The Democratic party is already in a situation where it can’t make mistakes and it can’t get unlucky or it loses the presidency, and if it loses the presidency then elections will be neutered and the US becomes a one-party autocracy.

And if it becomes a one-party autocracy, then it’ll have to perpetuate the enemy within myth (and eventually go to war) to keep the people obedient. And that means burning (maybe literally) a portion of the population, starting with LGBT+ and enemies of the regime (that’s all the principal democrats) and going for non-whites, non-Christians, disabled folk, unemployed folk, people who have unnecessary jobs, uppity women, anyone overly ethnic, countercultures and eventually, anyone who isn’t sufficiently patriotic or is too slow in snapping their salute.

At least this is the model that Reinhard Heydrich created in the development of the Sicherheitsdienst, and is replicated in the standard operations of ICE regarding immigrants and anyone else they’d rather see disappear.

But the German occupation of Paris was brutal despite themselves, despite that they were ordered to govern the French gently, and the brutality was so extreme La Résistance manifested in days, starting small and becoming a formidable fighting and mischief force within two years. So if Trump wins the election (or secures power through a procedural coup d’etat or through a violent coup d’etat) the resistance will be organizing across states by the end of 2025, assuming open civil war doesn’t break out.