Trump is getting weaker and the resistance stronger:

[applegrove]

[Borogove]

1. The year ahead is going to be very interesting.

[markodochartaigh]

4. Like the old

British curse (and who should know better) "May you live in interesting times".

[J_William_Ryan]

2. Trump isn't going anywhere.

It doesn’t make any difference how strong the resistance might be, it’s still powerless to affect any change.

And Trump will always have the support of Republicans.

[markodochartaigh]

3. Of course this isn't because large numbers of maga

are turning against Trump. It is because more of the one third of the electorate who were too apathetic and/or ignorant to be bothered to vote are waking up and becoming engaged.

In 2015 the Republicans had a conundrum, whether to choose another candidate and lose the election or choose an authoritarian Strong Leader who was not committed to democracy but was extremely popular with the 80% of their base who are authoritarians.

They put party before country and chose the authoritarian Strong Leader.

They knew that, nationwide, the US is about evenly divided between authoritarians and those who will support an authoritarian as long as it keeps them in power, and those who are anti-authoritarian. They also knew that, nationwide, about one third of the electorate were too apathetic or ignorant to vote as long as they got their hamberders and sportsball.

The Republicans knew that there was a good chance that enacting their policies more quickly, especially under the authoritarian Strong Leader, would stand a chance of waking that one third up and engaging them. The Republicans gambled that their tactics of disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, and voter suppression would be sufficient to offset the increased participation by the previously inactive third.

Fortunately the unprecedented buffoonishness, corruption, and extraordinary lack of empathy of Trump and those who support him are a double edged sword. These qualities enabled his success with the authoritarians, but now they have begun to awaken many previously apathetic, disengaged voters.

The Republicans have to worry that their electoral tactics, perhaps combined with a military presence under Trump, may not be sufficient to counter the extreme antipathy that Trump engenders. And they have to worry that should Trump go down because of the Epstein files he will take the party with him out of spite. No hissy fit before flying off in a helicopter like Nixon. If Trump goes down he will want to leave a howling wilderness in his wake.