How do you see this ending?

[intrepidity]

I doubt I will live to see how this current nightmare ends. What is your most realistic expectation of how it goes, and the timeframe?

Like, 3 months? 6 months? A year, 2, 4, 10?

I can't recall a time in my life when the future was so blurry and virtually every scenario was plausible.

Six months ago, my biggest concern about the future was AI. I barely even take time to think about that anymore!

So what is your rational best guess about how this plays out?

[CTyankee]

1. Well, if we don't have him we'll have Vance who might be worse. I think JD is Dump's insurance policy...

[ITAL]

5. Vance isn't worse

Even if Vance could be hypothetically worse, he doesn't have the crazy loyal base of support that Trump does, so he wouldn't be able to get away with half the stuff that Trump does. Trump's weird connection with his voters is why he can get away with all this crap.

[Irish_Dem]

6. When Vance gets in he won't have to worry about voters.

[ITAL]

19. Depends

It really depends on how long Trump is alive and if he really does manage to stay in power past January 20, 2029. If he does, then yeah democracy is dead.

Of course by then it won't be clear if Vance would even get the mantle after Trump dies.

[Irish_Dem]

23. The billionaire tech bros can rig the election anytime they want.

Especially now with Trump dismantling the election safeguards.
And Musk paying people to vote, and primarying all the people he hates.
Destruction of the entire federal government.
Purchase of congress and judges.
Zero checks and balances left.

I think when Trump dies there could be GOP blood bath with many people
wanting to take the mantle. It is a sure path to becoming a trillionaire.
And killing all of your opponents.

[bif]

7. I agree 100%.

[Tommy Carcetti]

17. Vance is just a different type of bad.

It's like asking whether you would prefer colon cancer or lung cancer.

It's all cancer.

[ITAL]

20. Well

What I'm saying is he probably wouldn't be in line to become a dictator. Trump's hold over his voters, and by extension the GOP machinery, is what allows him to get away with so much. They always capitulate to him. Vance doesn't have that sort of loyalty, so it will limit his destructive ability.

[electric_blue68]

35. Agree. As far as I know no other repuglican has a hold on their voters like drumphf

I think it makes a difference!

[LisaL]

36. Well, some cancers are more survivable than others.

NT

[JCMach1]

29. JD is the technofascists insurance policy on their investment

Trump is literally just a front man (I literally mean in the Squid Game sense at this point)...

[WhiteTara]

2. poorly

[Gore1FL]

3. In fire. nt

[newdeal2]

4. Something big will happen

That we can’t predict today. But it will come and shake things up and get us out of this hole.

[Skittles]

13. with all the incompetence, there will be other "Signalgates" in due time

what a fucking SHIT SHOW

[Bleacher Creature]

27. This

Their incompetence will ultimately be their undoing. It's sad because we could have easily avoided this all without anyone having to suffer, but too many people decided against going that route.

[Quakerfriend]

8. I have hope that the military will eventually remove

this regime. Perhaps I am very naive.

I have been watching documentaries of Holocaust survivor’s stories & I realize how quickly things can turn.

My husband and I have talked about going abroad but, we don’t want to leave our family.

[róisín_dubh]

39. I'm not sure that's a good thing

The history of the world is littered with the corpses of military takeovers.

[Jim__]

9. I'm hoping we eventually get to something like the Orange Revoloution that happened in Ukraine.

Massive, long-term street protests that bring down the extreme right in the US. The Orange Revolution

[usonian]

10. Title is required

Last edited Tue Apr 1, 2025, 05:16 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20190932
Looking at history, as some have done above,

It might take a Mike Pence moment, and the best strategy we can take is to relentlessly pound the truth of his betrayal of law, the constitution, the armed forces, government employees, (former) allies and the taxpaying middle class.

I would not expect a mass display of force by any group to bring about change, except by telling truth. I would not expect retaliation by Iran or any victim of his murder by proxy.

Just one of the many who swore to protect and defend the constitution disarming the war that Putin's proxy is waging on America and not taking that oath as a cynical headfake.

Or the South African, to whom his oath of citizenship was indeed a cynical headfake, "when autocrats collide"

My Dad had a cynical saying that two dictators cannot co-exist on the same continent, and he may be proven right on this one continent.

ABOUT THE SOUTH AFRICAN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20194894
Trump sniffs out the Musk plan after he annexes South Africa.

Here's the Musk plan

1. Trump annexes South Africa. ( Greenland and Canada are a head fake.)

2. He perishes from tainted onions in a Big Mac.

3. Musk is elected speaker of the house.

4. Vance perishes in a burning Tesla.

5. Musk becomes president, being a native-born American in the 51st state.

Just speculation, and it IS April 1st.

[PJMcK]

18. The Musk Plan is brilliant!

And funny.

Back in 1996, when Cheney nominated himself to be VP, I had a similar idea.

W wins the election with Cheney. Then W chokes on a pretzel and dies. Cheney becomes POTUS and nominates GHW Bush as his VP. Cheney then steps down for “health” reasons and Bush senior becomes President again.

Who knows? We might never have had 9/11 or the Iraq/Afghanistan fiasco.

Happy April Fools Day!

