[Clive Watkins]

Dear Fellow Spherians

It is a great many years since I was a frequent poster at the Sphere, though I do occasionally offer comments. Of currently active members, I guess I must be among the “oldest”, having joined in May 2001.

So, I ask “Whither the USA?”

Clive

[Michael Cantor]

Double post - sorry.

[Michael Cantor]

I joined a few months after you, but it seems that our combined Sphere experience has nothing to do with the ego and self-destructive madness that Donald Trump has brought to the Presidency this time around. I wake up every morning afraid to check the news for fear of what that fool and his henchmen have done now. Congress should be fighting him, but the Republicans are in the majority in both houses, and they've turned into a pack of groveling cowards. Our only hope is the judiciary - where we may just squeeze by on a bunch of 5-4 votes as it all goes to the Supreme Court - but as of now Trump and his stooges are ignoring the courts. I'm very scared.

Parenthetically, I really think - as do many - that Trump is losing it mentally. He veers from one approach to another, cannot carry on a discussion that does not center around himself and his ego. The problem is that he has surrounded himself with like-minded fanatics, and at best it's going to be a long, tough slog to restore America.

[Max Goodman]

My only quibble with what Michael's written is that "a long, tough slog to restore America" strikes me as optimistic. The America we knew is unlikely to be restored--certainly in our lifetimes, if ever.

Allies won't trust us. This won't be the home of choice for immigrants who can choose. We may not have the abilities to make sure our elections are fair or that our laws are enforced. And what's left of our journalism infrastructure may be so successfully dismantled that we won't even know most of what is going on.

[Joe Crocker]

I have never been so depressed about the way the world is going. For most of my life I had thought things were, on the whole, getting better. Or, if there were still plenty of shit things going on, I was still hopeful that they could be cleaned up. Now I genuinely fear a looming darkness.

Trump is utterly obnoxious. I don’t see how it is possible to disagree with that charge. But the point is he just won an election where he won the popular vote and he is hugely popular with a majority of Americans. How did that happen? If the Western world is to get back on track then that question needs serious attention.

We can indulge our mutual loathing of the orange blimp or we can ask what it is he offered to the US voter that the Democrats didn’t. I suspect, in part, it was a gut reaction to the smug, self-satisfied liberal elites who have been doing quite nicely out the US economy, and have ignored the real concerns of working class citizens. The irony is that Democrats, rather than Republicans should have been the natural self-interested choice of this sector. Where are the Democrats now? Does Kamala Harris still exist?

[Jayne Osborn]

Sadly, it's more a case of "Wither the USA"! (see definition 2: fall into decay or decline)

Jayne

[Nick McRae]

The current edition of Foreign Affairs is worth a read to understand what Americans are in for. The following article can be found in it:

The Path to American Authoritarianism

Originally Posted by Joe Crocker

Trump is utterly obnoxious. I don’t see how it is possible to disagree with that charge. But the point is he just won an election where he won the popular vote and he is hugely popular with a majority of Americans. How did that happen? If the Western world is to get back on track then that question needs serious attention.

Fox News, the internet being awash in misinformation, inequality, economic anxiety. I'm with Jayne, the U.S. is on the decline and there isn't an easy way out.

What's even more interesting about the current moment is that the existence of NATO is now in question.

[Rick Mullin]

It's fairly obvious at this point that it will end in violence.

[Julie Steiner]

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.

[Rick Mullin]

I'm talking about an enormous, Jan. 6th-like armed uprising of MAGA yutzes, Julie. Something like a civil war following several years of vigilante stuff, with self-appointed "peace keepers" bending people's arms back and zip-tying their wrists for asking questions.