The two things that have given me hope for the new year over the last week is GOP congresspeople rushing out the door and something I have never personally witnessed; people using their holiday time off to raise signs on street corners (generally “Fuck ICE”, but specifically 1-800 hotline numbers to report ICE abuses.)
On a darker note, I’m fairly confident things need to get worse before they get better. That’s the silver lining of every Trump overreach, but it always involves innocent people getting hurt physically, economically, and emotionally.
This may be more wishful thinking than prediction, but I think in 2026, trump’s mental and / or physical deterioration will become so rapid and apparent, like ‘Dick Clark in his final years’ obvious, that no amount of Fox News sanewashing, or Karoline Leavitt bloviating, will be able to continue to hide it. They’ll have no choice but to ‘25th Amendment’ him.
I know, many Dopers believe a ‘President Vance’ would be as bad as trump, or possibly even worse, since he’s at least marginally smarter and more articulate. But, I think he’s more an opportunistic follower than a true acolyte. He’d probably be just as beholden to typical Repub machinations like making the top 1% richer, but I think he might put a stop to the worst policies of the trump admin, like the crazy ever-changing tariffs, the National Guard deployments to American cities, the brutal treatment of anybody even looking like illegal immigrants, and the multiple war crimes. Or at least get rid of the admin members who are actively pushing those things, like the Millers and the Hegseths. Also, his complete lack of whatever dark charisma trump possesses means that he won’t be able to foster and promote ‘trumpism’ even if he was inclined to. Again though, very possibly wishful thinking on my part.
I don’t think Vance would be as bad. Vance is only 41 and smart enough to know that he will inevitably be in the political minority some time in the future. Every imaginary presidential prerogative he acts on is a weapon he will be handing to a Democratic successor. Trump is old enough and dumb enough not to worry about that.