= new reply since forum marked as read
DeSatan's rope limit is pretty short, doesn't reach beyond the deepest of the deep south.
ETA:
Big Dick Energy,...
Loud mouthed alpha males,..
Pushy tough guys looking for a scrap,..
Naughty frat boys with endless nasty comments,..
Toxic macho males,..
Gun nuts in camo head to toe,..
God fearing Christian Nationalist Nazis.
I agree we should be scared of the ones we now know are prone, and the large numbers of others who will support and allow them to prevail.
This last election was just one heartening indication, though, that in fact approximately half of Americans are effectively totally immune. And a large portion of the other half aren't actually cultists so much as tribalists loyal to their team.
Agree the cultists (most of them strong RW authoritarians) need and will look for a new leader. Will it happen? On the right, we have names, and for sure they're already trying, but it may not come together right.
For instance, I assumed a new charismatic populist leader would try to rise on the left to serve the needs of LW cultists/authoritarians when Bernie Sanders lost the 2016 primary and mostly took a powder for some months, but...nothing. And to date still nothing, even though Sanders' mostly throwing in with Democrats to fight the impending RW fascist takeover left the field mostly open. Could the shift of the strongest LW authoritarians to join their RW counterparts help explain it, not enough authoritarian/populist energy left behind? Or maybe just that those who stayed were sobered to realize, as Bernie did, that a RW fascist movement was far bigger? Whatever, no new leader happened.
Another example, on the right, of failure of authoritarians to settle on a new leader is after the abandonment of the Tea Party by its puppeteers when it broke their leash. TPers were eager, but at least 2 to 3 mostly depressed, inactive, leaderless years passed before now-former teapartiers latched onto tRump. Ted Cruz, who's potentially as dangerous as they could want, offered himself repeatedly but didn't catch fire.
