At the same time, I think there is something to be said that the elite continue to make the same mistake they always have on almost every topic: They assume they are the only one who gets to make a move.

Because at the same time that they have been locking everything down and being despotic to try and force their own agenda, the US is actually undergoing pretty significant reshoring and reindustrialization. Mostly because while the ultra-massive multinationals (think Walmart, Apple, etc) try to stay in China, most of the smaller multinationals are coming back because they are fed up with shipping cost, and new industries area also starting up. A lot of it stuff that is actually important to modern society (rare-earth metals, semiconductors, etc).

And this is beyond anything with the Feds or the Elite. Its being done by local governments and other businessmen. Texas is poaching industry from other US states (especially California), Arizona is using its wide open spaces for drawing in factories that must be large scale by their nature, Alabama is building a shipyard in Mobile to compete with Newport News, and S. Carolina has actually been bringing in a ton of foreign investment for factories. And so far, all of these states have been more than willing to tell the Feds to get fucked if they complain.

So unless the Elite have a better plan, the US just might resist their attempts to kill it, yet again.