If you’re feeling buoyed by the pile on of counter-Trumpian discourse of late, I fear you’re headed for bitter disappointment; the kind that really, really tears at the very fabric of your being after a brief, tantalizing brush with a moment’s hopefulness.  Too dark?  Well, then perhaps you shouldn’t read on.

The dismantling of the principles and promises of American democratic exceptionalism is not a work in progress. It is utter and complete.  We are as Civil War-divided as we were 160 years ago: 50% – All men are created equal/50% – All white, Christian men are created sort of somewhat equal.  Today’s Republican Party, and the nearly half of the country that believes their lives are better for it, has become a conscience-free cabal of corporate//racist puppets.  Nothing they stand for rings of equality or inclusiveness or freedom. They shamelessly disdain protecting the planet, our health and our welfare.  They espouse cherry-picked religious dogma over the most basic foundation of the Constitution and they are days away from assuring that their destructive, amoral agenda will be the Supreme Court-opinionated rule of lawlessness for generations to come. They are in lockstep with a psychotic man-child whose C- penmanship has already deconstructed much of the hard-fought battle for world peace and prosperity.

There is nothing new or surprising in Bob Woodward’s book.  The Op Ed, so what?  Those of us who give a fuck have not been confused or even the least bit bamboozled. The loss of the Congressional majority during Obama’s midterm marked the end of civility and purposeful governance. When Mitch McConnell announced, gleefully, after Obama’s 2008 election, that the main goal of the Republican Party was to, “thwart this President’s agenda at all cost”, American democracy went on life support.  Since January of 2017, there has been no indication of measurable brain function. If there’s a pendulum, even if it swings back in the direction of sanity, we are, for the foreseeable future, an unmendably fractured nation that has lost every semblance of its righteous leadership in an increasingly troubling world landscape.  And, if ‘pendulum theory’ does not apply or the pendulum has simply become ‘unhinged’, only a military coup will stop the runaway-train-disaster that is leading us toward totalitarianism…and, historically, that has never ended well either.

Obama’s eloquent and intellectually refreshing address at U of I may have results that could transcend mere preaching to the choir. Surely, that choir is large enough, if motivated to act, to rally the votes to wrestle away some of the Congressional choke hold.  But, I have little confidence that the corruption of our government, manipulated by a brilliant, evil spymaster who never conceded the loss of the Cold War, will ever allow a legitimate tally.  If the reality were not so terrifying, it would seem like we’ve stumbled into the improbable plot of a conspiratorial sci-fi future or that someone has put out an open audition call for extras in a remake of The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, and, sadly, Jonathan Winters is no longer here to come to our rescue.