We will see much sooner. There is much more to democracy than elections, and even among dictatorships, elections are actually quite common.
First signs of a dictatorships will be human rights violations and the stripping of equal rights among Americans, my guess is that will start pretty soon after he takes office in January.
My guess is also that a large number of people (including foreign governments; particularly in Europe) will simply deny the dictatorial behavior of the USA government, no matter how obvious (similar to climate deniers). Even if there won’t be an election in 4 years, denialism will still prevail. This is the pattern in e.g. the Gaza genocide.
Well of course, claiming a country is a dictatorship or not has absolutely nothing to do with it being a dictatorship or not. It's all about trade and military considerations.
> Claiming a country is a dictatorship or not has absolutely nothing to do with it being a dictatorship or not
I don’t understand where you are going with this. Words have meanings and accusations have weight. When enough people claim that thing quacking, and swimming over there is a duck, it does weigh in on the consensus that it is indeed a duck. Especially when duck experts start pretty much all agreeing that it is indeed a duck.
Now this hasn’t happened, but what Trump has described and promised is pretty much a dictatorship. What I’m doing here is predicting that if and when the USA conduct dictatorial behavior on a regular basis, including stripping away equal rights, we should all be prepared for denialism to proliferate.
First signs of a dictatorships will be human rights violations and the stripping of equal rights among Americans, my guess is that will start pretty soon after he takes office in January.
My guess is also that a large number of people (including foreign governments; particularly in Europe) will simply deny the dictatorial behavior of the USA government, no matter how obvious (similar to climate deniers). Even if there won’t be an election in 4 years, denialism will still prevail. This is the pattern in e.g. the Gaza genocide.