It can. But nothing I've seen makes me fear totalitarianism: authoritarianism, yes, but not totalitarianism. And both can end. Sometimes, as we've seen, almost overnight. We want to be ready if that happens.
Also, we--all of us--have something to say about what the future will be like. Sometimes it *feels* as if this is process so much bigger than us that none of us can stop it, but there's no reason to believe that. There's no law, like a law of physics, that says so.
Maybe this is a blip. Maybe we can be the country that shows the world, "Here's how you stop this--without civil war, without massive suffering, without going over the precipice." Why not? Why can't that be us?
