I have never laughed or been tempted to laugh at Donald Trump. He’s neither funny or ever seemed to me to be a laughing matter in any role of public influence (let alone public government). I will admit that when he announced his candidacy for 2016 that I doubted our country had devolved to the level of superficial demagoguery that he would be successful. Former President Trump is a petulant tyrant who has no abstract or philosophical concern for the ideals of representative democracy or the intent of the US Constitution or even decency. He will embrace a fascist state without reserve if it serves his personal ambitions.

It feels like a perfect storm. Trump channels enough Joseph Goebbels to be create a eerie pall (tell a lie often enough people will believe it, exploit new channels of communication, use provocation) and meanwhile we muddle through the last 8 months with the opposition in disarray because of ideological schisms, disarray of coherent alternative narrative and faltering execution. We, citizens, had best self-organize a effective ground game of historic proportions of pragmatic high voter turnout out for a democratic stable government to maintain enough ballast to steady the ship.