For nearly twenty-five years, we have allowed the institutions of democracy to wither. Congress has moved from a…

For nearly twenty-five years, we have allowed the institutions of democracy to wither. Congress has moved from a ruling body to a mere extension or opponent of the President; the rule of law, from the obedience of the President to any law he didn’t like to civilian control of the military, has been enforced only by the continued goodwill of presidents.

Now our sins have come home to roost; having transformed the Presidency into a dictatorship for anyone who wanted it, we have elected a man who takes pride in ignoring custom and morality, and who instead cares for nothing but his self-aggrandizement and his pocketbook.

American Democracy has, in a deep sense, ended. Not forever: but when it is restored, it will be changed from the forms we grew up with, likely with far more safeguards, checks and balances. Our political circumstances will be changed as well; the age of America as an unquestionable world leader is almost certainly over. While much of this change is needed and healthy, it will come at tremendous human cost, a cost which we need never have paid.

Or phrased another way: I have been warning you motherfuckers for years now, and you kept assuming everything would be okay. It is not, and we’re now all the way in the chute; I’ve got no Plans B, C, or D left, there is no way we are getting out of this situation except the maximally hard way. There is no Impeachment Fairy or Magic Wall or whatever the hell else you’re dreaming of that’s going to make these problems go away; if you want to know what happens when democracy gently segues into authoritarianism, you’re in it right now. The frog has been slowly and steadily boiled and we now think that of course you should be calm and humble around police, they’d be perfectly justified in killing to protect themselves, and of course you can’t really enforce ethics rules against an elected official, they’re elected, and worrying about him and his family personally enriching themselves is really secondary anyway, did you see his last tweet?

We are now firmly and irreversibly in the shit, and it’s only getting deeper from here. You want out? Get a shovel. 

View at Medium.com