One phrase I have barely seen mentioned this week is COVID 19

[genxlib]

14. I can't say I know for sure that MAGA was waning at that time

It just feels a lot more pervasive now than it did back in 2019. It might just be recency bias or just my little neck of the woods, but that is what I sensed and I just offered it as an opinion.

If nothing else, it is always easier to be loud and obnoxious as an opposition party. There is little responsibility and lots of opportunity to cast blame and spin narratives. That alone gave MAGA power to regenerate in the 2020-2024 time frame.

As for the rest of it, they are just my thoughts about whether this was inevitably the outcome for whomever got stuck with that particular destructive piece of history. Your questions are just as valid and we will never know the answers to any of the alternate histories.

My thought process was pretty linear. "This was always going to be a disaster for whomever won in 2020 so would it have been better if we hadn't." The potential implications would be infinite and completely theoretical so I was just musing as I try to make sense of it.