but polling proves that most Americans (hilariously, even most Republicans) don’t want cutthroat neoliberal everyone-for-themselves economic policies.

Yes, but what if you repackage austerity as "patriotic manly tax cuts"?

Look, sales so isn't my department, but I've been far enough down this path to know bullshit dominates politics because bullshit works. And yeah, it's fueled by apathy much more than actual stupidity, but comatose isn't far off of what the average door knock feels like.

I think that Trump would love to install himself as a dictator, and maybe he will, but even dictators keep controlled elections going for the appearance of legitimacy. He’s already 78, and no other Republicans have managed to replicate his popularity among GOP voters. One way or another (unless the US government literally dissolves, which is my preference tbh) we’ll be dealing with a post-Trump US government sooner or later.

Yes, post-Trump will be "interesting" for sure. I'd be mildly surprised if everything went back to normal, though, because it was just so broken before, and there's so many alternative trajectories available.