In forty five days, the 45th President’s administration will end. It’s been a terrible, horrible ride for most of America and the world. Some in his inner circle have been enriched. Some in his orbit have been empowered. Federal departments have been tested. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens are dead and many, many more impacted by a pandemic ignored – nay, denied. Globally, actors who resented limelight from America’s prior righteous defense of western liberal democracy have thrived in the shadows cast by this administration’s neglect and corruption. Actors who relied on our vigorous -if sometimes convoluted- support have wondered why we left them suddenly. Many have had to find and form new alliances, and it will be one of the open questions whether and when they will welcome us back. Domestically, our government very nearly did not prevail in the face of this assault. Our states are in various stages of determination and dismay. Our federal legislature has been sabotaged by pure power seekers who threaten to drown out the still stalwart voices of those trying to govern with collaboration and compromise. Our justice system has saved our bacon, although we also face an uncertain judicial future with ideologues placed strategically in key and disturbing places. Defenders of so-called executive power have now slammed the pendulum so very far toward alleging that a president is able to do whatever they feel like, that at this culmination of their efforts we may well finally see our too recalcitrant lawmakers finally reign in the power of the executive, finally assert that we do not have, nor desire, a monarch. How did we get here?

A strange political road meanders from perceived insults on executive power in earlier administrations, to the assertion of near tyrannical authority this occupant of the White House has evinced and advocated. The party he joined so late and has so irrevocably tarnished walked right into his toxic web, willingly. Ironically, this adamant surge of authoritarian narcissism may yet lead to legislative curtailment back well past the lines these madmen thought already so chafing. In Nixon’s day, young Rumsfeld and young Cheney witnessed their heroes get pushed around and pushed out by those whose pesky adherence to the law blinded them to the charms and possibilities of pushing the power of the presidency. This slap-back seems to have stung. Reagan’s administration too, asserted power beyond what precedent offered them. They used their charismatic [sic] figurehead to cultivate the art of “because I said so” over rational political argument. Repetition breeds compliance, they hoped and proved. Defining far too much of the world as zero sum when it is not, they created losers and presided over a creed of self aggrandizing power as a stronger clarion call than democratic ideals, fiscal logic, or mutual benefit. Salesmanship won out over reason. Not for the first time in our history, or anyone else’s, those already winning won more. Those already losing lost more. We lost our foothold in the dream of our politics being a battle of ideas. Gingrich solidified this movement toward aggression in place of finesse, toward blatant hypocrisy as a badge of honor rather than a source of shame. Those paying attention were either reviled or entranced. Those not paying attention wouldn’t have believed it if you told them what was happening. They still don’t. Bush I, and then especially Bush II, were emblematic of dynastic entitlement and the latter enabled politicos still licking their wounds from prior slaps to wield unitary executive theory like a weapon. Those within the circle felt their power should not be questioned. Those aspiring to join the circle felt if only they could please the right people, they too could drink from the golden chalice. If a few rules had to be bent, so be it. Wink, wink. The Kochs fueled the pipeline for our amoral descent as a body politic, by nurturing astroturf indignities among those who never would approach the trough. Yet, these aggrieved middle Americans were ripe for being aroused. Through to the present day, they have been fed nationalism and white supremacy and misogyny and a myriad of malignant -isms. Outrage of those who fancy themselves displaced provides oxygen for the fires that burn in the hearts of those seeking pure power.

Justice and democracy are not zero sum propositions. It is nonetheless true that if I and my kind have grown used to experiencing a privilege that puts us in front of you in any line, then I’m bound to feel I’m losing something when it is proposed that we have to stand next to each other now. People who’ve never experienced consequences for inappropriate or bad behavior, feel hemmed in and persecuted when they cannot get away with anything they wish anymore. People who’ve never been able to get ahead, feel ready and relieved when presented with an “other” who can be blamed for the inertia they’re experiencing. Selling the disenfranchised on aggrievement brings these groups together, creating an almost endless stream of jobs for liars willing to lie as well as hardening the hearts of those who find themselves finally feeling heard and understood. Ironically they are being used now, as meanly, coldly, and wantonly as any mine owner or plant manager ever did.

It’s been hideously diabolical timing. The chafing and muttering of gnarled political insiders yearning for days when a boss could be a boss, dammit. Naïve adherents willing to believe the Kool Aid is a pablum that will gain them entry without costing them their souls. The consolidation of wealth in ways that solidify resistance because now more than ever there is an awful lot to lose from redistributive initiatives, and every day the risk grows greater because their reward -with or without merit- grows greater too. Aspiration in America has consistently made poor and middle class citizens vote against their own self interest, just in case their ship comes in tomorrow. A perfect storm for the Blacklash of angry whites coming out to say no, this is really too much, when a Black man is elected to serve as our American President for two administrations with competence and insight and without scandal. Then there’s MeToo and TimesUp. Followed by a rainbow coalition finally insisting that Black Lives Matter. There must be some terrible reckoning coming, some threat being posed, by all these people of color and women and people who don’t look like me or pray like me or love like me somehow making decisions. Ironically, the same shifts that empower children who’ve rarely seen themselves reflected in the corridors of power have also activated adults who fear change. Fear is a remarkable motivator. Coming full circle, it may be fear of how close we’ve come to losing our precious institutions of democracy that activates a long-passive electorate to speak up and participate again. In this new turning we place great hope.