Unregulated capitalism resulting in the complete capture of the mass media and the federal government by both parties of the duopoly which are owned by the ruling class and corporations. The result of all this is two major parties which are totally beholden to the latter two groups and unresponsive to the voters on any issues where those two groups of funders want something different in policies. Which leaves pretty much identity politics and culture war issues for prez candidates to campaign on. Thus, we get perfect conditions for a racist con man and demagogue like Trump to succeed in exploiting the culture war issues and identity politics.

All of these conditions and problems will be around long after Trump has left the spotlight and the Dem party loyalists who are currently celebrating like the nightmare is over and all will be well are fools. They should be seeing it for what it is, a temporary reprieve before the Repubs win back control of the fed govt. in two or four years.

@TomMcGiverin But for the FDR years, Repubs have won back control after temporary Demo-controlled reprieves.

What did Repubs do that gave Dems those reprieves?

1. 1929 economic collapse?
2. 1940 isolation before Pearl Harbor?
3. 1950s Senator Jos. McCarthy?
4. 1970s Nixon & Ford’s pardon?
5. 1992 GOP Bush/Perot split?
6. 2007/8 G. W. Bush?

Doesn’t matter a lot; the duopoly survives.

@TomMcGiverin couldn't agree more. Sounds like you listened to the same podcast about the RNC/DNC duopoly that I did. I'm definitely not celebrating any great victory - unless there is some miracle by the mid-terms I think I'll be plotting my escape from this madness. And even if by some miracle we also get Moscow Mitch out in January I'm convinced Biden will continue to pussy-foot around, "reach across the aisle", bipartisan this and that, and completely disenfranchise the record 80M who came out to vote No to Trumpist demagoguery. That will totally fulfill the duopoly role.

There are so many things that need to fixed in this country - and I see only two ways to fix that. One of them involves a bloody civil war and less than half the country wants that. The other involves diaspora of Democrats from the deep blue states and given how hard it seems to be to even get people to come out and vote, to actually vote with their feet and move to red state - very unlikely to happen.

@TomMcGiverin [freakonomics.com]