Interesting take on Trump's uniquely unqualified nominees. Patrimonialism is sometimes called "elite cooptation" where you bring certain elites into a beneficial relationship with the government in order to control that country without democratic measures.
Patrimonialism's track record of success, as mentioned, is poor. Authoritarianism is often brittle - it seems hard but it's fragile. It struggles to adapt. Also - and this is my mantra for Trump 2.0 - the point of authoritarianism is corruption. That's entirely the point, though egotism is a part of Dear Leader syndrome, the reason people go along with it is to wet their beaks.
The second thing about authoritarians is that they are usually pretty dumb, or if they aren't dumb, they surround themselves with sycophants so they get terrible advice and do dumb things.
So, for the sake of optimism, I don't think this is the "end of democracy" in America. I think this will be a period of terrible, corrupt governance by stupid people doing evil things, but that it will not end well for them - or, sadly, us.
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