True. I suppose a lot of us may have gotten kind of too used to stories, movies etc, where everything does happen at once. Or it looks like it. The hero gets the news of something important out to the people, the whole country rises to oppose the tyrant at once, next thing they storm the palace and now there is a new government and the tyrant is in jail or dead.

But movies have to tell the story in limited runtime. And of course a definitive sudden victory is much more fun to see than "to be continued" at the end, or maybe a screen full of text telling of a slow years long journey towards the end goal which the hero of the story may not even live long enough to see.

In real life it rarely happens like in stories. Let's take something like the fall of Soviet Union. When I was young the whole thing still looked about as permanent as Rome must have when there were still a few hundred years left of its rule. But small stuff had been happening for years even by then, and then in the end it needed just a few nudges and that house of cards suddenly fell. But even then it wasn't a sudden change to something perfect, they are still working at that, and the first decades the whole place often seemed more like a total chaos that might have suddenly veered into who knows what direction. Even now it can be hard to tell exactly where they stand, although the reality certainly seems to be better than what the western MSM claims about them. But one question is how much right now maybe depends on Putin staying alive and in power. That guy is getting old.

There may be a sudden preference cascade in your country now with Trump where a lot changes fast. Or maybe not. Maybe it will just be more and more smaller changes, until suddenly maybe you start to notice that hey, it's all a lot better now. Or maybe not even that good, and all will seem like a constant chaos for years as the old regime is pushed aside and the new one slowly gets more and more control over things.

But the main thing is that for you it seems to be getting better. Your gun rights seem to be mostly safe for now, compared to what you had back in the 90s. Your culture seems to be shifting towards MAGA ideals, and I think what Breitbart said is very valid: "politics is downstream of the culture". Trump did get his second term, and seems to have several potential successors who may be able to continue what he started even if he himself will not be able to finish the process. And so on. At least looking from the outside it looks like at the very least you do no longer risk backsliding into where you were during the Obama years.

Even if the White Hats really have had a plan, and even if they really have been able to stick to it for most of the time, the saying that "no battle plan will survive contact with the enemy" is still valid too. They may end up having to change the plan, if they haven't already. Even if they by now really have gotten in that "checkmate" position on the board, where in the end they will win no matter what, the last moments of the game can still bring surprises to them.

True. I suppose a lot of us may have gotten kind of too used to stories, movies etc, where everything does happen at once. Or it looks like it. The hero gets the news of something important out to the people, the whole country rises to oppose the tyrant at once, next thing they storm the palace and now there is a new government and the tyrant is in jail or dead.

But movies have to tell the story in limited runtime. And of course a definitive sudden victory is much more fun to see than "to be continued" at the end, or maybe a screen full of text telling of a slow years long journey towards the end goal which the hero of the story may not even live long enough to see.

In real life it rarely happens like in stories. Let's take something like the fall of Soviet Union. When I was young the whole thing still looked about as permanent as Rome must have when there were still a few hundred years left of its rule. But small stuff had been happening for years even by then, and then in the end it needed just a few nudges and that house of cards suddenly fell. But even then it wasn't a sudden change to something perfect, they are still working at that, and the first decades the whole place often seemed more like a total chaos that might have suddenly veered into who knows what direction. Even now it can be hard to tell exactly where they stand, although the reality certainly seems to be better than what the western MSM claims about them. But one question is how much right now maybe depends on Putin staying alive and in power. That guy is getting old.

There may be a sudden preference cascade in your country now with Trump where a lot changes fast. Or maybe not. Maybe it will just be more and more smaller changes, until suddenly maybe you start to notice that hey, it's all a lot better now. Or maybe not even that good, and all will seem like a constant chaos for years as the old regime is pushed aside and the new one slowly gets more and more control over things.

But the main thing is that for you it seems to be getting better. Your gun rights seem to be mostly safe for now, compared to what you had back in the 90s. Your culture seems to be shifting towards MAGA ideals, and I think what Breitbart said is very valid: "politics is downstream of the culture". Trump did get his second term, and seems to have several potential successors who may be able to continue what he started even if he himself will not be able to finish the process. And so on. At least looking from the outside it looks like at the very least you do no longer risks backsliding into where you were during the Obama years.

Even if the White Hats really have had a plan, and even if they really have been able to stick to it for most of the time, the saying that "no battle plan will survive contact with the enemy" is still valid too. They may end up having to change the plan, if they haven't already. Even if they by now really have gotten in that "checkmate" position on the board, where in the end they will win no matter what, the last moments of the game can still bring surprises to them.