I don't think we missed the "reckoning" we all saw it when Trump won and we all felt it. Nothing missed there. I don't know about the next 12-16 years, honestly. That seems unlikely to happen for several reasons. There is an ebb and flow in American politics, so sometimes one party surges and sometimes a party recedes. That's been the way it works. 

The issue with the Republican party now is it is no longer the Republican party, it is the MAGA party and that party really is totally dependent upon the personality of the Donald. 

I admit I am clueless as to his appeal. I don't get it at all, but when he won this time, no way I can go around the guy appeals to people and a good number of them.

I'd say the problem is though, what happens to MAGA when he is gone? He'll be 82 at the end of this term, he's in poor health. Even if he appoints himself emperor of the universe and declares there will be no more elections, he's not going to be around much longer. I know he thinks he is a god and some of his followers do, but he is just an old guy in diapers and there is no successor in place. 

Yeah, there is J.D. Vance but he's got the personality of a rotting turnip. He was, according to polling, the least liked VP in the history of polling...this includes MAGA. They did not like him at all. 

So, I guess you are feeling your oats with this prediction we are going to get 12 to 16 years of MAGA, but Donald does not have anybody lined up to succeed him and so I think he will take MAGA with him when he's goes. Do you actually think he is going to be president or emperor, or whatever for the next 12 to 16 years?

Anyway, I don't want to argue with you, Pat, MAGA now controls all branches of government, at least for the next 2 years, which is as far forward as I am looking at it right now. I don't know about the Senate, the Republicans have long held an advantage there because there are more Red states than Blue. In the House, their majority is razor thin and seems to be shrinking as we speak. 

If we were in some sort of "normal" time my prediction would be that the Republicans would lose the House at the midterm. Since one of Trump's key strategies is to make sure nothing is ever normal, well, I don't think any prediction I make is reliable. How can I or anyone make a prediction when the guy who is president is a total wild card? 

Trump has said lots of crazy stuff, like he wants to get rid of the Constitution and this past election was the last time we are going to have to vote. Is he joking, trolling, how do you think we should see that?

Whatever you think of us here, Pat, I don't think you can fault us for not liking it when he says these things. I know the Nazi and fascist stuff bothers people, but he brought us there, Pat, the people that use those terms to describe him do so because he quoted the Nazis, said our homegrown Nazis are good people, and he has surrounded himself with people that identify as and are openly big fans of Nazis and fascists. 

That's how we came to that place, Pat, nobody just pulled those things out of their hat. Trump gleefully led the way there, and I agree with you, that is a horrid place to be. Was that "strategy" on his part? Was he intentionally embracing, quoting, saying Hitler did some good things, just to goad Democrats into making the comparison so they would look bad? If he did, that's still a bizarre strategy for an American president, to embrace Nazis and fascists. I personally don't think he knows much about Nazis or fascists himself, so I don't think it a philosophical thing for him, I don't think he has a philosophy at all beyond, do what benefits him the most. He just likes, as he told his people, how he loved that the people working for Kim Jong Un were terrified of him and he wanted people in the US to feel that about him. That's basically what he likes about Putin or any of these dictators, that people fear them so much they won't say anything negative about them. This is not or at least never was something that Americans wanted in a president. 

I don't know what he is going to do or how far he intends to go this time. His promises that this term will be all about his revenge on his supposed enemies does not sound good. His selections to fill positions in his administration seem more than mildly insane, and not just to me or David or Dan or E, people around him and in his party say they are abominations. It's not just a bunch of lefties saying that...everybody is. 

I am curious what you think of these picks but my guess is you just think everything he does is some well thought out plan. I'll tell you something I learned about Don though and that is he does not come up with plans, he claims to work by instinct only. He does not have a strategy, he just does what he feels like in the moment. It's what led to all his business failures and all his nutty personal problems with porn stars and women. He does not think anything through, it is just is about what he feels in the moment. 

At the very least I think that will lead to chaos and a lot of problems. At worst it could end with a lot of people dead. I don't want to predict a bunch of doom and gloom, I obviously don't want that to happen. I don't want to see bad things happen to anyone. Neither does anybody else here, Pat. 

Here's the thing, the way I look at life is, everything is an opportunity. How you approach things will determine the outcome. Trump has an opportunity before him, he can try to be a president that helps the country and the people in it, or he can start trying to punish all the people he hates. 

This country does desperately need healing. We do need to find a way to be Americans first, friends first, family first, before any political party. We've struggled with accomplishing things because we are so divided and honestly, the number one promoter of that division has been MAGA. 

And the divider in chief has been Trump for the last decade. I can't see him bringing the country together and promoting healing but maybe you think that's what he will do. I don't know what you would base that on if that is how you see it. 

Or maybe you are up for the revenge tour. Maybe you are looking forward to the execution of General Milley, Nancy Pelosi to be dragged into the street and beaten to death, tanks rolling down Main Street in American cities and towns, people in large outdoor concentration camps, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys being elevated to Brownshirts for Trump, Kamala Harris being thrown in jail with Jack Smith and Robert Mueller. Those things are all insane but they have all been brought up by Trump and the nuts around him. Should I take that as trolling or a joke, you tell me, Pat. I can only go on what they say and honestly in my lifetime I have never heard any American presidential candidate joke about or suggest these kind of things, so it is concerning, Pat. 

I think there is good reason for us to be concerned. When I talk to Trump voters, at least the ones in the Northeast where I live, they seem to think he is just joking with that stuff. That he does it to "own the libs" and they take none of it seriously. These people he has been picking to fill seats in his administration though, these seem to indicate he is not joking. Sex offenders, criminals, people that just got out of jail, people that were in a cult and are widely thought to be foreign intelligence assets, conmen, hucksters, alcoholics and drug abusers, people that have no qualifications for the jobs...what am I supposed to think, Pat?