You’re going to miss Trump when he’s gone

Politics & Elections
1

Yes, you, liberal, progressive, Democrat, independent, whatever.

His replacement will be him—racist, authoritarian, cruel, even sociopathic and narcissistic—but without his flaws of stupidity, vulgarity, tiny attention span, repulsive physical appearance, gross sexual history, personal avarice, and unwillingness to heed advice from those smarter than himself.

Right now, there are Republican politicians (hundreds if not thousands of them) eager to proclaim themselves the leader of MAGA nation, which is to say proud fascists and open racists who have been enjoying Trump’s permission to be themselves in public. These pols are now telling themselves “All I have to do to appeal to 45% of the voters is to proclaim my total approval of his policies and positions, and then add another 5 to 10 percent by being a bit cleverer than Trump, leaving some vulgarisms suggested rather than spoken, restraining myself from ill-advised temper tantrums when someone gets under my skin, bragging a little more subtly about my many virtues, yet still proclaiming jingoism and Christian Nationalism as the highest virtues there will ever be.”

The bar has been lowered, and permission granted, for future pols to no longer pretend to uphold morals, and decent behavior, and good manners. The Beast is out of the Box, the Monster freed from his Cage. From here on in, we will see pols (I’m thinking Ted Cruz or Nikki Haley) clinging to Trump’s base with slightly more polish and self-awareness than Trump himself exhibited, and defeating any Democratic candidate who comes along. With any sort of economic downturn, or foreign crisis that turns out badly, or perhaps a plague (Covid-27?) that pops up just before a national election, it could even be a rout of Reaganesque proportions, and we will be left moaning “Why, oh why, did Donald Trump have to die on us? Oh, for the good old days!!”

2

You are missing one key fact, for what ever reason Trump is Mr. Personality with the part of the Republican base that loves him. No one, especially Ted Cruz has that level of charisma with them. Some other horrific race-bating, demagogue might arise, but currently they don’t exist.

3

But do you agree that future GOP candidates are liberated forevermore from the restraints that decency, good manners, and appeals to traditional conservative values imposed on them? We have a generation of GOP voters, and potential voters, who no longer think those things matter.

4

They might be, but if Trump loses and over the next 8 years they lose the houses, the Republican Party will reinvent itself again, probably acting more civilized again.

Another factor is their base is aging out. They desperately need to peel off the Latin-American vote most likely, they will need to act differently to succeed at this.

5

Eh, I get what you’re trying to say but I don’t think it follows.

Trump was effectively Pandora’s Box. All this bad shit is out in the political world now but I don’t think anyone was saying “Damn, remember when the box was actively spewing evil? Those were good times…” Maybe someone else will come along that combines Trump’s vices, greed, authoritarian charisma and yet also has actual competence but they’re not going to make me miss the guy who made it possible. They’ll just make me regret that Trump ever came along.

6

“You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

And I’m still glad about that.

7

I used to think that the real threat of a Trump Presidency was that it would lead to a “Trump, but. . .” – Trump, but more polished; Trump, but more subtle about the dog whistles; Trump, but more focused. But what I’ve seen since Trump burst onto the scene is the absolute failure of other Republicans to replicate his voodoo. Those who’ve arguably come closest (Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano) have failed in their elections.

I’m not saying that the Trumpist approach won’t still be potent within the Republican Party and in specific regions. But I do have a hard time seeing anyone else – for the lack of a better word – “refine” his approach to greater electoral success.

8

There’s really no reason to believe this. The current Republican party is just barely holding together with all the divisions. After Trump it’s not clear what it will look like but I’m fairly confident that it won’t be a continuation of the same.

9

I agree with this.

We have seen other demagogue wannabes like DeSantis rise and fail. Trump has a cult of personality that other politicians cannot muster no matter how much they wish to do so.

