Demagoguery, ignorance, and obscurantism win.
Not good for the US. Not good for the rest of the world.

The Conversation. This article was published in December 2023 and is a good reminder of how the Founders of the Republic were somewhat skeptical about what they called the "democratic experiment." The article's final paragraph, however, seems to me overly optimistic. Perhaps the author at the time was not fully aware of how deeply uneducated middle America has become, despite countless warnings that have been presented since the mid 70s. And the author was perhaps further oblivious of what was coming up.

Today, it is shocking (and depressing) to look at the map of the election results. Bleeding red everywhere... For the moment, surely, the "democratic experiment" is not yet dead. But the only hope for this experiment and for the country is in the hands of the few remaining blue states, the judges, the lawyers, and the concerned Americans who—as they did during the first term of this would-be dictator—will fight and block the worst "edicts" of these fascists, including their attempts to eliminate... guess what? the Department of Education, for Heaven's sake!