The smart and competent know this, and put on a persona, like Bush II's drawl or Boris Johnson, who intentionally ruffles his hair - as that is the image he wants to project.
That's what the Germans thought until the Nazis started working the system. I bet if Trump had been a little smarter, sometimes kept his mouth shut and not kicked people around all the time, he may have got away with much more.
That’s what I am thinking. It doesn’t even have to be MAGA only. I bet wokeness could also turn into a dictatorship with the right leader. That’s why rohe current US political climate where people think that the other side is evil and can’t be negotiated with is so dangerous. The right leader can make a case that there is a dangerous crisis and that laws have to be suspended to deal with the threat and voila you have a dictatorship that’s supported by half the population.
That's why I'm pre-committing against the death penalty. Even murderers shouldn't be killed by the state. [1] I invite anyone on the right to join me in this stance - It puts a cap on how bad the consequences for our political positions can get.
[1] There's a bunch of edge cases for self-defense and how to apprehend people. I don't have the time to get into these. Most people know what I mean by "Abolish the death penalty".
Please let's not "both sides" this. It's the maga crowd who have fallen into a cult of personality and are excusing those personalities for their incompetence and its results. Until that appears from another vector it is dishonest and misleading to project this on any other group.
That is routine for US politics; partisans always forgive their team for incompetence and its results. I think only catastrophes as egregious as Afghanistan (all the way through from Bush to Biden) have managed to pierce the partisan distortion field.
> I bet wokeness could also turn into a dictatorship with the right leader.
What is that based on? The progressive left heavily supports the democratic process, they don't try to prevent anyone from voting, they haven't elected anyone who advocates that. They also control no state or national executive positions and no legislatures, while the GOP recently controlled the White House, regularly controls both houses of Congress, and controls many governorships and state legislatures - and openly use that power to prevent people from voting them out. In many states, the voters cannot choose who runs their legislatures.
Not much more than what is currently sanctioned by all the people who work in the government and aren't elected. You don't have to be maga to destroy a country, just the kind of small minded person who would think that it is possible to do so, and so out of fear of being called names, and the local Karen giving you the dirty eye at the hoa meetings, you would lie down and let the self ascribed "adults" take care of "it" for you, instead of thinking for yourself and questioning authority. ;)
Scary thought for today: what happens when MAGA world finds someone with not just charisma, but competence and energy?