[CrispyQ]

11. I've come to realize the immense privilege it's been to live in a country where the economy & govt are relatively stable

Thanks to climate change, we can't look to any example in the past for recovery estimates. IMO this is the oligarchs final grasp for the last fine things on Earth that's why they don't care about Trump crashing the US economy. They'll swoop in & buy everything for pennies. 21st century feudalism is the final goal. What a ton of really well off people don't realize, is that to reach that point, there's going to have to be an even greater gap between rich & poor & those who think they're high enough up the food chain right now, might be surprised where they land when it all shakes out.

[ananda]

12. Honestly, worse than badly.

Wait till the climate and health disasters
take over.....

[Initech]

15. People are going to die in the streets because of RFK Jr's bullshit nonsense.

[Beringia]

14. The only thing that comes to mind is The French Resistance and meetings in basements

Artist's impression of a meeting of the PCF (Parti communiste français) central committee at Longjumeau, 1943.

Left to right: Benoît Frachon, Auguste Lecoeur, Jacques Duclos and Charles Tillon.

[sheshe2]

16. I see dead people.

[jalan48]

21. I think we've crossed the Rubicon. The US has always been an empire, and not afraid to use violence to grow.

Eventually our rulers and citizens will become lazy and fearful and another country will defeat us, reducing us to third world status.

[Ping Tung]

22. 2 Possibilities

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OR

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[usonian]

24. There will be time enough at last to read and reflect. (Always carry a spare set of eyeglasses, friends)

[BootinUp]

25. He's losing court cases and support from

His own party. If it’s not clear what I said is happening it soon will be.

[C_U_L8R]

26. Our economy will be absolutely decimated

Trump may not last a year, but Democrats can't truly fix things for a few more years (as they've done time and again). Vance will do just as much harm and probably get himself impeached by the Democratic Congress (thank you midterms). We'll be lucky if WWIII hasn't grown into a full nuclear blown conflict by then. So the sooner Democrats take charge and bring order, the better. For everyone.

[Prairie_Seagull]

28. mid terms should add a hopeful aspect.

https://logwork.com/countdown-ikrn

fingers crossed.

[Demovictory9]

40. that's so long from now

[Prairie_Seagull]

43. At 65 time flies even when one is not having fun.

That said the last 3 months have been painful af as my kids say. Potty mouths every one. I wonder were they get it.
little shits. haha

[markie]

30. not soon enough

even if it's tomorrow

[Emile]

31. I wish I knew.

[betsuni]

32. Powerful secret cabals, shadow governments, conspiracies of billionaires and oligarchs controlling everything.

If all those scary stories were true, Mad King Trump won't be president long enough to completely destroy the economy and society. Too bad in real life things don't follow a neat tidy plan.

[AntiFascist]

33. I see a potentially much worse problem, and it may be what is motivating these oligarchs...

Ever since the 1970's there has been a non-profit group called "The Club of Rome" that has been developing computer simulations basically predicting that the population of the human race is unsustainable. Their publications have been called "The Limits to Growth." Due to advancements in technology extending our sustainability, the critical point keeps getting moved farther back, but at some point, the world would run out of resources, and of course climate change isn't helping matters.

According to Google AI: "Whether the human race is sustainable is a complex question with no simple answer, but current trends suggest that our current path is not sustainable, with humanity's ecological footprint exceeding the Earth's biocapacity..."

I personally tend to be more optimistic and believe that with enough brain power we can keep pushing the critical point farther back, but that brainpower will not be found in the White House, or even with Musk whose solution is just to "Occupy Mars" instead. The oligarchs have done the work to become dominant in their respective industries, and now they would prefer to play golf or get high and watch as the human race destroys itself.

[Bluestocking]

34. Lather Rinse Repeat

The way it always ends. Republican takes control, crash the economy and then a Democratic President is elected and spends next four years cleaning up mess and goes on apology tour. Then has another four years of good times. US voters forget who caused problems and elect a Republican - cycle repeats. It happened with Reagan, W Bush and Trumps first term. This is no different. People forget how bad the Reagan and W Bush years were. Remember the crash of 87, 911, anthrax in our mail and the two wars that maimed and killed American soldiers, the Great Recession and COVID epidemic. It all happened under Republicans. This is not the end times, just Republican times.

[intrepidity]

37. But you have to admit that this time is different

Wholesale dismantling of the Federal government has never happened like this.

[BannonsLiver]

38. I think he'll try to run again in 2028

Or use Don Jr. as the vessel to move MAGA forward while Sr. acts as President. I think by 2028 MAGA will be threadbare. Trump or Don Jr. will lose. Then the Dem president will have his hands full with reconstruction of our govt. The country will be impatient again, like with Biden. That Dems re elect will be perilous in 2032 but they will win another 4 years. MAGA will finally fracture with no clear leader, but far right Trumpian splinter factions will still exist in the Congress. Trump will die in his mid 80s (he turns 79 in June) likely from complications related to dementia.

[intrepidity]

42. Thanks for the reply

Yours is one scenario that seemed quite plausible, at least a few months ago. I hope we can survive that long though.

[flamingdem]

41. It depends on US

If we fight and push our leaders to fight.

If a leader arises that can solidify support.

If we are relentless.

So far dems haven't been relentless.