Incompetence alone will not be enough to dethrone Trump

Recall that the lofty rhetoric of Bush-era neoconservatives - and their rosy dreams of re-making the Middle East all over again - was only dragged down to earth by the weight of cities reduced to smoking ruins and thousands of bodies of soldiers and civilians in post-invasion Iraq.

Likewise, President Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was truly laid bare by the lacklustre response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, with years of hollowing out the federal government's responsiveness and Bush's shortcomings as a leader brought into sharp focus by the manmade failure that compounded a major natural disaster.

The obvious downside is that such a shock could come at ruinous cost to the United States.

Consider Michael Lewis' deep dive into Trump's Department of Energy for Vanity Fair, where the quiet dismantling of government machinery far from the public eye threatens the safety of millions through inexpert handling of nuclear weapons, radioactive waste, and the cybersecurity of the country's electrical grid.

Plenty of outsiders and sycophants have been brought in to run federal departments and agencies they either barely understand or are actively seeking to destroy.

Or think of the danger that might be wrought abroad by an unlucky roll of the dice.

The Democratic party still has little concrete to offer voters other than the prospect of being 'not Trump'

Analysts fret over North Korean nuclear tests, and whether Trump's diplomats can be trusted to exhaust all alternatives before triggering what might be the worst conflict since the Second World War.

At the same time, Trump and various officials may clear the path for yet further nuclear developments in Iran by tearing up the Obama-era nuclear agreement, all while doing precious little to counteract the Islamic Republic's expanded influence through conventional arms and proxy warfare across the Middle East. Should they succeed, we may soon roll two nuclear standoff dice each morning instead of just one.

To make matters worse, the administration's "adults in the room" - supposedly keeping US foreign policy in the realm of rationality - risk online bombardment if they are seen to obstruct the president's broader vision.

Read more: Trump is not the problem, America is

Professional hate-monger Mike Cernovich has joined Breitbart and others in attacking National Security Advisor McMaster after he purged the National Security Council of some of the aforementioned sycophants.

The political attacks included the vilest anti-Semitism I've ever seen wielded openly, as Cernovich and others in the right-wing rage machine tweeted out a Ben Garrison cartoon of McMaster and David Petraeus being controlled by George Soros and a decrepit hand labelled simply "Rothschilds".

The Democratic Party itself is probably only half or one-third of the way through its protracted identity politics crisis

Still, barring some public demonstration of why a team of amateurs does not make for the most effective government, people will see what they want to see. Cernovich and company will be dismissed as inconsequential hangers-on even as anti-Semitic attacks and other hate crimes rise dramatically.

Attack ads and liberal commentary alike will probably shift to focus more on proponents of violence and fiery rhetoric on the left, since here at least there is still some hope of shaming, shouting, or shunning opponents into submission.

The Democratic Party itself is probably only half or one-third of the way through its protracted identity politics crisis. The lowest-common-denominator slogan "A Better Deal" inspires few outside of the Democratic National Committee, while the party still has little concrete to offer voters other than the prospect of being "not Trump" - not an automatic win no matter what the level of GOP malfeasance, as recent electoral contests have demonstrated.

Time is running out to develop a better narrative than the doom and gloom Trump and company are content to spout and spin from on high - the counterpoints to the views expressed here are readily available online, and all too willing to craft new justifications for each incremental disaster.

Liberal and progressive victories beyond the local level will come only when candidates can push beyond "Trump has failed you" to credibly claim "Trump and the GOP have failed you - and here's how we'll help you succeed."