Why is politicologist Cas Mudde optimistic about America (even though he's not really that optimistic)?

Cas Mudde is a Dutch political scientist – or, as he prefers to call himself, a politicologist – one of the foremost scholars on the far right in Western democracies and a professor at the University of Georgia. After a few phone discussions, I finally met him in person at the GLOBSEC conference in Prague. We talked about Donald Trump's America, why he is optimistic about US democracy, though not really that optimistic, and also about what, if anything, politicians like Viktor Orbán, Robert Fico, Jarosław Kaczyński, and Andrej Babiš can actually change. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/amatisak