Honestly, I’m not sure it gets better if he kicks it. He may be the figurehead but his capricious whims are probably a distraction for those who are competent and would step in to fill the void. If they can make someone else — someone competent — the new figurehead, that might be bad for us.
This is assuming the right immediately aligns behind that person instead of violently squabbling to become that person. Vance is legally going to be the one, but I don't think he has the force of personality to unite them. I firmly believe Trump could have run solo and won, Vance brought nothing.
Short term will be bad. Maybe BAD bad. But the coalition they have, between corporate interests, Nazis, and feudalists has no way of holding together. All three are pulling in very different directions and if there was someone else capable of riding that dragon they would have been found by now.
Basically, no one is willing to die for JD Vance.
If there was someone better at it, they would be president. I guess the worst fear is someone close enough to his personality to keep it together but also be somewhat competent
You can't APPEAR to be competent and still be Trump. His entire magic trick is that everyone who spends more than a few minutes with him are convinced he's an easy mark they can manipulate. So far, they've all been wrong.
No, this is wrong. For starters, Trump has been terrifyingly successful in doing more damage to the Constitutional order than any single human has ever done. That is MASSIVE competence. Secondly, traditional governing competence wasn't the key. The key was total, lawless insanity + charisma.
I am sure it will break their coalition. He is the only thing holding together all the evil people who want to destroy iur country in different ways. MAGA only exists because the press is in his thrall and people are terrified. He is truly a cult leader. What happens when he isn't there?
idk...for all the discourse about 'distractions' I do think his monopoly of the attention economy allows them to get away with a lot of stuff that would otherwise face harsher scrutiny. His ability (forged in 40 years living in the tabloids) to make the media chase its tail isn't easily replicated.
No, what I’m saying is that he’s not actually running anything. Not really. It’s the people who surround him that have any sort of concept of what they’re doing and they have to take care of his wins. But he’s still the one with hiring/firing ability, so when he says “tariffs,” we get tariffs.
The fuck he isn't. Do you think Jamie Dimon is scared of the little shits and grifters he's surrounded himself with? No, he's scared of the fact that Trump can decide, on a whim, that J. P. Morgan is an enemy of the state, that they deserve to die, and *nobody* will say otherwise, SCOTUS included.
And then everyone — even the people who know what the tariffs will lead to — have to say “oh yes sir what a great idea sir we will implement those tariffs right away sir.” So he’s still capable of accidentally throwing sand in his own machine, since it’s not really his and he doesn’t understand it.
When I say distraction, I’m talking about the distractions he causes people who actually have their fingers on the buttons. The people who are both evil and more capable of carrying out their agenda but still have to account for his will.
I think it's a wide-open question whether the people who have been making exceptions for Trump will continue to do so for a less-charismatic successor who will not be able to control the base in the same way. My instinct is that things would get better in his absence but not return to "normal."
He's a real freak of nature. A degree of celebrity, ego, rage and knee-jerk shamelessness that no other American politician before or since 2015 has begun to replicate. There's just a whole lot of Yes Men who've flourished in his reflected glory and may well wither without his coattails.
I agree with some of that analysis. However, as I've said for a decade now, funny things happen when you give a clown a gun. Vance is for sure a clown. He'll be in charge of the strongest military in world history with a surveillance capability second to none. Idk what happens but it wont be good.
Whether or not Vance can hold the Axis of Evil together, he can do a lot of damage on his way out. The only sort-of hope is that he'll tack the to center b/c he's too unpopular to do it Trump's way, but then the Dems will just go "HOORAY! BUSINESS AS USUAL!" and we'll be back here in a decade.
I’m firmly in the “be careful what you wish for” camp on this one. The only thing that frightens me more than 3.5 more years of DJT is 7.5 years of a guy who has no moral compass, is completely devoid of any core identity, and will be a concubine to whomever has the most money and power in the room.
Fair
(to be *completely* fair, I prob just summarized a politician demo whose population is > 1.0)
I'll just stipulate that anything could happen. A good path through would be pretty narrow at this point and requires a ton of luck in addition to a ton of work.
Couldn’t agree more. Disdain for Jimbo LNU aside, I do genuinely think he’s dangerous—I have some insight into abandoned rural boys reaching the upper rungs of society w/out proper modeling. But for as risky as any POTUS can be, my POV is Congress will be the deciding factor +/- on America’s future.
Agreed
I could see a period with a lot of infighting as people jocky to be his sole replacement.
Absolutely. Trump somehow manages to keep together a misfit coalition. Vance has gaping black hole where one would normally find charisma. He’d become president and then probably wouldn’t even be able to win the nomination for 2028 because the only people who love him are Peter Thiel and maybe Usha.
Vance is completely unlikable, so that helps.
it's called being easily distracted don't be
Oh that's the trick huh?
as we're on social media 😂
It gets worse
I dunno the infighting would be fun to watch, unless and until a winner emerges with an even more fanatical base which.... Oof