if people aren’t very satisfied with normal, offering them more normal probably isn’t going to get you very far.

Here's the thing. You're right, in that Trump got elected because people were unhappy with the status quo. And Trump at least offered something different.

But what we're seeing isn't being "unhappy with the status quo". It's believing in fairy tales. It's believing in conspiracy theories. It's making it up as you go along. Worse, it's wanting to force you to adhere to it too.

I've always said that if you're in an election where your opponent is saying monkeys are flying out of your ass and terrorizing the city, and 51% of the people believe that flying monkey terrorism is a huge problem, you can try appealing to logic and saying there are no flying monkeys coming out of your ass, but you'll be doing it during your concession speech, while your opponent is not only making his victory speech but boasting about the fact that he solved the flying monkey problem on day one.

This is where we are as a society. A sizeable chunk of our society really is listening to Trump's claims about whatever is flying out of Biden's ass, and they have absolutely no appetite for things like truth or logic. Biden is trying desperately to stick to this realm of reality, but it looks more and more like he's going to be making that appeal while watching Trump's inauguration and listening to Trump's supporters cheer on the chaos.

Yeah, there are definitely some parts of this where I disagree with the author, but the very next paragraph makes a good point

A fascist party can only come to power when it attracts multiple constituencies, whose members do not think of themselves as fascists. The fascist leader represents the compromises necessarily involved in democratic politics as unmanly. But fascism needs to appeal to a broader ideology than the mere destruction of democracy. Patriarchy is just such an ideology. By doubling down on traditional gender roles, by the restriction of women’s rights, and by villainizing LGBT, a fascist party attracts religious conservatives. The strutting masculinity of the fascist leader appeals to powerful business elites, who tend to view the world in terms of “winners” and “losers”, and often view their own success as a product of their masculinity (it doesn’t hurt if the leader also vows to promote their interests). Survival in a violent struggle for power is the ultimate badge of honor in the fascist worldview. Violence leans into and supports it.

So long as we're still in an electoral situation, violence is a bad look. I'm not even saying the Democratic party should or can do anything here, I'm just underscoring that this weekend's event~~s~~ has made this election tougher to win.

e; grammar are confusing

The norms being a problem is why trump exists.