"...While life in Rome, with gladiator battles, crucifixions and endless war was violent, for centuries Romans took pride in their republican system and political violence was taboo...
...Despite periods where the U.S. political system and established political norms have been tested and stretched—the McCarthy hearings, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iraq War—partisan violence or attempts to subvert the system have been rare. But recent events, like changes to filibuster rules and other procedures in Congress as well as increasingly heated political rhetoric give Watts pause...
...“No republic is eternal,” Watts writes. “It lives only as long as its citizens want it. And, in both the 21stcentury A.D. and the first century B.C., when a republic fails to work as intended, its citizens are capable of choosing the stability of autocratic rule over the chaos of a broken republic."
And there it is. Enough Americans, however they have come to it, believe that the Republic not longer works. Jobs to China. Lack of employment. "Socialism" is destroying the country. Mexicans are taking jobs and importing violence. Putin is really a friend. "They" are coming to take your guns away. Vaccines against CV19 make you magnetic. "They" are putting micro-chips in CV19 vaccines to control you.
Choose one insane lie or choose all of them.
It seems to boil down to the same thing. Just enough people want the apparent stability of autocratic rule to actively vote it into power.
In the USA last election cycle just three million people tipped the balance away from continued autocratic rule. Yet the model for this kind of rule is now in place. Who will exploit that to their advantage?
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