Who would step in to replace Trump? Trump has worked hard to discredit anybody who could potentially challenge him. Strongmen often groom a son to take over for them, but only after they've been in power for many years. Trump might want Junior to take over, but I doubt even Trump's hand-picked yes-men would accept Junior at this point.

Instead you'd almost certainly get a power vacuum with various Republican factions trying to take over.

You cut one head off and 3 more will pop up

And those 3 would start snapping at each-other trying to become the dominant head. And, as long as they're distracted snapping at each-other, they're not going to be focusing on us.

IMO, Trump is also the only thing holding this right-wing coalition together. As soon as he's gone the factions are going to turn on each-other. The bad thing is that they've already shown that they're going to get violent when they feel their grip on power is slipping. I'm sure this assassination attempt is going to lead to right-wing violence, and if it had succeeded it would have been a lot more violence.

The most dangerous thing about Trump is that he's he's got almost half the US behind him. There are probably more cruel Republicans, and probably some who would be more effective at implementing their cruel policies. But, not many who would be able to get so much support and keep the coalition together.

The Republican base is getting smaller each year as old people die. It's not a popular platform with the younger voters. If the US can avoid a Trump win this year, the MAGA version of the Republican party will probably fall apart. Then it will be back to the regular corporatocracy that the US has been dealing with for decades. If he does win... well I'm glad I don't live in the US.

[–] curiouschipmunk@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I believe the same. Want it or not, Trump has the charisma that nobody else in the party does. And the luck. My only hope to stop the madness was to have Trump losing the election then dropping dead by natural causes after. That'd be safest way to take all his followers out of the spell. I really don't see any other way for his cult to end. Then the right wing extremists go back to hate in their closets and, if democrats are smart, keep having more moderate candidates like Biden and reign the extreme left as well.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

It would have to be a big loss. If it's at all close, there's going to be a lot of violence.

The only other thing I could think of that could end things without a lot more violence is if a scandal finally stuck to him and resulted in him losing support. Like, the Epstein stuff. The right has spent years getting their base riled up against pedophiles and groomers. If people believed that Trump really was a pedophile, it could finally sink him. But, nothing seems to stick to him.

Whatever happens, I hope scholars can study him and figure out why he's so charismatic to so many people. I don't get it. I look at him and I see a dumb, fat blow-hard who lies constantly and can't even string a sentence together. Yet, for some reason, other people look at that and see a hero.