Nope, No, no way. mikal you suffer from this crazy thing called rational thinking.
There is no stopping this train, and I will tell you why. (well there is a way of stopping it, but it hinges on 2022/24)
The GOP knew back in 2008 that they would never win the popular vote ever again, and they also knew that at some point they wouldn't win national elections at all. Trump's whole election lie thing was a huge gift to them. And if they are good at anything it's packing courts and state and local govs with as far right people as they can. You control the courts, you control nearly everything.
So they have now moved to using violence as their main weapon (no pun intended), which means even the non-corrupt public servants, judiciary, elections officials, legislators, etc... are having to make a choice between doing the right thing or risking harm to them and their families.
If Trump goes to jail, let alone just indicted, I promise you there will be deaths. arson, bombs, whatever you can think of. Think Jan. 6th with 10 times more people, or mobs of people going directly to people's homes that had anything to do with it.
Until Trump dies, they will do anything at all that he says. If he's in jail, believe me, it will be like the new Q. There will be messages transmitted out, said to be from Trump, and these whacko's will do whatever it says.
If Trump dies, then Desantis is right there, Another sociopath with slightly better hair. Or someone else.
People always say that Repubs go along with Trump because they are afraid of his followers. This is true for many. But there are just as many or more that have gotten a taste of what Trump revealed - lawlessness and corruption with zero consequences. In fact. The worse you are, the more corrupt you are, the more vile and violent you are, the more you are rewarded. They see that an authoritarian government is their path to unlimited power. Who cares if democracy is gone if they're on the side that will be in power and control?
The fact is that democracies don't usually crumble and then come back. Once its gone, what are regular people to do? vote them out? It's over.
Now even though that's all dark stuff. The good part is that there are still more of us than them. But SO much hinges on the midterms. AZ needs to be a wipeout, PA Gov race has to be won, and WI would be nice as well.
The slide to fascism takes time, and so if we are able to beat it back soundly now, that's when we could finally see the wheels start to come off. Sure Trump followers will still be crazy. There will be others that try to emulate it for years to come, and Desantis is a very scary prospect of keeping it alive, or re-energizing it in 2024. It's going to be a very interesting and crazy two and a half years.
The biggest irony, is that after decades of planning and working by the christian pro-life movement to get anti-Roe people on the Supreme Court, the very thing that could end up saving democracy could be the decision that court made.
