If you're looking for a glimpse into our very possible future, look no further than Mother Russia. Because so much depends on a cult of personality, a common feature of any authoritarian state is that The Leader himself feels compelled to perform public displays of strength and virility to reassure the public he's the man for the job. Think Mao swimming the Yangtze, or Kim Jong-il nailing the greatest rookie round of golf known to man. For the record, Kim shot a 38-under-par 34, including five holes-in-one, on his maiden voyage.

Hey, speaking of golf, our own Leader is a 20-time club champion—if you take his word for it. One of those victories, according to sportswriter Rick Reilly, involved Donald Trump getting his caddy to gaslight an 11-year-old child in order to steal the kid's ball after his own shot went straight in the drink. The President of the United States then made the putt and crowned himself champion.

Anyway, if you're looking for what's coming if we continue on our current merry way, take a look at Vladimir Putin's Russia. The president over there is a bona fide autocrat with all the trappings: his political opponents and journalists sometimes end up dead, he may or may not have the world's largest fortune via supreme kleptocratic skill, and he's a dominant ice-hockey player—or at least it appears that way. Every year, Putin and some of his cronies participate in an exhibition hockey match with some former professional players, and the big man always ends up as MVP. Last year, The Guardian described it as a "slump" when Putin merely scored five of his team's twelve goals. Here's what that looks like.

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Wow, everyone's just thrilled to be there in the crowd. And what a defensive performance from the opposition. They were just lining up to lay a hit on ol' Vlad. I mean, you do have to spare a thought for these guys: what if you lose your footing and slide into Mr. President and do a number on his ACL? Safe to say it'd probably be your last hockey game on this plane of existence.

In the Year of Our Lord 2019, the chief stepped things up: Putin dropped eight goals on the opposition and was having a grand old time until...this.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin took a fall as he waved to the crowd during an ice-hockey game in Sochi. He scored eight goals during the exhibition match in what has become a yearly tradition. https://t.co/x0mN62qQoY pic.twitter.com/l6XCRrwsIB — ABC News (@ABC) May 10, 2019

You hate to see that. Nothing like a tumble to take some air out of your balloon. Putin will have to arrange a shirtless horseback ride for this weekend, or maybe a scuba-diving mission that miraculously ends with his finding an ancient Greek urn. That'll get things back on track.

It's all a lovely glimpse into what may well lie ahead for this country, though: some Sunday in the summer of 2024, the whole family will gather 'round the television to watch Donald Trump, American president, dominate the PGA pro-am with partner Tiger Woods, as NBC cuts to a commercial every time the president has a howler off the tee. When coverage returns to the course, Trump will be lining up his shot from smack dab in the middle of the fairway. Another victory in the works for our fearless leader.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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