There have been several times in recent years when Trump has asserted autocratic powers to carry out a "mandate" from his trash "base", like to build his border wall. And one of the common rejoinders was "oh yeah? Watch what a Democrat would do with those powers to fix global warming!".

I've heard it said, quietly, from time to time, that liberal democracies are powerless to address existential problems like global warming. Our record so far certainly backs that up; not just the simple fact of our failure to do anything meaningful, but tracking how malicious actors have manipulated and abused liberal democracy to push, among many regressive billionaire-friendly ideas, climate change denialism. Liberal democracy really is vulnerable to this kind of epistomological attack, and there really are forces like the Kochs who will use the levers of liberal democracy to fight against global warming mitigation.

Short answer: We're screwed. Die of heat or drowning, or die in chains. Capitalism is all about choice.