America does not learn from its mistakes, nor does it heal from trauma.

America is in the midst of a regressive revolution that the regressives have been planning for decades. And do not for a minute fool yourself, Piggy is the natural and logical end point of the conservative philosophy-seeking a higher moral justification for selfishness leads inevitably to a corrupt, nihilist fascist authoritarian state.

These people do not believe in liberal democracy. The concept of 1 man (or woman) 1 vote is anathema to their central beliefs.

They believe, in their core, that the human race is to be ruled by an elite class. That belief is simply the latest version of royalty or the nazi superman or southern slave culture or aristocracy or even many religious organizations.

They certainly do not believe that brown people or women hold the same value as a white male. These Untermensch are only valuable as chattel and certainly not deserving to hold power

Liberal democracy-the concept of equality, of one man (or woman) one vote, of a government OF the people, by the people and for the people, with its striving for equality and justice of protection of minorities, of a social safety net has built a strong foundation over the past 250 years strengthened by winning the Civil war, defeating fascism, economic growth, the miracles of medicine and food production, of technology allowing more and more people to experience freedom.

That foundation has been under attack for decades, but always the foundation held strong.

But that is no longer true

the regressives are winning

The regressives have a plan

The regressives have seized power

Make no mistake, Project 2025 is a blue print for some of this revolution, but it is certainly not the beginning or the end.

Its tendrils touch all manner of systems that have been the strength of our liberal democracy.

They have spent decades building a legal ecosystem of like-minded fanatics that are beginning to bear fruit with high court judges and justices who are fully bought in

They have created media empires; they are in the process of consolidating entertainment and news. they have higher education writ large under assault

All in a concerted effort to destroy representative democracy.

The surrender of the legislative branch is no accident, the SC making the President a king is no mistake, unitary executive theory is not fringe. these are the essence of the assault

The unwritten laws of shame and decency are either gone or being thrown out and they are using the system and its imperfections to seize control with the goal of permanent control

And this isn't a phenomenon limited to America, across Europe and Latin America right wing freaks, out right fascists are winning elections. Putin's war on Ukraine is setting up for a winter of disaster causing massive migration, further destabilizing the western democracies, combine that upheaval with the migration from the coming famines and look for even more rightwing backlash to "open borders"

I had always taken to heart King's quote about the arc of history bending towards justice.

I no longer see things that way. The world is fighting the same fight it has fought for millennia-bigoted tribalism and fascism vs freedom and liberal democracy. the fight between those who believe people are to be ruled and those who believe people should rule

That fight has been won for a long time by the rational, liberal, progressives but I fear that is coming to an end. The strength that liberal movement that underpinned those beliefs is under siege, from authoritarians, from economies designed to disempower the majority of people, of oligarchs and fascists, of nihilists exploiting the system.

There have been times when the regressives seems ascendent-pre civil war, early 20th century Europe but can we come together to fight them?

I am heartened by one thing, it is a theme from the TV Show Andor. When discussing the likelihood of the rebellion succeeding freedom has the advantage. Control, fascism essentially, is not a natural state, as such it must expend effort everywhere all at once, because freedom being natural is always striving to break out. that tension always advantages the natural

That gives me a sliver of hope

But, I am also a student of history and for freedom to rise from fascism usually takes violence (war) or massive economic pain (depression) or a massive disaster (famine on a global scale)

Times when fascism and oligarchy are seen as the luxury they are. People-the vast spectrum of people stand up and say no-whether it is royal heads rolling in the streets, Atlanta burning or European skies full of bombers. There is always a time when the 99% say enough is enough

I just hope I live long enough to see it

Since January 2021

America suffered a violent armed insurrection that tried to overthrow the government-an act that was ot punished in any meaningful way

The Supreme Court stripped women of an essential right

The Supreme Court decided that the President was above the law

The Country re-elected the man who tried to overthrow the government

The president has been systematically destroying the government, seizing all sorts of power and starting an illegal unjust war of aggression that will damage our national security for decades to come.

Massive corruption, massive illegality-all of which will be preemptively pardoned if and when Piggy leaves office

The DoJ being used as Piggy's personal attorneys

This is just a drop in the bucket of the damage that has been done to our democracy

No, I do not have any hope that this will be fixed

The accounting alone of all of the crimes will take years let alone developing ways to prevent them

But the real problem is that there is no way to legislate a solution. If a president acts shamelessly and his party abdicates responsibility there is no law that can be written

A nation cannot enforce every action through the courts. It simply cannot

If standards have to be adjudicated in a court of law then there are no standards.