Yes and no. I do think the MAGA win will restore confidence in electoral integrity, and the failure to get reforms to work will show that the issue wasn’t merely a matter of “corrupt Democrats” and “the swamp”. While that will be frustrating, I think it will also stabilize against so much reactionary populism.
My main expectation:
Resilience.
We are about to see just how robust are our traditions, institutions, and rule of law.
I think it will be ok. Sort of. Mostly. I think there will be a lot of policies I don’t like, and a continuation of the 50 year trend towards Congressional abrogation of purview in favor of an excessively powerful unitary executive.
But I don’t think we will see a true crisis of democracy or abrogation of the Constitution. I do think we will see damage to our more unofficial norms, and public trust. I suspect the Supreme Court will continue its pattern of unforced errors of undermining their own perceived neutrality, respect, and elevated “sacred” place.
And maybe if courts order what the administration doesn’t want, we will see a true crisis. Hopefully not. Because once the ethos of the inviolate nature of the courts is broken, I don’t know if it can be recovered.
I think we will see an abrogation of the principle of courtesy independence of the Department of Justice, the Inspectors General, and the FBI. We probably need new legislation to clarify this, and/or we need some of these functions to report to Congress exclusively.