Jonestown comes to mind. When you're part of a cult it's hard to get out of your truth silo. The MAGA horde will continue to worship the orange Hitler even if he's penniless and in jail.

I keep hearing very-odd phrases like: "The MAGA horde." And, more alarmingly, "The Orange Hitler." Phrases like these are just empty tropes: ways to bundle entire groups of people – or, your political enemies – into convenient bundles that you can then fling into the fire. In my opinion, such things have no place on this forum.

What we are actually witnessing here – in real time – is exactly the thing that has been the endless subject of "history books." A significant segment of the populace is changing its political direction, while the extant government has not yet done so. Now, if we were to take the next page from the French, we'd right now be writing the sequel to Les Miserables. But, fortunately, we are not French. Nonetheless, this definitely is what I have already described as: "a sea change." The future direction of the country is not going to be like its past. But I hope that the hundreds of millions of citizens of this country still understand that they do not have to throw out the baby. That they do not have to demolish this nation in order to heal it.

As nations go, after all, the United States is very much still "the new kid on the block." It was the product of a fairly-radical political experiment, and it is not yet even three centuries old. Will it stick together, and recognize the need to do so, or is it just "too wet behind the ears?" Will it actually prove to just be "a story that was too good to be true" – pretty in principle, but unable to hold itself together when the winds of reality shifted?

Not yet... But give it a few years and King Donny may actually cause a revolution, and for the same reasons. He and his friends will steal all of your nation's wealth and live in gilded mansions with manicured gardens while the rest of the populace won't even be able to afford the flour to bake bread.

Don't fall for it.

@rkelsen: I'm tired of things like "King Donny." Just like "Orange Hitler." These are all tropes.

There are more than 336 million people in this nation (alone ...), which are certainly not going to let themselves "even be able to afford flour." The total number of people "in positions of top power" in the USA actually number slightly less than "one thousand." None of them are "the Pied Piper." Actual political power only goes so far.

What this country had better start seriously(!) focusing on is: just how dramatically "times, they are a'changin'," both domestically and internationally. The USA has allowed itself to maneuver itself into – or, to be maneuvered into – "a very bad position." And there is no one, other than the actual citizens of this country, who will ever care to identify the problems, or to fix them.

"Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty years ago ... that's a very long time."

We must not allow anyone to "simmer the frogs." Because that is very definitely a familiar historical strategy.

"The problem" is not "Donald Trump.™" And "the problem" won't go away even if you 'eliminate' him. The global and domestic situation for this nation is being forced to irreversible change. No one ever said that such a thing was ever easy or palatable. But, like it or not, we are right-now in a time that generations of "future historians" will be writing about.

History is about to repeat itself in your country.

What historians will write, and posterity will wonder about, is how YOU let it happen.

The case study will be, "How to manipulate an electorate to the point that they actively demand servitude."

You guys can't see it because you're in it. The rest of the world sees it.

"May you live in interesting times." We hope that it is not, in fact, a curse.

I see it and hopefully most anti-trump people see it but many US voters actually want authoritarianism.

Incorrect, and polls AND VOTING RECORDS support this, SOME US voters actually want authoritarianism. MOST do not, and this includes many hard core conservatives who are not Trump supporters and do support democracy.

Ok using some is better then many but both are relative terms and yes the majority does view MAGA as a threat to democracy.

More than 45% is absolutely sufficient for michaelk's use of "many".

This graph appears to show it as a very close race: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...29_polling.svg

This page lists three aggregate opinion polls that are ~1% in favour of Donald Trump:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election

There are enough individual polls that are over 50% to make "most" a distinct possibility, especially given how far away November is.

I don't know if ActiVote has any bias, but their recent poll claims twice as many Democrats for Donald Trump as there are Republicans for Joe Biden.

This should be worrying people who think Donald Trump being elected US president would be a bad thing.

(On an unrelated note, there is one thing Democrats and Republicans appear to agree on: bi-annual clock changes are bloody stupid. Let's hope whoever wins will do away with that nonsense, and then maybe the UK will follow suit.)

This (as in what wpeckham said) has always been correct. Donald Trump lost the popular vote both times.

Wow.

Imagine saying those exact words to someone who fought in WW2. What would their reaction be? My grandfathers have both long since passed away, but this would have been an extremely interesting conversation to have with them. One of them grew up under Mussolini and saw (among other things) his country devastated.

We can only suppose that the people who want authoritarianism don't know much (if anything) about it. Do they believe that their neighbours will suffer, but they'll somehow be excluded from the rules? They're in for a shock if that is the case.
Nevermind what the polls say. There's only one poll that counts, and that's the one on election day.

We can only hope (for you, your fellow Americans and your country's sake) that you're right.

Here is an alternative supposition: the people voting for Trump probably mostly believe that Biden is the authoritarian choice.

I like the idea that Americans are being asked to choose between right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism. There's an interesting difference between the two. The right tends to vest authority in charismatic figureheads (the fuehrerprinzip); the left vests it in dogmatic abstract statements. In a right-wing dictatorship, you go to prison for saying anything against "our glorious leader". In a left-wing one, you go to prison for saying anything that orthodox dogma defines as heretical.

Biden versus Trump is a prime example. Trump would like to be a "Great Leader". Biden has no such ambitions and is simply a sock-puppet for people who prefer to control everything from behind the scenes.

Your above post, hazel, has piqued my curiosity. Does anyone imagine ANY country is in practice an actual "level playing field"? IOW isn't it true in reality everywhere that wealth comes with influence, power and privilege? at least to some degree? If my guess is right then ALL government can be said to at least be inordinately influenced "from behind the scenes".

If and when a country adds free elections and some means of redress in checks and balances and representation, that to me is an exceedingly important difference compared to stuffing every nook and cranny of government with rubber-stamping Yes Men Loyalists, especially when those officials think Our Glorious Leader was anointed and appointed by one very specific God.

Of course, we can dispel with political philosophy and just look at practical track records. Regardless of whom might "really be in the Cat Bird seat pulling all the strings", what is the track record of even the last 2 administrations in achieving any meaningful action that actually benefited the nation as a whole, especially those on the less influential end of the economic and power spectrum? Compare and Contrast, but please be factual (a matter of certifiable public record) and specific.