Octavia Butler wrote Parable of the Sower in 1993. In many ways she was a prophet in describing a profoundly prescient future. The book took place in the mid-2020's. There is a powerful passage that in my view, captures something about the 2024 election. Emphasis is mine.
People are setting more fires to cover crimes although why they would bother these days, I don't know. The police are no threat to criminals. People are setting fires to do what our arsonist did last night ā- to get the neighbors of the arson victim to leave their own homes unguarded. People are setting fires to get rid of whomever they dislike from personal enemies to anyone who looks or sounds foreign or racially different. People are setting fires because they're frustrated, angry, hopeless. They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it. - page 143
Some people just want to watch the world burn. Trump created a permission structure to easily blame immigrants, trans people, and liberals for their plight. He plainly and repeatedly said he exact revenge and retribution upon everyone who doesn't support him. "They have the power to make others even more miserable," is one hell of a way to describe it.
As an aside, Octavia Butler was raised in and buried in Altadena, CA in a cemetery surrounded by blocks of burnt out rubble. The fire in Altadena and Los Angelos is the largest in LA's history.
Her book takes place in Altadena, CA. There are many references of people overtaken by a fictional drug that makes them set fire to things for the high of it.
It's quite a coincidence I picked up this book at the right time. I didn't know I needed it until I did.