General Discussion

From the religious states before independence to the slave states of the South and then the Confederacy, to the reservations set up for Native Americans, to the violent history of labor relations, to the Japanese-Americans interned in WWII.
The US currently has wealth inequality almost unprecedented in history. It looks like AI will only make this inequality worse. We are also facing national and global destabilization due to anthropogenic climate change.
I think that it was only a matter of time before an authoritarian Strong Leader emerged, no doubt with the support of a significant portion of the population, but really beholden to the reich-wing economic and cultural oiligarchs.
Trump is singularly unqualified to be president, or to hold any other officer for that matter. There has never been a less qualified serious candidate for president and it seems almost impossible that there ever could be a less qualified candidate. His level of ignorance, disdain for knowledge, hubris, extraordinarily blatant corruption would immediately disqualify any other candidate.
I think that the US got incredibly lucky that our first real attempt to destroy democracy was by Trump. Any other authoritarian would surely have done better. Indeed Trump may still bungle it.
It seems to me that we had the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. It is just that we threw it in the trash. We should have easily been able to fight off the threat to democracy posed by the buffoonish Trump. The next attempt to overthrow our democracy will surely be by someone much more capable.