It's a mistake to think they're all comedically stupid. They're definitely stupid enough that we wouldn't enjoy their company, but they're smart enough to know that if they can hang around until DT dies, whoever's left will become something even more dangerous - and far more malleable.
Well, to come clean, you're talking to an American who saw all this coming (in the broad strokes) five years ago and decamped to the UK for the long haul.
My view since then has been that after justice Ginsberg died in office, enough dominoes fell to make the fall of empire - one way or another, peacefully or otherwise - all but inevitable. Not that I put all of that on her, but it was a little selfish not to step down while a friendly administration could find a good replacement...
You're right that this administration sees protests the way a dictator does - if small, a pleasant invitation to violent reprisals, and if very large, inherently threatening. You're right in some things, but it's impossible to be narrowly coherent in a topic of this size so with apologies, you're getting a few paragraphs.
My broader view is that although the prior norms of the US government allowed for relative comfort domestically, they were built on the back of an economic and military empire abroad that was (still is) deeply disgraceful, and a return to form (even by peaceful protest) isn't very desirable given what it would require to accomplish.
In order to merely return to a horrible but comforting status quo, Americans would have to somehow defeat a would-be king, peacefully, while he controls a global empire whose violence would command the respect of any Mongol khan, who also has the blessing of a class of moneyed elites whose economic inequality puts the ancien régime into the shade. And you're thinking Americans will accomplish this? You flatterer.
If I had my druthers, we'd have a peaceful* revolution that dismantled the old system entirely, and quickly (quickly as hell given the geopolitical spinning plates we're holding) reform into something more akin to an EU with way less centralised power, hopefully a smaller military budget overall, and a shitload fewer billionaires.
*Without much if any factionalized armed conflict, per se. A nonviolent revolution does require that violence be available upon request.
The reason I left is that I don't see this level of general solidarity or awareness among my people. I think a different flavour of empire collapse is far likelier, and I've got people to protect now, or I'd probably still be there taking a flying fuck at the Nazis. I left my guns with sensible folk and left, instead.
So there's my whole deal. We're not likely to get it, but at least it's something worth wanting in the first place. I have to hope that merely imagining a future worth having is in some way contributing to the common endeavour. And I hope that by being more expansive we can understand one another better, or leastways bicker more productively.
It's "so American" to want to be armed in self defense against fascists
Peaceful protests are "performative"
Violent protests will be used as justification for further acts of despotism
The only solution is to trust the guard and/or the police to do the right thing
On its own I'd cede the first point, because Americans do have a profound gun problem. As to the third, it answers the second and the fourth - the police and their imitators are avowed fascists who will make the protests violent any way they can.
It is insufficient to hope that the guard will stand with the states, when the courts and the pentagon gang up on them they'll certainly cave. Now that dear leader is in charge, you'll hear nothing about "states rights" except when it involves taking away citizens' rights.
My partner and I had a habit of treating merges as teamwork. Driver focuses on front, copilot looks back/sideways, and driver implicitly trusts when copilot says "go". We were pretty slick with our merges.
To equivocate, we have since relocated to a city with good enough public transit that we were able to ditch our car entirely. Life is definitely better this way.
It's a mistake to think they're all comedically stupid. They're definitely stupid enough that we wouldn't enjoy their company, but they're smart enough to know that if they can hang around until DT dies, whoever's left will become something even more dangerous - and far more malleable.