We're on the way down. The Right in this country (well, really, everywhere, but it's more maniacal here) are growing more unhinged. The Dems keep pulling to the right as a result (since at least the 80s). The overtone window keeps shifting. We're absolutely fucked.

William F Buckley was a major source of inspiration for the Right for decades. I recently watched his debate with James Baldwin at Cambridge in 1965. He argued racist points about Black single moms, but he tried to sound compassionate and denounced racism. He hid his racism in plain sight but sounded educated. There's nothing like that now. "They're eating the dogs."

It depends on the will and strength of mind of the populace. The politicians are laughing all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.

It might take a long time to fix, but someday we will recover.

Well, it depends on how you define the USA. You mean the Republic of the United States of America? Yeah, no, that's dead. It is currently dead. It died when the SCOTUS made the president functionally beyond criminal prosecution, and everyone has just kind of been playing weekend at Bernie's since then (though the Trump administration is dropping the pretense pretty quickly). Don't get me wrong, it's been dying for a long time, but that was the exact moment it was declared dead. No matter what happens, the republic as we knew it is dead and is not coming back. Nobody believes in the constitution anymore; among our leadership there are only either those who are in a hurry to destroy it, or those who are unwilling to defend it. I think a lot of the American populace haven't sincerely believed in the constitution as an effective charter for governance for a while, too. Imo, we're less than a year from the legislature being dissolved in some fashion of another, unless they just hang on like some ceremonial vestigial organ.

What we get to decide now is what comes next. That's what nobody's sure about. Are we going to have a middle-east style theocratic government? Italian fascism? Maybe the military defends the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic and we re-form the republic? German fascism? Neofeudalism? Peaceful balkanization? Hot balkanization? COULD IT BE?! BY GOD, it's the ghost of Lenin with a steel chair! Or maybe we'll get something entirely new? It's frankly impossible to guess while we're living in it. I think cold balkanization is both the most likely and most optimistic scenario. IN THE MEANWHILE, yeah, you're still going to see all the window trimmings of the USA; the maps will still say USA, we'll at least nominally still have the things that make America America (like the constitution still sitting in its fancy protective case, as though the GOP didn't just wipe Trump's ass with it), it'll all look weirdly normal while they make the republic's corpse do a funny little jig.

Not necessarily.

There are still legal routes, the chances of congress not laying down on the job, etc.

Then, you've got the first line of citizen action, protests and non violent direct action combined with people helping each other until the legal stuff has a chance to work.

Beyond that, right now, across the country, small groups are trying to organize. Most of them as a form of more assertive resistance and/or a safety net for trans people, immigrants, and other targets of the current administration.

There are also smaller groups than that organizing for the possibility of having to fight.

That does include people just as batshit as the more rabid right wing, but most of them are less eager than the crazies to get involved in an asymmetric civil war. So they aren't very visible.

But there are people working at all levels to resist and turn things around.

The way out is for everyone that can to be ready. To take risks to protect each other, and to do what they can when they can.

The constitution was created for the sole purpose of containing a tyrant and mitigating any damage they could do.

Its never been tested on a real tyrant before though, so I guess we'll see how well it accomplishes that. It uh, isnt looking too great though.

Yeah.

Nah, but it's going to be a long way back to 2015.

We've been set back to the 40s. Maybe by the next 40s

Yes, and we knew this would be the outcome the second he won the election. I'm staying in the U.S. because my life is worthless anyway and I'd prefer death in glorious revolution than survival, but anyone who values their life should have started their plans to leave in August 2024 when it became obvious he was going to sieze control.

Yes.

History shows us the most likely outcome of this - and IF for some reason we're able to survive and get the best case scenario (i.e. somehow he pisses off the base enough that McConnell/stock neo-con flavored Rs start jumping ship to re-assert the R party as a non-orange cult... not because of a moral compass mind you... but b/c they become worried that doing nothing to stop him will result in their insane rabid base replacing them during R primaries over the next 2 years) - the amount of lasting damage is going to ripple for a while. Also primaries for Rs who support unpopular figures assumes ballots will be "free and fair" hashtag TM etc...

...And that's the best-case "realistic" scenario at this point.

Sadly, even a fantastical more cathartic sequence of events involving ropes and upside down would likely result in power vacuums and chaos and would not guarantee that "good" would take the reins of power.

Assuming he decides to follow through with his recent expansions of power unimpeded, there will be no remaining mechanisms to bring about a good outcome over the next few years... and I'm afraid many folks are going to find out that holding up signs with quips and jeers in designated areas is not going to do much to stop those who have no shame in outright dispatching their enemies - in the same way your grandparents didn't "hold up signs" to stop the top-shelf authoritarians roughly 80 years ago.

laws being ignored

first time?

More and more every day...

I mean in the sense that we have been going down since the millenium. I mean we really really rank at the bottom of industrialized nations for quality of life. The big question is if china or india can surpass us really. and by surpass I mean watch as we slow and eventually are behind them.

It’s fucking toast