If Trump were to disappear tomorrow, say through a medical emergency or through a political upheaval in his own party, the Trump problem would not go away. In fact, it would get worse because his Republican replacement would give his program more credibility and he would have learned from Trump's mistakes.

Regardless of our President's flaws, he has become a tool of certain cultural and economic forces in the society who have used him to mobilize a constituency that can get their program advanced. On the contrary, as long as Trump remains in power, the contradictions and inconsistencies in his behavior and character keep his unsuitability, and the essential toxicity of his program, open to public scrutiny. When Trump finally goes away, we don't want his followers looking back at his administration with fond nostalgia, we want them to feel humiliated in how they easily and completely they let themselves be conned. You have to feed this fever, not starve it. It has to fully run its course before his allies can apply a mid-course correction and make it permanent.

The last thing we need is some simpatico, slick, charismatic and articulate spokesman for his views to take over his followers and his program. Our President may be a bully, a thug, and a buffoon, but that is NOT what has made him such a threat to our prosperity, our security and our freedom. Besides, his incompetence, dangerous as it is, does provide us with some measure of protection. Look at the record of his legislative accomplishments. The last thing we need now is some super-competent Right-wing LBJ leading a rubber-stamp Congress and institutionalizing the GOP agenda for all time.

The real power behind Trump is a ruthless economic oligarchy and a vicious self-serving ideology that has succeeded in focusing the anger, fear, hatred and ignorance of a substantial minority of the American people. Don't you think the puppet masters don't already KNOW Trump is an asshole? Racism, religious fanaticism, nativism, xenophobia, misogyny, jingoism, militarism, gun fetishism and homophobia are cleverly exploited simply to reduce corporate taxes and regulation and to keep the working class disorganized and insecure--that is, docile and compliant. That is all they really want. Every thing else is just a means to an end.

Its happening in other Western democracies too, particularly in Europe. Its even happening in Russia! And its happened before in history as well. Hard times, times of wrenching unpredictable change, make fascism possible, perhaps even inevitable. This isn't just a Trump problem, its been around forever, and its been getting worse for a generation now.

Don't be deluded by the stupidity of this one man. There is plenty of evil genius behind him.