Will the 248 year old experiment fail?

 

Mar 1, 2025 (40/1461)

Annnnd over here in the quickly faltering US of A, the majority of us are still reeling from yesterday’s debacle. And shocker of shockers – European leaders leapt to support Zelensky. Over here! Over here! Me too me too.

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the American people and leadership and voiced hope for “strong relations,” a day after an astonishing Oval Office blowout with U.S. President Donald Trump that left many uncertain where the once staunch allies stood.

Zelenskyy on Saturday arrived in London ahead of a summit on Sunday organized by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with other European leaders.

The summit will also include leaders from France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Czechia and Romania, as well as the NATO secretary-general and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council.”

I said it before and I’ll restate. Never underestimate the power of small nations backed into a corner. They can all see the writing on the wall. TOM’s allegiance to the Great Red Gangster will come before anything he will do for Europe. That is now crystal clear. And they are not going to sit by and wait to be equally abased like Zelensky. Who, by the way, has remained incredibly courteous and diplomatic even in the aftermath of the unconscionable behavior exhibited by those who should not be leading a flock of geese let alone a country.

Now I veer back to It Can’t Happen Here. The dismantling of democracy seen in that book is playing out even more quickly than it did in fictional 1936. In TOM V1.0 I said that maybe the 240+ year old experiment was finally going to fail. Then we had a moment of adults in the room and reality came back into focus in 2020. But now in 2025, I am more fearful than ever that our experiment is about to fail. I can’t project what the other side looks like and I don’t really care to. And I have been sadly proven correct in my assessment by those with far more knowledge of our system than I.

“Those who monitor democracy across the globe had warned that a second Trump term could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy. His opening weeks in office have done nothing to dispel those concerns. ‘Trump is using the classic elected authoritarian playbook,’ said Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College, who joined more than 800 other political scientists in signing a letter warning that Trump is undermining the rule of law and the basic constitutional principle of checks and balances. ‘It’s almost embarrassing how crude it is.’”

800 political scientists put their names on a document that said, “This dude is bad. He is going to destroy what others fought and died for in 1776.” Is anyone going to listen to that? Pay heed to the knock of the Grim Reaper of Democracy at the door? Because if no one does, the story that will be written about how the United States died will be a world’s best seller for ever and eternity.