2 key things have saved the US this time:

1. Americans have come out to vote like their lives depended on it, which it did and does. Americans should be warned by the almost 50% who vote for fascism. Assuming that people are moderate and that your vote doesn’t make a difference, only paves the way for the radical authoritarians to claim power through the democratic process, before installing a dictatorial regime.
2. Democratic institutions have held up, only because in key positions, a few people were not prepared to go the whole Trump way. Espescially judges of the Courts and Governors of key States have kept democracy safe from authoritarianism. Next time we may not be so lucky. Therefore, the warning-signs tell us that the institutions require more structural and procedural safeguards, or else it hinges on whether there are conscientious people in the key positions or not. And a democracy should not simply hinge on the conscience and moral fortitude of a few peopke in positions of power.

It is now critically important that the Biden administration breaks with the elite, funding both parties, and leads a goverment for the 90%, so that next time there won’t be massive waves of disenfrachised voters who vote for an authoritarian populist.