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I don't know anything about anything, obviously, but here on Week 2 Day 1, I'm really struggling to figure out how this situation is going to play out. It clearly FEELS like it can't be sustainable even through a few months, but I can't even begin to see what ends up resulting.

There's obviously the outcome they want - Trump rules as a dictator, they destroy the federal government, have their dreams of Hungary/Russia West. The fall of democracy, etc, etc. That's where they've been driving so far, and haven't faced any significant obstacles thus far.

Neither the Republicans in Congress or the judicial branch have shown any sign that they're going to take action against the blatantly illegal actions so far. Not that their "we are the party of the Constitution" talk was ever sincere, but they're clearly here to enable.

Democratic leadership is still trying to pretend that we are in normal times. No united opposition, no united messaging. A few individuals (AOC, Crockett, etc) are trying to push back, but the leadership isn't on board. 3rd parties are vanity projects and in hiding.

And the media where most average Americans get their information are still pushing the framing of "Trump takes bold steps to reform government". On social media, true-believers and disinformation operations are whatabout'ing every comment section. All while the damage piles up.

I really don't see a world where the American people, for lots of reasons, pull a South Korea and flood the streets or engage a general strike. If that was going to happen, I'm pretty convinced that it would have happened before now. Lawsuits will take years to work through if they are allowed.

So I'm really struggling to conceive of a way that this either gets stopped or slowed, or at which point it becomes obvious to everyone what's happening. And when/if that happens, do people blame the people making it happen, or do they turn that anger on the minorities currently being targeted?

Maybe the system is too chaotic to understand. But I think the expiration date on normality is coming very soon, and there's no guarantee that what follows it will be in any way pleasant.