Spent
I see much agonising over where and what the Orange Turd does next, what his ideological legacy will be.
Guys, get this: Power is not ideological
Power has no loyalty, to individuals or groups. Power has no morality. Power has no interest in anything save its own promotion and expansion. Power ultimately eats not only its own but itself.
It's the thing in The Thing. The one political value it ultimately lacks is the one it tries so hard, and so unconvincingly, to claim: community. Common weal. A shared interest in health and well-being among not only others but its own.
Yes, there are a set of underlying characteristics, dynamics, and methods. These are tools of control and not guiding principles or values. They have not changed materially in over 2,000 years:
The nucleus of the optimates was the small clique of nobles (men whose fathers, grandfathers, or more remote ancesters had been consuls) who more or less monopolized the highest offices and dominated the Senate, but they had wide support among the propertied class, even, as Cicero says, propserous freedman; otherwise they could not have maintained their unbroken hold on the higher magistracies. They were conservatives, who regarded the rights of property as sacred, and therefore resisted bitterly any attempts to redistribute land or cancel debt. They were upholders of the constitution and of religion, which could be used to block any revolutionary legislation. Though at times they had to yield to popular pressure, they always remained the government.
-- A.H.M. Jones, Augustus, (1970)
The optimates were true paleo-Republicans.
Trump was a tool. "Trumpism" wasn't a doctrine, it was a convenient opportunity afforded. As is all fascist "ideology". It grasps at and appropriates symbols. It does not actually believe in them. They're merely brandished to stupify followers and cow rivals.
The militias and "basket of deplorables"' were tools. Fox News was a tool.
Interests, for a moment in history, aligned. They're now de-aligning.
Trump is now useless save a few mostly-empty executive orders (these can be reversed), and perhaps a few appointments and pardons, also likely containable damage.
The generals and admirals should, I hope, prevent the worst.
Fox News and his party are deserting him. Staff are preparing their tell-all memoirs. (If you must read these, please pirate them.) Dead-ender "supporters"' are moving to OANN, and worse, but that and other channels will realise, or face the reality, that interest has moved on.
The Republican Party --- the vessel of avarice, greed, and Mammon --- will find its next golden calf, its next gilded bullshitter, unprincipled enough to spew its captivating excrement to the next set of gullible marks. (On the Media suggests Tom Cotton or Joe Rogan, keep an eye out.) It's been exposed for what it is. Sadly, half the voting public support it.
Trump is a useless husk in the wind. He delivered Les Moonves his ratings, Vladimir Putin his divided US and Nato alliance, China its trade advantages, the Kochs, Scaifes, Waltons, Murdochs, DeVoses, Mercers, Ellisons, Adelsons, Mellons, Palmers, McMahons, and other plutonomists their tax breaks and SCOTUS appointees. He's enriched or sheltered banks, despots, and huksters.
But he's spent, old, and the wolves, or rather, warriors, are circling.
He may live another ten, fifteen, twenty years. It will be an unhappy existence. It has already been one.
He is spent, like the wooden nickle he is.
