I disagree.

I'm coming around to the notion that Trump was an inoculation against totalitarianism, a weakened populist to awaken the antibodies of democracy. I think Trumpism falls firmly into the "that which does not kill you makes you stronger" category, but only for those aligned against Trumpism.

The Republicans have been drifting towards fascism since Barry Goldwater. When they finally made the leap, they chose a venal, incompetent plutocrat whose primary characteristics are narcissism and vindictiveness. The real dangers to democracy - the Mitch McConnells of the world - definitely made hay while the sun shone but they did so knowing they were enabling a loyalty thief. And now they're stuck railing against Dr. Seuss and critical race theory while the Biden administration builds back the IRS and settles in to deposit monthly child subsidies into the bank accounts of every needy American family.

I don't know if you've noticed, but most of the complaints from the Left are that the Biden administration isn't fulfilling its campaign promises fast enough. Meanwhile the complaints from the Right are... off-topic at best. The big fight right now is how fast to give away money, followed by how responsible the Republicans should be held for attempting to overthrow the country. The populist-in-charge, on the other hand, has shuttered his blog because it got fewer hits than chewy.com. The news media has generally determined that Donald Trump is not newsworthy. Q hasn't dropped in six months (and has been unmasked as a slacker kid from Mukilteo). And the Republican congressional constituency is, on average, slightly crazier and less effective as legislators than Lyndon LaRouche.

goobster likes to pretend that there are nice, civil Republicans out there just aching to return to a non-conspiratorial Romney-flavored rightwingerhood as if the Democrats haven't been Conservative Lite for the past 40 years but I'm here to tell ya - when your party has decided Liz Cheney is guilty of thoughtcrime you're fucking done. Yeah they're making a run at eating democracy alive but when your choices are "politician" and "rabid fuckbat" the ideology can only take you so far.

I don't think we're out of the woods? I think 2022 is going to be nailbitingly awful even though it shouldn't be? Shit, I'll go as far as predicting that Joe Manchin and Kristen Synema are itching to become that false oasis in the desert Goob still believes in, six months after the Beer Hall Putsch.

But Oswald Mosely died in obscurity. The Trumpists made their move, it was beyond the pale, and the FBI are rounding them up one-by-one. You can build a conspiracy around charismatic political prisoners with drive, insight and cunning.

You can't build a conspiracy around the Q-Anon Shaman.