something I don’t like, because I’d rather preserve the democratic process than take it away from my fellow Americans.
They’ve been actively de-educated and aren’t coming back. The best thing for America is the collapse of the GOP.
They can’t take over permanently. History never ends.
Outlawing opposition parties is very difficult. They would have to kill judges before the legal system bowed to that. And not just a few, You are talking about the work of decades, not two terms. And if Trump wins next year, then he is term-limited.
Presidential republics are unstable, with the U.S. the most notable explanation. I want to take Trump literally, while not catastrophizing.
A classic article on this is “The Perils of Presidentialism.” If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. I’m not linking because I’m not sure of the copyright status of the various links.
…they already have control of the Supreme Court, at least for the next generation. If they win the house and the senate at the next election they will solidify control of the courts.
And while they aren’t directly in control of the thousands of different police departments in the country, they certainly have their support and undying loyalty. I see no danger of them “destroying themselves.” I see the long game of capturing institutions and lde-legitimizing federal government as the goal, and I think they are well along in that plan.
Yes, by Juan Linz. It’s well worth a scary read. He tells the tale of how Presidential / Congressional systems fail. It’s like he gave the road map, 20 (?) years ago, about what might happen in the US.
I’ve seen it in reputable online sources, so I think a link would be okay.
They certainly appointed most members of the SCOTUS. That much is true. But do they control it?
Oops.
They’re trying to twist things at the local level, and have gotten away with far too much. But it’s because their hold on the voting public is slipping. I don’t think they can tip the voting scales fast enough to compensate.
Given a choice between making a clean break from Trumpism or trying to appeal to MAGAs and traditional Republicans at the same time, G.O.P. leaders decided to juggle the eggs and shrug off drops and breakages.
Yeah, that’s the hamster in the picnic basket. 
Hmm. Since I last read Linz online, the article seems to have gone behind paywalls.
Here’s a 10 year old WaPo interview with him, outlining his thesis:
I don’t think it’s paywalled.
…yep. And a single decision doesn’t change that.
Abortion is illegal in multiple states. Trans people have had to go into hiding. America locks up more people per capita than almost anywhere else in the world. And the “left” keep shifting to the right. New York arguably have an extreme right-wing Mayor who is in the pocket of the cops.
I don’t see the Republicans have screwed themselves at all. Because it isn’t “binary.” It isn’t even really Republicans vs Democrats. Its right-wing authoritarians capitalists vs the people, and the right-wing authoritarians capitalists are winning.
Keep in mind that I’m literally only talking about the Republican Party. There is zero chance of conservatism going away. When the Republicans implode, something else will take their place. You’re basically changing the subject.
…and the Republican Party haven’t screwed themselves, and they aren’t going anywhere. it will put on whatever mask it needs to wear, be it the Tea Party, MAGA, or whatever it is that comes next.
SCOTUS has already gutted the VRA sufficiently years ago, which is why Alabama got to hold last election with their illegal map, and why by stalling they mught get to keep doing it, for some amount of time anyway. The VRA in many cases works like hotel california.
It’s good that they are satisfied with making it a largely toothless act and aren’t going to upend the whole thing, but this comparatively minor victory doesn’t compare to the overall picture of how the right wing court is gutting people’s rights.
Welcome.
I left the party in 2009 when they actively tried to shove the economy off a cliff into a huge depression.
I vowed to never vote (R) again until they apologized as a party.
I’m still waiting.
That’s just the thing though – MAGA is inherently about imaginary grievances and hate against some out-group – it can never “win”, even on its own terms. But we can all certainly lose.
Whether the Trump acolytes feel like winners is more nuanced. The dumb ones probably do. The smarter ones will be aware of how quickly you can be on the wrong side of the MAGA mob. (They’ll also not sleep well if they have any morals / principles, but, yeah, it appears anyone like that has already been run out of the party).
They don’t even need to destroy the Democratic Party. Let them win a small minority of seats, perhaps a governor here or there. It’s much easier to fight an enemy who already exists than to create your own Emmanuel Goldstein.
The survival of our democracy depends on this.
The problem is the method in which they cheated. This wasn’t the equivalent of Gaylord Perry throwing a spitball or the Houston Astros banging on trash cans in the dugout. This was trying to force the official score keeper to say the Rs won when it was actually the Ds that won, and then threatening to literally kill the scorekeepers if they didn’t listen. That kind of thing is a lot more difficult to defeat.
I like your optimism.