@Strandjunker Trump is no longer the one to fear. He was damaging but incompetent, and his narcissism seems to ensure that nobody can leverage him to prevent that incompetence from being self-defeating. As happened with the US midterms, the Democrats were lucky that Trump was on the ballot in the form of dozens of MAGA endorsees. That’s why Dems weren’t demolished by a contracting, high inflation economy and a very unpopular Administration. By extension, I think the Dems might be lucky if somehow Trump was nominated again. But I’d only be slightly less shocked to see that happen than I was to see Trump win in 2016. Trump lost HUGE this year. I don’t see the Republican establishment giving him a third try.

I now fear those to whom Trump has shown the path to autocratic (or worse… fascist) power. I worry deSantis might be that threat. Happily, the American electorate seems to have agreed that the election denier would-be Secretaries of State and Governors, who wanted to establish states’ ability to reject the outcomes of their elections and submit their own slates of hand-selected electors, were a threat to democracy. Those were the races to watch.

Still plenty of danger to fight. But I worry a lot less about Trump today than I did on November 7th.