When Facebook Becomes Blogging

Even after all this, we're still in denial about the extent of the rot. If, as this poll says, 8 in 10 Trump supporters are contesting the election's legitimacy, then that's not a statistic over which you can re-establish any kind of legitimacy. There's no lowering the temperature anymore. Democracy depends upon the consent of the governed, and if you don't have it, you're either in a dictatorship or you're at war, because there is no fighting against authoritarianism without authoritarian means, there is no fighting a war without fighting a war. Whether or not you personally hate Republicans or don't want to talk to them, it doesn't matter now, this is so much more important than personal grudges. Republicans are the enemy. Period. It may be an unfortunate development, but Republicans would be the first to tell you: war is war, and when you're at war, you give no quarter. So no matter whether Biden says or even believes otherwise, war means the age of demonization is only just beginning, and you never treat the enemy by half-measures. If they fight this dirty, we now have to too. Whatever country you thought you were in, whatever norms you thought we could re-establish, that's all over. All options are on the table because the other side has put all options on the table for more than five years. Really and truly at this point, the future depends on Democratic leaders who are willing to exercise extraordinary, authoritarian, wartime emergency powers of the type that Lincoln and FDR did: if we get the White House, then there may be no choice at certain points but to rule by executive order, countermand the Supreme Court, arrest certain members of congress, and occasionally impose martial law and suspend writ of habeas corpus, warrantless wire tapping and rendition without trial. The truth still is that Republicans were always right that some of that is always justified in the name of preventing terrorism, but now, Republicans are the potential terrorists: there are 300 million guns that can be used on any streetcorner with just a simple squeeze of a trigger. So unfortunately, we have to suspect them as terrorists without any compunction or regret, and still, as Lincoln and FDR did, use all these powers with the end goal of putting democracy back in place. Because all this is exactly what Trump and Republicans would do if they felt compelled to. When we were still in the Obama era and there was at least some small chance of reconciliation, I was against anything even remotely resembling this, because the price tag of what any of this means is so unbelievably steep, but Trump even attempting to take the Presidency with clear illegitimacy, that's the redline from which you can't come back. You can't treat this as a joke or kindergarten taunts, because even if it's meant that way (and I doubt it), the precedent is so incredibly tactile for whomever comes next. So all that worry about caution and prudence is over now. War is war, and if Trump manages to hold on to power, well then..... ....... ...... .....

....I'm also going through a really bad breakup right now so maybe I'm displacing the chaos of my life onto politics.....