It may well be that someday, with no Trump, another person will arise and take his place. But, as long as Trump is alive, that seems unlikely. Given Trump’s age I’d be surprised if we don’t see that in the next ten years or less.

ETA: Given the inability of anyone to usurp Trump I hope there can be no others. The thought that the US will forever be in this cycle with demagogues is very depressing and frightening.

10

I’ve been a little hopeful these last few weeks since Biden dropped out of the race. A lot of people seem more optimistic about the future, and I’m hoping we’re going to see a lot of voters reject Trump’s negativity in favor of optimism. I suspect the next Republican candidate for the presidency will be someone who actually loves America. Or at least one who can avoid letting us know how much he hates it.

11

So, a real JD Vance?

12

The only positive about his flaws is that it makes it a bit easier to block him and push him off the political stage. It doesn’t constitute a good argument for keeping the Devil that we know in office.

But yes, he’s done lasting and probably permanent damage to US politics.

13

Not “Forevermore”, no. The people you talk about, who will be vying for Trump’s place in the MAGA pantheon will, pretty much by definition, be some of the worst people in the US.

That means the next few election cycles are going to be marked by the fiercest in-fighting we’ve ever seen. They’ll cut each other down badly enough to make their victory in the general election much less likely. Not a one of them will act out of a true feeling of loyalty to the party, and even those that fake some loyalty will be cut out by the eventual winner purging anyone he doesn’t trust - and he won’t trust anyone.

A few cycles of this, and even the MAGAs are going to get sick of losing.

And also remember, a lot of the MAGAs are old. They’ll be dying off, and be replaced by potential voters who have never seen any MAGA success, but only one MAGA failure after another.

14

Global politics, if Europe and South America are any indication.

15

Well, you hope so. So do I. But can you see Ted Cruz, only slightly less repulsive than Trump, putting together a coalition of MAGA nuts in 2028, pulling off the sort of inside straight that Trump had in 2016, beating an incumbent President Harris (after a few mishaps like an economic crisis, sky-high gas prices, an uncontrollable pandemic, etc., none of which she’d have caused but all of which she’d be blamed for) via an unbalanced Electoral College, and then the GOP deciding “YES!! This is the way to go–appeal to racists, jingoists, Christian Nationalists” for a few more election cycles?

16

I agree with the OP. Not in saying I will miss Trump. (Trump hasn’t made me miss Bush.) But I agree that there will be worse people coming along. Trump has shown that you can get away with openly breaking laws. Future Republicans will break laws like Trump but won’t be as dumb as Trump. They will break laws in a planned fashion in order to achieve goals.

17

Trump is suis generis. Unless you can find another narcissistic sociopath who effortlessly manipulates the triggers of the Resentful Uneducated White Male to step into his shoes, I can’t think what will become of the immoral dregs of the once-proud Republican Party once Trump keels over.

18

Not Ted Cruz, no, nor Rubio or De Santis. And probably no other GOP politician who currently has any national name recognition. They couldn’t even rally around a new Speaker of the House, on multiple occasions.

What we’ve already seen is that these guys aren’t capable of reproducing Trump’s “charisma”, however it works. They’ve already tried, and failed. They’re missing the X factor that Trump has, even if I have no idea what “X” is.

Anyone else trying to replicate the X factor will be someone new, and will have to come up against all the other new people also trying to find the X factor.

19

I’m with the OP, I want Trump do live to be 150. I don’t want the GOP tip toe away from him and pretend they didn’t goosestep to his beat.

I think that if Trump wasn’t the GOP candidate, Harris would be buried in the polls. Only by the grace of Trump’s utter incompetence, were the Democrats able to quickly bail on their nominee, the incumbent, and put forward a winning campaign.

I hope he’s around for decades to finish off the GOP.

20

Trump actually did make me miss Bush the Lesser, which shocked me. Even though I loathed him, he was sane, and tried to do the right thing according to his very dim lights. Trump is neither sane nor has any moral sense whatsoever.