Very good stuff! I want to think more about this framework. Let me, however, push back on two points quickly here:
1. As somebody who pushed back online and in person against the sillier core of the Hard Collusion Russiagate, I think your comparison of Democratic response to Trump election and subsequent administration to what we are seeing now is pretty off-base. Nowhere near 70% of Democrats believed in the hard core Russiagate - i.e. that Big Bad Vlad literally changed vote tallies to tip the election to Trump. Rather, the *illegitimacy* of Trump was a confluence of factors *most of which were well-founded*, including the norm shattering and outright unconstitutional approach to governance he practiced from day 1 (emoluments anyone?). Remember that the context of indisputably losing by millions of votes, coupled with memories of a probably actually stolen election in 2000, colored Democratic partisan response. Did Democratic partisans and elites lose their minds and consistently fixate on and get played by the wrong aspects of Trump? Yes. But by contrast, Stop The Steal thesis is that the election was actually literally stolen by malign agents manipulating vote totals. Every single part of it has been through the courts and resoundingly rejected by every single judge conservative or liberal, and yet somehow this does not make it into the Right Wing meme-o-sphere, when even many of my die-hard Democratic friends had to change their tune somewhat after Mueller report finally emerged. Stop The Steal also trades on domestic hatred - and racist notions of whose votes are "legitimate" versus "illegitimate" - rather than foreign scapegoats (which, again, I opposed), and resulted in a cosplay/LARP but still deadly serious insurrection that was literally whipped up by the Commander in Chief and his cronies. That Commander In Chief was then de facto removed from the Chain of Command, when his own VP and the House Speaker went around him to coordinate with the US military to finally put down the insurrection. This level of disloyalty to the office has never been seen before in relevant history, and was indicative of his approach and mindset all along. Feeling that he was "illegitimate" is quite well justified, even though Hard Collusiagate was not. In short, these responses share the perception of illegitimacy, but meaningfully differ in both kind and degree.
2. Climate change. How do we gather and wield the power needed to do what is likely necessary to ensure civilization survival for our own old age, let alone our children, when one party is, on this most crucial of issues, a literal Death Cult? I would like to see the game theoretic approach here recalibrated to a scenario of existential risk. I suspect the pathway you want (and I would like in an ideal world for that matter), which requires generational cultural change in a number of directions, needs to be at least supplemented by something far more incisive and Realpolitik in nature to get the job done.
Very good stuff! I want to think more about this framework. Let me, however, push back on two points quickly here:
1. As somebody who pushed back online and in person against the sillier core of the Hard Collusion Russiagate, I think your comparison of Democratic response to Trump election and subsequent administration to what we are seeing now is pretty off-base. Nowhere near 70% of Democrats believed in the hard core Russiagate - i.e. that Big Bad Vlad literally changed vote tallies to tip the election to Trump. Rather, the *illegitimacy* of Trump was a confluence of factors *most of which were well-founded*, including the norm shattering and outright unconstitutional approach to governance he practiced from day 1 (emoluments anyone?). Remember that the context of indisputably losing by millions of votes, coupled with memories of a probably actually stolen election in 2000, colored Democratic partisan response. Did Democratic partisans and elites lose their minds and consistently fixate on and get played by the wrong aspects of Trump? Yes. But by contrast, Stop The Steal thesis is that the election was actually literally stolen by malign agents manipulating vote totals. Every single part of it has been through the courts and resoundingly rejected by every single judge conservative or liberal, and yet somehow this does not make it into the Right Wing meme-o-sphere, when even many of my die-hard Democratic friends had to change their tune somewhat after Mueller report finally emerged. Stop The Steal also trades on domestic hatred - and racist notions of whose votes are "legitimate" versus "illegitimate" - rather than foreign scapegoats (which, again, I opposed), and resulted in a cosplay/LARP but still deadly serious insurrection that was literally whipped up by the Commander in Chief and his cronies. That Commander In Chief was then de facto removed from the Chain of Command, when his own VP and the House Speaker went around him to coordinate with the US military to finally put down the insurrection. This level of disloyalty to the office has never been seen before in relevant history, and was indicative of his approach and mindset all along. Feeling that he was "illegitimate" is quite well justified, even though Hard Collusiagate was not. In short, these responses share the perception of illegitimacy, but meaningfully differ in both kind and degree.
2. Climate change. How do we gather and wield the power needed to do what is likely necessary to ensure civilization survival for our own old age, let alone our children, when one party is, on this most crucial of issues, a literal Death Cult? I would like to see the game theoretic approach here recalibrated to a scenario of existential risk. I suspect the pathway you want (and I would like in an ideal world for that matter), which requires generational cultural change in a number of directions, needs to be at least supplemented by something far more incisive and Realpolitik in nature to get the job done.