It does worry me that people focus so much on Trump, and many do not acknowledge or realize this is Republicans in general since before Trump, he just managed to bring it out into the light in a weirdly effective way.
I am indeed concerned that, after Trump is gone, people will relax, become complacent, and think ‘normal’ republicans are okay to allow into office again, and then someone smarter and subtler will manage to actually pull off changes that give them permanent control.
The only way things get better is if people don’t do that, and continue to keep these people out of office for years and indeed decades, until the Republican party completely collapses, making room for a new left party to split off from the Democratic party so that the Democrats can be a relatively sane conservative party to the right of a relatively sane middle.
And while recent events make me hopeful for the immediate future, I am still concerned about longer-term, especially after Trump is gone, and people start to relax.
I think Trump has shown where some exploitable weaknesses are in US democracy, particularly in areas where things that should be enforceable rules are just courtesies instead and no one ever accounted for the guy who comes in saying “fuck all that”. But these things can be fixed before Trump 2.0 Stealth Dictator Edition comes along.
Now as for who will really miss him when he is gone, news channels are going to be so bored and so boring. You don’t get this mix of balls-out racism, narcissism and stupidity from just anyone and the heirs apparent that we speculate about today clearly do not have what it takes to assume the mantle. I have a feeling this going to be like cold turkey opiate withdrawal for news networks.
Yeah, they do. Right Wing Populism has always been popular- see Boris Johnson, Netanyahu, Modi, and many others. RW populists made impossible but temping promises, and then blame a minority for the ills of the nation. Note the Right Wing Riots in the UK.
I think someone as bad as trump wont resurface- Nikki Haley= as P. J. O’Rourke said once about Hillary Clinton vs trump “It’s the second-worst thing that can happen to this country, but she’s way behind in second place. She’s wrong about absolutely everything, but she’s wrong within normal parameters.”
Now true, we also had desantis of Florida who is even more crazy than trump in some ways- but his candidacy did not go far.
But then also Chris Christie, who is more like an old school republican.
What people both like and dislike about Trump is the same one thing: authenticity. Another Trump may try to outtrump Trump but there really is only one Trump. Trump Jrs. and Skim Scrazies notwithstanding.
Who else would Sharpie a hurricane warning affecting millions of people? Who else would throw paper towels to disaster victims? Who else would feed White House invitées White Castle? Appalling. But impossible to copy. You can have the (faux) machisma without the (faux) charisma.
Can I have your attention please! Please!?…
And there’s a million of us just like me
Who cuss like me, just don’t give a f#ck like me
Who dress like me, walk, talk and act like me
And just might be the next best thing, but not quite me…
The thing about Trump is that he’s a one-man show. He doesn’t care who his successor might be because he can’t conceive of anything that doesn’t include him in charge. He’s not even happy right now sharing the spotlight with JD Vance. A narcissist can’t help but be a narcissist.
It’s kind of like David Lee Roth once said: “If Roth ain’t in it, I don’t care about Van Halen. And neither do you.”
I mean the OP is not wrong. I’d just point out a couple of things…
First and foremost. Let’s just defeat the actual IRL fascist that still has a decent chance of getting elected in less than a 100 days. Arguments about hypothetical future fascists can wait until my hangover recovers from celebrating Trump’s loss. I literally don’t want to hear about it until then
Secondly there are a two obvious things we can do prevent the scenario laid out in the OP. It is very real, Trump has completely negated the old canard about “when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible”. He barely pays lip to being either patriotic or Christian. The GOP could definitely find a fascist who does a great job of both those things. But we need to counteract that by:
A: Making sure Trump’s election loss is as complete and humiliating as possible. The ONLY thing that will get the GOP to abandon MAGA is if it threatens their personal interests. An up and down the ballot landslide that takes down GOP luminaries with previously safe seats would do that. Its not super likely, but it would the one thing that would significantly reduce the chances of the events in the OP coming about.
B: Every waking hour of every elected Democrat should be spent trying to undo the underlying causes of Trump’s rise. The inequality and disenfranchisement in American society are the real reason a second Trump term is a real possibility. We need to fix that.
I’m with the OP in spirit, if not literally. I will never miss Trump. But the GOP that comes after him is going to be a mess.
I think that Trump is the outcome of a larger movement on the right that’s gone haywire, not the other way around. He didn’t pollute a healthy party. A diseased party and movement gave birth to Trump.
And Project 2025, even if he’s not elected, will not go away. It will still be on a shelf. And there are a large % of Republicans that thinks it’s a great idea. So, it will become Project 2029 or Project 2033 or whatever year we have the next GOP President (and we will have one again).
Defeating Trump this year is critical to the future of the country. But it will not be the end of our battle against Fascism from the right.
Why would Trump be going anywhere? After the election, I fully expect he will assume the role played by previous presidents: plenty of charity work, beloved speakers at international public service conferences, quieter life in the countryside, adopting a lot of pets, critical memoirs that explain his flaws and unfulfilled desires, tending to his library, setting an example, endowing a scholarship for media and ethnic and cultural studies, learning how to surf and do macramé, improving his Esperanto, keeping away from the public eye, attending secret Illuminati meetings.