And, unfortunately, violence never really ends. It's too politically useful to many leaders, and too satisfying to many followers. Martyrs are made, then avenged. Freedoms get traded for false promises of security. Etc.
One wonders what so-called conservatives think they are conserving when they happily surrender the Constitution. And for what? So damn little. The petty satisfaction of pissing off liberals, and pissing on the most vulnerable groups they can find — trans people, immigrants (including people seeking asylum,
sometimes because they helped the U.S. military!), and people with physical and mental disabilities (including homeless veterans). Although they enjoy taking easy potshots at most of the usual targets of discrimination, too.
I encourage all Americans to join an organization that is trying to preserve what rights and freedoms we still have,
and in particular to support the independence of the federal judicial branch. The League of Women Voters is my own organization of choice — I'm sure others here will chime in with other favorites. The LWV has prepared several documents about the federal judiciary, if non-lawyers would like to be more informed about the way things are supposed to work. If we're not sure what the norms are, we won't even know when those norms are upended. There are a lot of these summary documents, so I'll just highlight three of them:
Judge Shopping (a.k.a., why so many important cases are being heard lately in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' jurisdiction)
Increased Use of the Shadow Docket
Stare Decisis and Binding Precedent
More generally speaking, the confluence of so many different areas of chaos and crisis in such a short time is not accidental. It's designed to overwhelm potential objectors from organizing an effective defense to any of them. Don't get discouraged—yes, it's impossible to respond to everything, but just pick two or three topics you are particularly passionate about and try to make your efforts count there. Doing something, however small, in two or three areas is 200% or 300% better than doing nothing.