Comment: Rubin, take a break from writing fantasy.  None of what you describe is going to happen.  The Republicans will double down on their Trump bet because they have no other.  And it may work, because around half of the public--the Republican half--has lost whatever ability it once had to track information and analyze argument relevant to public affairs.  Trump makes perfect sense in his context of late imperial decadence.  You wouldn't have expected a Thomas Jefferson or an Abraham Lincoln to show up in a list of Roman emperors, would you?  Well, stop being surprised at Trump turning up as the inheritor of a corrupted democracy.