Generally speaking, most historical bad guys have had a few reasonably decent qualities that at least slightly redeemed them. With Trump, it’s hard to see any redeeming virtues; it is his other vices–egotism, laziness, and ignorance–that have saved us from living in an authoritarian state up until now. We should be grateful for them, I suppose.
The next comparably popular reactionary is likely to be a different story. He won’t be lazy or ignorant or capricious or completely corrupt. He’ll probably have an Ivy League education and glittering business or military credentials. He’ll be grimly determined to “impose the order and orthodoxy” of the white Christian minority on the majority of the country, regardless of the cost to our liberal democratic state. He’ll be far more Franco, and less Falstaff–a man on horseback, not golf cart.
The bottom line is that we have to hope that Trump’s weaknesses and failures will completely discredit the authoritarian project in this country before it really takes root. Will that happen? I really don’t know, but we had better hope so.