Transgender

Republicans have to deal with the barrier of most voters fucking hating them and cannot be suppressed without destabilising the US economy. They have had and will continue to have an extremely difficult time enacting their policies at lower levels of government and, while they talk a lot, they cannot actually occupy US cities openly without it all falling apart. There's also a good chance that if they try, it will weaken the illusion that the US could easily suppress violent resistance or liberation movements. They could only suppress Black Liberation militias with an incredible cost in resources and appropriation of their mutual aid strategies; that was not nearly as popular as anti-Republican sentiment is today.

Liberalism is successful exactly because it is good at appropriating the "positive" direction of society. Most Americans -- most people really -- have no clue what fascism actually is and the cartoonishly spectacular form American fascism has taken on so far conveniently occludes the more specific and popular values that fascists feed on. Liberals are already primed to accept a fascist government, that's why this was so easy to do.

Vance as an option would likely be more difficult to maintain than a Democratic party member who operates in the mutual interest of these groups, alienates liberal resistance from socialist or anarchist resistance, and enegerizes the Republican base through manufactured rage.

...While accelerating fascist oppression.