It’s not nihilism, that’s an ideology. If it’s any ideology, it’s liberalism, recognizing that the will of the population determines the course of the nation, regardless of the good or evil that the population desires.

I don’t see how a different ideology could prevent the forces that are currently pushing us towards despotism, either. People are too susceptible to believing bullshit, with entire false realities being spun up in people’s minds. It’s just wishful thinking to believe that some great leader could come by and suddenly everyone would “wake up” and “see”. They’d still be manipulated into fear and anger by the authoritarian opposition.

Fortunately we’re not lost yet. The Palestinians aren’t completely doomed either, Netanyahu remains unable to finish the job and maintain our support, and his right wingers are growing more impatient with him. With some election reform we might be able to turn the tide on the far right here at home, too, though that’s harder with the filibuster still in place and us having nowhere near 60 Senate seats.