It’s customary to enter the new year with lots of optimism. Unfortunately, I can’t; things will either stay more or less the same or get significantly worse. Trump isn’t going to stop being an authoritarian or give up his reactionary policies. The GOP optimists could be right about the economy, but the balance of probabilities is against them. That means stagnation is the best case scenario.
Much depends on the outcome of the election. If the GOP outperforms current expectations, the following two years may be reasonably peaceful. If the Democrats win a clear victory, we are undoubtedly looking at two years of constitutional crises; the question then is whether Trump will retaliate by declaring an emergency, sending the military to run the blue states, and clamping down on dissent in the MSM and on the internet. I’ll address those issues if and when they arise.