America Did This to Itself

Produced by ElevenLabs and Information Over Audio (NOA) utilizing AI narration.

This time, the nation was on discover. Again in 2016, these of us who supported Donald Trump at the least had the excuse of not realizing how sociopathy can current itself, and we at the least had the self-esteem of believing that the presidency was not only a man, however an establishment better than the person, with authorized and conventional mechanisms to verify he’d by no means go off the rails.

By 2020, after the chaos, the derangement, and the incompetence, we knew lots higher. And most different Individuals did too, voting him out of workplace that fall. And when his legal try and steal the election culminated within the violence of January 6, their judgment was vindicated.

So there was no excuse this yr. We knew all we wanted to know, even with out the mendacious raging about Ohioans consuming pets, the fantasizing about taking pictures journalists and arresting political opponents as “enemies of the folks,” even aside from the proof introduced in courts and the convictions in one which demonstrated his abject criminality.

We knew, and have recognized, for years. Each American knew, or ought to have recognized. The person elected president final night time is a wicked and brazen pathological liar, a shameless con man, a sociopathic legal, a person who has no ethical or social conscience, empathy, or regret. He has no respect for the Structure and legal guidelines he’ll swear to uphold, and on high of all that, he displays emotional and cognitive deficiencies that appear to be intensifying, and that may solely make his turpitude worse. He represents every thing we should always aspire to not be, and every thing we should always educate our kids to not emulate. The one hope is that he’s completely incompetent, and even that may be a double-edged sword, as a result of his incompetence usually can do as a lot as hurt as his malevolence. His authorities can be full of corrupt grifters, spiteful maniacs, and morally bankrupt sycophants, who will observe in his instance and carry his directives out, as a result of that’s who they’re and wish to be.

Tyler Austin Harper: Blame Biden

I say all of this not in anger, however in deep and profound sorrow. For hundreds of years, the USA has been a beacon of democracy and reasoned self-government, partially as a result of the Framers understood the risks of demagogues and noticed match to assemble a system with safeguards to maintain such males from undermining it, and since our folks and their leaders, out of respect for the widespread good and the folks of this nation, adhered to its guidelines and norms. The system was by no means good, however it inched towards its personal betterment, albeit in matches and begins. However in the long run, the system the Framers arrange—and certainly, all constitutional regimes, nevertheless properly designed—can not shield a free folks from themselves.

My very own hope and perception about what would transpire final night time was sadly and profoundly fallacious—like many, I’ve the emotional and mental flaw, if that’s what it’s, of assuming that persons are wiser and extra respectable than they really become. I really feel chastened—distraught—about my apparently naive view of human nature.

I dare not predict the long run once more, significantly because it involves elections and different types of mass habits. However I daresay I concern we will see a profound degradation within the skill of this nation to control itself rationally and pretty, with freedom and political equality underneath the rule of regulation. As a result of that isn’t really a prediction. It’s a logical deduction primarily based on the phrases and deeds of the president-elect, his enablers, and his supporters—and a protracted and sometimes sorry document of human historical past. Allow us to brace ourselves.