We did it!

 

Now is no time for fall modesty.

The body is still warm, yet the pundit-sphere is already vomiting smug post-mortems, laying out how everything would have been just dandy if Kamala had had only followed their advice and done this.  Or hadn't had done that.  Or, from the Joe-Bros, how if we had just let a doddering, visibly declining President run the course, triumph was inevitable, and are you happy now?

The second-guessing virus runs rampant, but the simple, inescapable fact is this:

We did this.  As the American body politic, we did this.

We had a choice between 

... an imperfect but reasoned person with a long record of public service and rationality ...

... and a deranged, exhausted 78-year old in clear cognitive decline who is a convicted sex felon, friend of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, perpetual business fraudster, serial liar, racist, insurrectionist, Russian asset, violence inciting wannabe authoritarian dictator - and those are his kinder points.

... and We, the People, said:

"That's our Hitler!!!"

Donald Trump spouts nonsense as freely as Buckingham Fountain spouts water.  He hatches paranoid revenge plots with as much fecundity as superchicken does eggs. Much of it expires as soon it escapes his lips and meets the air.  The remainder become the deepest of obsessions.

Last time, he had a cadre of rational people around him who worked to deflect his worst insanities.  This time, he will have an infinity of sycophants and a band of ruthless opportunists for whom he's the enabler of their darkest stratagems.  Today, it's "All Quiet on the Western Front", but soon, and with a compliant Congress, it will all become clear.

As the United States, we've done a lot of stupid things in our history, but never have we sided so openly with a possible authoritarian end to our multi-century experiment in Democracy.And there's little certainly it won't snowball.  Before the election, billionaires like Bezos, Soon-Shiong and Dimon were already hedging their bets.  Now we'll see full-scale acquiescence.  Trump's victory has sent stocks soaring.  They're all wet-dreaming about untold new riches if they just keep their mouths shut and endlessly flatter the emperor with no clothes.  

If there's even an election in 2026, there's no certainty the usual off-year switch in party control will take place.  If things still don't look too bad, and there's enough seeming good news to spin on, the Republican majorities may only increase.  Consequences can still be hidden off in the future.  Remember, it took the Great Depression to pull back the American Public from an infatuation with unbridled Capitalism, and the attack on Pearl Harbor to pull it back from a very real flirtation with Naziism.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H.L. Mencken, 1916

Mencken saw America's experiment in Democracy less as noble than an ever-entertaining circus, featuring a "boobosie" worthy only of ridicule.  His cynicism is ever-relevant, but it's the take of someone who doesn't see himself as having any personal stake in the game.  But believe me, we do.

There has always been a lunatic fringe - not just mistaken about policy, but full-up tin-foil wackos.  They've now seduced a majority of us. The task is ignore the self-serving Wednesday-morning pundits (Oh, God, have we heard from Tom Friedman yet?) and work to figure out how to coax at least 10% of our fellow Americans back from the ledge, and keep Donald Trump from tearing down the Republic while we do it.

Until then, no joke, no kidding around, here's the deal ...

The "Enemy of the People" is us.