26 November 2024 | An Exceptionally American Failure

We have to accept and live with the fact that the fundamentals of our vaunted democratic republic are gone. This country elected a felon and rapist for president who tried to overturn a fair and free election and got away with it. You cannot undo that basic failing. Like the people at the end of the Roman Republic, we are seeing the institutions there and cling to the notion of eppure si muove. No, sorry, that ain’t the case. Those people accepted the fiction that everything was the same and calling yourself “princeps” didn’t mean “king.”

This is an abysmal failure, the reality of which is being ignored. It’s a little like climate change: we keep acting as though there is still time to fix it, but the reality is, that battle is lost. We have lied ourselves into destruction.

But you know: people in dictatorships still go to sports games. To the theater, to concerts and nice restaurants. In short, we too, will believe the fiction that the mighty oak tree of American democracy is still standing, just ignore the sound of it being hollowed out.

Enjoy your fiction people, but it’s all that you’re left with at this point.