Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are not great examples as they happened in the context a wildly different America. 9/11 was almost a quarter century ago. In both cases the country was more unified and had less income inequality then it does now. Enough people were disgusted by Biden not moving the needle for them personally they ignored the first four years of Trump and voted in him again just so they could benefit themselves.

>If it came down to attrition, it would maybe be AI machine attrition or drone/missile attrition which is in a way a resource war which the US could win even without TSMC, but from where we're standing today it would take more ramping up which is a process that has already started.

I'd argue China adding 1/3 of the entire US electricity capacity in a single year and increasing along with their extreme battery overcapacity makes AI and drone production something that China will win. Like I said it remains to be seen how will the US military will hold up because they do have the Arizona TSMC facility running and that could be a buffer to help the US hold on but people will still feel the pain in massive inflation in all areas and thats where peoples selfishness will rear its ugly head. Why care about Taiwan when the population could just elect someone that will negotiate a short term win for the US (at the expense of a long term loss).

>If OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc were attacked by China in a more critical way, it would have to be for some major short term advantage that is capitalized on immediately, because long-term it would be a losing strategy by itself. China has systems to disrupt as well, so if they let loose on cyber then the US has options too.

So I have been in meetings for things like Franklin Project (https://defconfranklin.com/) which are among many great initiatives the people are doing to help the US prepare for an initial attack where China disrupts all the little mom and pop orgs scattered across the US in a first strike to disorient the homeland. Is it enough? I dont know, we will have to wait and see. I dont know what China is doing to prepare for a response. It seems like their AI initiatives are a pragmatic move (use low cost Ai implemented at various layers across the stack) I do worry that in the last few years its been revealed how little so many Americans take education and critical thinking seriously and that will directly translate into sloppy IT infrastructure around the country.

>Either way, don't conflate general economic preference around an election for whether people would tolerate being unable to access Gmail or order from Amazon like they would all rush to riot in the streets. I think that misreads the situation.

I think you misread my point: Americans would make themselves heard by electing someone who will deliver a quick relief for them at the cost of long term loss.