The problem is not the army, but military posturing. It can too easily transition into an actual war.
Case in point: Russia. Putin's ratings were falling, and he decided to commit "a small victorious war", based on faulty assumptions. And his assumptions were faulty because all the secret agencies were filled with yes-men who were just telling Putin what he wanted to hear.
That's the problem with the authoritarian regimes: they don't have people who can stop the Dear Leader if the Dear Leader starts seriously believing in conspiracy theories and/or just goes mad with power.
The US starts a new war for posturing every few years. They have the faulty assumption that they can control the world, even as they keep losing wars. So, not a problem unique to Russia.
> The US is not in a real danger of becoming an authoritarian state
So you're saying democrats are lying? They say that may happen by the next election, so at least 50% of the population believes this is possible.
Moreover, from the point of view of foreign policy the US is already an authoritarian state. People have no say on weather to start or stop a war, anymore than the Russians have.
They are not lying. Trump is literally saying that he's going to use the military to suppress his opponents, after all. I just happen to think that the US has far more resilience built into its political system than it seems.
E.g. Project 2025 is terrible and if it's implemented, it'll result in pure hell for the regular people. But a hypothetical Trump administration won't be able to implement even a fraction of it. It'll need many dozens of new laws passed, and probably even new Amendments.
And then there are also individual states that hold a lot of power to sabotage the laws that they don't like. For an example, look at the "sanctuary city" laws in California or Washington.
Mind you, it doesn't mean that a hypothetical Trump administration won't hurt a lot of people. I'm just saying that it won't be able to totally monopolize the political power.
> I just happen to think that the US has far more resilience
Well, if this is true then democrats are lying. They pretend the US can be transformed into a dictatorship if Trump is elected.
But the real point is that in terms of foreign policy the US is already a nondemocratic state, because both parties support non-ending wars and are financed by the MIC. The voters don't matter anymore.
Case in point: Russia. Putin's ratings were falling, and he decided to commit "a small victorious war", based on faulty assumptions. And his assumptions were faulty because all the secret agencies were filled with yes-men who were just telling Putin what he wanted to hear.
That's the problem with the authoritarian regimes: they don't have people who can stop the Dear Leader if the Dear Leader starts seriously believing in conspiracy theories and/or just goes mad with power.