That's what Trump and DeSantis are running for. They want to be Putin, or even Xi or MBS if they could pull it off. They both have all but said out loud they want to end the American experiment. (Trump actually did say it out loud, as The New York Times notes.)
And there's a constituency for tyranny in America, one that's large enough to swing Republican primary elections. At this point, it's becoming clearer by the day that a Republican who still believes in democracy -- a Mitt Romney type of figure -- has absolutely no chance of becoming the GOP's nominee for 2024.
Thus, the big question now and going forward toward that election is this:
"Is that authoritarian-embracing Republican constituency large enough to put a fascist like DeSantis or Trump into office in next year's general election?"
After all, when the American people look for political leadership, they're always looking for "The Real McCoy." Pale imitations almost never work in US politics; in fact -- as Ron DeSantis is learning -- being the wishy-washy version of somebody else always works against candidates.
For example, way back in 1948 Democratic President Harry S. Truman was running for re-election (he inherited the office when FDR died) and experiencing total frustration with some in his own party who were supporting Republican policies, particularly the union-busting Taft-Hartley Act, which gave states the power to gut unions via so-called "Right to Work for Less" provisions.
When Truman vetoed the legislation in 1947, 106 Democrats in the House and 20 in the Senate voted with Republicans to override his veto; Taft-Hartley stood, and has since been the GOP's main tool to destroy unions in Red state after Red state over the past 70+ years.
Which provoked Truman to issue his famous dictum:
"Given a choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, the voters will pick the Republican every time!"
Today's version of Truman's famous saying is true for both parties.
Phony progressives, like "moderates" in the so-called "Corporate Problem Solvers" caucus, are vulnerable to genuine progressives, as Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez proved when she ran against corporate Democrat Joe Crowley.
And phony GOP fascists, like Tim Scott, Chris Christie, or Nikki Haley, will always get steamrolled by real fascists like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
It's why regardless of who enters the GOP primaries, the fascist-loving base is going to make sure their party's nominee is someone running to be an American fascist in the style of Trump or DeSantis.
This highlights the biggest systemic problem the GOP is currently facing. White supremacists, antisemites, and women-hating men across the country were given a taste, albeit a small sample, of real "blood and soil" type Christo-fascism with the presidency of Donald Trump.
And now they desperately want more.
The crisis, therefore, for any Republican who wants to run against Trump is that they'll have to run to the right of fascism. But what occupies that space? Pure, raw, genocidal dictatorship that completely ends America.
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