Thank you, Richard, for another astute assessment of our political dysfunction. But I’m more cautiously optimistic. Kamala is a smart cookie; she has already shown a talent for ridiculing and humiliating Trump while simultaneously evoking the highest ideals that define true democracy—government, that is, whose sole overriding purpose is to serve the public interest. As a result, the MAGAts of Fox Noise and elsewhere are already reduced to petty, sneering, desperate insults that only make themselves look even worse in the eyes of anyone who has not swallowed the Trumpian Kool-aid. And most importantly, Kamala has energized the youth, who had been completely disillusioned. And once activated, they are a potent political force.

There will be stochastic outbreaks of violence to be sure—a sure indicator of demented rage and futility. But nothing organized or truly threatening to the social order. MAGAts are, after all, basically cowards, who are content to swill beer , tool around in flag-bedecked pickup trucks, brandish their assault weapons, and feed their impotent rage on Fox Noise and toxic social media.

But with luck, our democratic institutions will survive—at least until climate chaos triggers global pandemonium socioeconomic collapse, and mass die-offs that no one can stop.