An ex-MAGA activist warns “no civic savior is coming” as Donald Trump’s cognitive decline becomes undeniable
What if Donald Trump defeats President Biden and takes control of the White House in 2025? He has already announced his plans to become the country’s first dictator, and to launch a reign of terror and revenge against his so-called enemies. As detailed in documents such as Project 2025, Agenda 47, and elsewhere, the infrastructure is being created right now to put Trump’s neofascist plans to end multiracial pluralistic democracy in effect on “day one." The so-called resistance will not have the courtesy of ramping up or mobilizing to stop Dictator Trump’s onslaught. It will be a “shock and awe” campaign visited upon the American people.
Dictator Trump’s reign of terror will be made even worse by the fact that as shown during recent speeches, interviews, and at other events he appears to be encountering severe difficulties in cognition, language, and memory.
In a series of recent conversations with me here at Salon, Dr. John Gartner, a prominent psychologist and contributor to the bestselling book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” has issued this warning: “Not enough people are sounding the alarm, that based on his behavior, and in my opinion, Donald Trump is dangerously demented. In fact, we are seeing the opposite among too many in the news media, the political leaders and among the public. There is also this focus on Biden’s gaffes or other things that are well within the normal limits of aging. By comparison, Trump appears to be showing gross signs of dementia. This is a tale of two brains. Biden’s brain is aging. Trump’s brain is dementing.”
Wait a minute, if we get rid of the Republican Party, wouldn’t a two party system become a one party system? So if Trump is elected, end of democracy, if Republican party is destroyed, also end of democracy? Is there no way out? End of democracy either way?
No more than the death of the whigs. A dead Republican Party creates a vacuum for either the democrats to split or a third party to ascend
I bet that will work about as well as trickle down economics.
We’ve had party changes and party restructures before. It’s not unheard of. There is the third option of the republicans needing to restructure and hide for a while like they did after the new deal.
So in the mean time, before this restructure, if it happens at all, there would be a period where one party would have unlimited power? Sounds like very risky, if it gets to that point, they can use that power to stay in power forever. I think we need ranked choice voting before we get rid of republicans or some sort of direct democracy.
I fully agree with tanked choice, and want to pressure politicians towards it. Hell I’ve been parliament curious lately. But I also understand the difference between realistic and unrealistic worries. The democrats are a catch all party with less cohesion than would be necessary for a tyrannical single party. And it’s not unlimited power, there are usually a few independents in congress. If the republicans collapse we’ll either have a replacement party within like an election or two or we’ll have a lot of independents very quickly.
I’m not saying that a single party isn’t bad. My home state is so gerrymandered that republicans brazenly defy the will of the citizens. Like we added abortion to our constitution and legalized marijuana by ballot initiative and the republicans in charge promptly considered banning abortion anyways and have been fighting over how best to gut the marijuana legislation we voted on since. But there’s a huge difference between gerrymandering and other means by which a single party holds control and a major party collapsing because it’s become so toxic it can no longer win
honestly I wouldn’t risk it to wait for an election or two. Once you have complete power you can use it to stay in power, gut everyone from the party that is not on your side. It is such a big risk to have a one party system, even for a short while, that risking your vote now for the third party is actually lower.
Nah, the US-system is mathematically locked in a two-party system, it absolutely demolishes the chance for a third party but doesn’t tolerate a single party either. Though it might take 8 - 12 years for the (former) republican vote to congeal around a new point of possible agreement.
Yeah, I don’t think this article makes sense. I don’t think Republican party will die until we change elections into ranked choice voting or direct democracy.
Okay? Your prediction is based on what exactly? You’re pitching a hypothetical outcome to a hypothetical situation. We’re in the factual shallow end here.
The two party system isn’t the rule as much as it is a symptom of our winner-takes-all voting system. In the event that the Republican party loses significant support from voters, the Democratic party would surely split into two polar factions.
In countries with one party systems they also have winner-takes-all voting system. I think that without two parties at least, one party will take over complete power and use it to stay in power forever.
I’m not a political scientist but I watched Hamilton one time, and I think what would happen is the parties start to move around. Right now both parties are unfortunately right leaning.
Democrats, by European standards, are middle-right, while Republicans are
chaotic evilfar right. Maybe the parties start moving closer to the left?I hope so, sounds very risky to get rid of Republican party first and then wait in a one party system until something changes. I am afraid that once you have someone with complete power, they will use it to stay in power forever.
The Democrats because what they already are: the right wing corporatist party, and hopefully leftists actually form a coalition and a party
The real fix is to get rid of the electoral college. Only then will the will of the people be felt.
Yes, but it’s more than that. The electoral college only affects the presidency. We also need ranked choice voting. The first-past-the-post system assures the dominance of two parties, which can play the voters off each other to do whatever the donor/capitalist class wants. Mandatory voting and fully publicly financed elections would also be huge wins.
Maybe this is me being overly optimistic, but ideally if the Republican party ends, the power vacuum left behind would be filled by multiple parties, who would be more motivated to do things like implement ranked choice voting, abolish the electoral college, fix gerrymandered districts, etc. So we’d end up with a multiple party system. Maybe. Hopefully.
Ranked choice has to precede a pluralistic system. We’ve had similar upheavals before, a long time ago (one presaged the civil war), but as long as we have first-past-the-post, it will always settle into two-party lock-in. But, and this is the good news, after the civil war, we had the second founding - a massive overhaul of the Constitution, for the better. If, in the aftermath of the death of the Republican party, we get another chance at that, (hopefully without all the killing), maybe we can enact ranked choice, eliminate the electoral college, ban gerrymandering, establish mandatory voting, add an enforced “none of the above” option to ballots, expand the Supreme Court, uncap the House of Reps limit, eliminate the senatorial land-vote in favor of proportional representation, get fully publicly funded elections, and and and am I asking too much? I just want a real democracy.
Extremely optimistic.
The two party system currently is holding hostage debates/funding/media. Even social media is in on it. Which is why a third party has always struggled. Not because they didn’t have good ideas, but because they were shut out of the room.
The two-party system is a system, and systems can be changed. If the Republican party finally implodes, just as when the Whigs did, it will be an amazing opportunity for progress. We need to be ready to move.
Yeah I don’t disagree with you. But for what it’s worth, I think there’s a chance that we could end up with a multi-party system if the Republican party dissolves. If the Democratic party disappears, I think it’s a whole other story.
We need to enact schrodinger’s vote. Put the Democrats and Republicans in a box and never check on them again. Are they dead or alive? Walking fossils are kind of both. 🤔
There are plenty of other parties.
Even if the Republican party disappears I guarentee liberals will tell you voting for a party like the greens or cpusa would be a wasted vote. It’s the only strategy they have other than not being republicans.