Indeed, I think Vance's ascension makes space for a succession crisis in the GOP, and I don't think there's an obvious heir apparent.
Replies
I mean, it’s Don jr since Ivanka bowed out
aug 29, 2025, 4:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Right I mean ABSOLUTELY he's one of the guys who thinks "well obviously it should be me". But he's like Vance! Nobody likes him, and even FEWER people take him seriously. (Junior thought/thinks Vance is a hip intellectual to look up to!)
aug 29, 2025, 4:17 pm • 10 0 • view
I wouldn’t be mad at a Year of Five Presidents but I gotta say that one thing that separates us from Fascism Classic & very much Could Get Worse is the lack of political murder, which Rome, Italy, Nazis & current Russia all do habitually
aug 29, 2025, 4:42 pm • 10 0 • view
YEP. I joke but the folks online who act like this is the most vicious and dangerous regime ever to exist are QUITE unfamiliar with just how very murder-y basically all of the past is.
aug 29, 2025, 4:44 pm • 21 2 • view
Even the present: It’s part of contemporary politics in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua/Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, Russia, Belarus, probably more that I just haven’t read about. So far here, it’s “just” terrorism
aug 29, 2025, 5:37 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, like EVEN NOW, after all of this, in 2025, it's like "wow we still do have some of those 'norms' you hear so much about, don't we? Yay, norms!"
aug 29, 2025, 5:39 pm • 2 0 • view
I kinda wish this regime was that murder-ey only because they're idiots and their plotting to kill one another would be the real world equivalent of one of those '70s stage/film mystery-comedies writers like Tony Shaffer and Sondheim would come up with to tweak Agatha Christie.
aug 29, 2025, 4:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Which reminds me of how much I'm looking forward to Wake Up Dead Man this winter, but that's another subject entirely.
aug 29, 2025, 4:50 pm • 1 0 • view
We had that murder in Minnesota which is appalling but thus far we've kept that kind of thing at the "disaffected grassroots sicko" level. The government is not yet just offing people.
aug 29, 2025, 4:46 pm • 12 0 • view
Went to the state capitol and thought, "I sure hope I won't have to say that I can remember how the flowers smelled at the beginning of our years of lead"
aug 29, 2025, 4:50 pm • 7 0 • view
No there really isn't, is there? And there are a TON of folks who no doubt believe they ARE that heir apparent. Which is a recipe for some wildly entertaining stuff! But hopefully not the SCARY kind of "entertaining".
aug 29, 2025, 4:12 pm • 11 0 • view
Someone else said it the other day, but nominating JD Vance was, at least partly, a move to say "There is no good successor. It's me and no one else." Porfirio Diaz ass move.
aug 29, 2025, 4:16 pm • 14 0 • view
Yeah, Trump could not care less about "succession" in any sense. The world stops existing when he dies so what's it even matter? Vance was just a guy. Had a book, has been on tv. Junior seems to like him, blah blah. He may not have thought about Vance since.
aug 29, 2025, 4:21 pm • 12 0 • view
Indeed, to acknowledge succession is to concede one is not just mortal, but replaceable.
aug 29, 2025, 4:26 pm • 1 0 • view
That would blow a hole in Trump's ego, which is basically one of those ginormous beach balls: it looks huge and can even knock something down with a good wind behind it, but it's still just a thin membrane full of nothing.
aug 29, 2025, 4:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Other factors I think were at play: a) Peter Thiel and the trad/tech-fascist wing really wanted him, and Trump just listens to whoever, b) it was also a fuck-you message to the people who wanted to moderate. "Nope, we're going whole hog, get on board or get left behind". Not mutually exclusive!
aug 29, 2025, 4:24 pm • 5 0 • view
I also think Trump believed Vance was a direct link to a lot more of Thiel's money than ever actually materialized or was ever going to. Thiel is a lot of things, but he isn't really a sucker.
aug 29, 2025, 4:29 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah and his particular clout here has probably been overrated. Sure, Vance was one of his little projects and they were all very proud of Vance in those circles. But Vance is just an ambitious little ghoul and I can't imagine he thinks he OWES Thiel anything.
aug 29, 2025, 4:30 pm • 2 0 • view
Speaking of Junior, I feel like I rarely see him and Eric mentioned in these succession discussions. They're the ones with the Trump brand name attached - are they really going to be content to sit back and let Vance inherit the political empire? Seems likely they'd be first in line to backstab him.
aug 29, 2025, 6:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Is there any proof that Trump still knows who Vance is?
aug 29, 2025, 4:34 pm • 1 0 • view
When my great-grandmother's dementia started getting bad, she forgot the youngest family members and most recent acquaintances first. But that's, uh, unrelated to President Donald Trump.
aug 29, 2025, 4:38 pm • 3 0 • view
Clearly if there were an issue with Donald John Trump's mental acuity the press would be investigating it thoroughly. The MSM cares very deeply about the POTUS's mental acuity.
aug 29, 2025, 5:05 pm • 3 0 • view
He was in the Oval the other day, right? Miller was there too? But that's no proof anything, Trump could have just assumed he was the help.
aug 29, 2025, 4:35 pm • 1 0 • view
They’ve made Trump irreplaceable. The coalition falls apart the minute he croaks.
aug 29, 2025, 4:30 pm • 3 0 • view
Kinda yeah. I mean obviously there'll still PLENTY of people who will still turn out for whatever the nu-GOP looks like. But there WILL be a modest-but-crucial cohort of Trump fans out there who will just immediately go back to not caring about any of this. Change the channel.
aug 29, 2025, 4:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Trump only became The Guy after he secured the 2016 nomination and only because Republicans really go for team jersey politics. BEFORE he secured the nomination, about 2/3 of GOP primary voters didn't want him. They just couldn't line up behind one candidate. Trump goes, the clown car comes back.
aug 29, 2025, 4:37 pm • 1 0 • view