Still processing what happened yesterday and not sure what to think of it all. Definitely don't want to lie and say I have all the answers here. But some preliminary thoughts:

I've been in a weird position wrt intra-left Trump Wars since my view was always that (a) he was clearly the greater evil and it made sense for both strategic and harm reduction reasons to vote against him in swing states but (b) he wasn't actually a fascist threat to democracy.

Lots of lefties agree on (a) but disagree on (b), or agree on (b) but disagree on (a), both of which I understand. Some people even seem to have somehow managed the high wire act of disagreeing with *both* (a) and (b), which is impressive.

Does yesterday show that (b) is wrong?

I honestly don't think so, no.

That the disorganized wannabe-insurrectionary mob he was able to call up was tiny by the standards of DC protests, that Pence and McConnell reacted the way they did, and that he himself...

...felt the need to talk out of both sides of his mouth about whether he even quite supported it all goes to how *little* threat he ever posed to the core institutions of what we politely agree to refer to as "American democracy."

It's extremely disturbing that cops were standing aside (or taking selfies!) with these lunatics, and *that* speaks to a much bigger problem with American policing, but the basic mechanics of two-party governance aren't likely to be going anywhere any time soon.

None of that's to say "nothing to see here, it's all fine." This still an insane escalation from anything we would have been able to imagine in 2015.

It's not impossible to imagine a big uptick in political violence sort of on the model of N. Ireland in the 80s as the hardest core of MAGA hardens into whatever it becomes next (complete with Troubles-style collusion).

Not saying that'll happen or it won't but it's unfortunately not out of the question at this point. And even well short of that there's *tons* of space between "they'll overthrow democracy and institute fascism" and "everything's fine."