Thread by @mhbx

And so it is. So it is.

And true to the nature of despotic intentions and regimes, violence and suffering are tools, not issues to be understood, worked on, solved & resolved.
No. That is too much work.
It requires caring & ability & the wisdom to actually understand a problem.

https://twitter.com/essenviews/status/1300359419801137152

Better and easier just to unleash underlying rages & outrages, stoke them into flames, and start moving the pieces around, keeping the fires burning, making a promise that "Only I can fix this", having been primary cause for the conflagration.

This is #ShockDoctrine in action.

The ancient question presents itself.

Whom do you serve?

At every level, institution, individual, office holder...this question will be answered, willing to or not.

These are times that assay the soul.

The answer we come up with is the framework of all that comes next.

There are other questions, that will expose who we are as a nation. Others that reveal who we are in the company of nations, the world; our relationship to life - all of life, including our grandchildren, and beyond.

We have all the lessons of history to show the patterns of

how the choices made at junctures like this work out.

Whatever else is true, will not be able to plaintively cry, as cowards & sycophants who know better, but still think they can get away w just this last act of beneficial subterfuge,
"Who could have possibly have known?"

The wounded, pathetic excuse of the GW Bush administration and the mayhem the choices of that era unleashed upon the country and world.

Here we are again, at a new crossroads. The choices then framing the conditions we are dealing with now. As the choices we make now will

conscribe the conditions & facts of our future.

Already there are little slips of whimpers from those whose sacred oath of office to protect the country has been so rudely ignored for reasons still occult.
Rubio, Graham, Collins, even McConnell are puffing out wisps of concern.

And it is way too little, far too late. And they will not save themselves by trying to claim that, "Well, I did express concerns you know".

The question "Who do you serve?" will be asked in different ways. Including "Why did you serve that?".

[And let's not forget the S.Court]

And that will start the wailing. "I didn’t know." or "What else could I have done?", or "Who could have possibly have known?" or "I did the best I could".

And all of it will be worthless as the country dives into the conflagration.

The historical patterns & lessons are there to be learned. We have our Cassandras, as every age does. The list is long, @TimothyDSnyder @anneapplebaum @Amy_Siskind @ChrisAlbertoLaw @maddow @lawfarepodcast @SteveSchmidtSES come quickly to mind. Many more of course...

What we are facing is not new. Like our mismanaged COVID crisis, it is new...it is old. And like that crisis, we know what to do, but seem paralyzed to actually do it.
Not because the citizens are unwilling, as a group, but for the self indulgent, self serving,

remarkably self interested "leadership" who is making it difficult to do it.

Back to the top of the argument. And so as in COVID, so the unleashing of chaos & violence, and the unmentioned third crisis of the economy.... All of it conspires to create uncertainty, fear & anxiety

in the citizenry. The essential condition necessary for a lout , & such a remarkably unqualified person as Trump, to assert his unique sociopathic qualities & promise (but never deliver) to be the one "who can fix it".

It is the lawless use of lawlessness to unleash forces

on the law-abiding to disturb the world, for the sole purpose of getting & holding onto power.
A perturbed citizenry is a malleable one. Eventually, the cry will be: "just fix it. stop the madness"... And, the cost will be forgotten in the stress of the moment...

And the costs will be high.

And just as Kelly Anne says, they will have unleashed the dogs and wait for the people to offer anything for them to call them off.
"...this will show them who the law and order people are".

Yeah.
The patterns of history are being replayed. This is not new. But it is consequential.

"Who could have possibly have known?"
Each of us, at the level we live and serve in our society.

"Whom do you serve?"...
That is the question that is on the table.

We have Donald Trump's answer. We have the answer of those who enable him. We have the answer of those who respond to his calls for violence. And those who find comfort, familiarity, and even benefit from his xenophobic, dreadful, dystopic, racist world view.

Soon, from a national POV, we will have the answer of the nation as a whole.

Lincoln spoke about a house divided in his time. We are as divided in our own time. As choices were made then were fraught with meaning & consequence, so the choices we are grappling with will as well.