On the Reality of Now

Transcript.
We've made the mistake of turning tyranny into a history lesson. Fascism, authoritarianism, dictatorship. We've filed those words away in the past. We've made them hyperbole and wrapped them in grainy black and white photographs and dramatic classroom recitations. We've turned them into rhetorical warnings, shorthand for our fears rather than a description of our reality. And because of that, when the real thing arrived, we didn't recognize it. We expected jack boots on cobblestones and speeches from balconies, not golf carts on the White House lawn and press conferences staged like game shows.

But here we are. And tyranny isn't just at the doorstep. It's inside with its feet on the desk. It's redecorated the Oval Office with goldplated accents on everything. And the curtains have been changed to match the drapes at Mara Lago. Donald Trump federalized the Washington DC Metro Police and mobilized the National Guard. He invoked an emergency clause no president has ever used. And he says it's about public safety. Obviously, he says the city is lawless and only he can fix it. But the truth is that crime in DC is at a 30-year low. So, this isn't about safety. It's about precedent. It's about proving he can take control of a city, strip an elected mayor for authority, and install loyalists without firing a shot. It's about showing the country that local autonomy is now a privilege, one the president can revoke at any time. And they're calling it liberation day on right-wing television, on Fox and ON and Newsmax, all painting it as a rescue operation. Talk radio is giddy and MAGA influencers are linking it to immigration, fentanyl, and Antifa. They're stacking every boogeyman into one neat little package of fear.

But they never ask the obvious questions, like what happens when a future Democratic president decides their red city is lawless and needs federal intervention. They won't ask it because the moment they do, their whole premise collapses. You see, this only works if you believe you'll always be the one holding the sword. And that's the political entitlement of the MAGA herd. Force is fine if it's aimed at someone else. Authoritarianism isn't dangerous if it's your authoritarian. States rights are sacred until your state votes the wrong way. And they think they're immune. But power like this is never content with its first target. Authoritarianism survives by finding new enemies. The first wave might be the people you've been taught to hate. But once they're gone, the sword swings toward anyone who hesitates instead of saluting. Anyone who raises an eyebrow at the next absurd claim. Anyone who believes in something that challenges the authority at the top. And that's why this moment feels less like Russia and more like North Korea. You see, Russia's strongman politics run on kleptocracy and oligarchs. And while we have plenty of that here, Trump doesn't want that as a prize. The prize for him is worship. He doesn't just want to control the government. He wants to be the government. He wants the kind of engineered adoration that Kim Jong-un commands. It's why he bristles when the applause aren't loud enough. why his rallies feel like church without scripture. Why loyalty is measured in public displays of devotion. And when he lies so brazantly and absurdly, it's not always to convince a skeptic. Sometimes it's just to test the faithful.

The revised job numbers he demanded aren't so different from Kim Sun's 18 holes in one. The point isn't whether you believe in it. The point is whether you'll repeat it with a straight face. Because once you do that, you've severed your connection to reality and you've tied yourself to him. The oligarchs get their billions and the leader gets his godhood. And the horrifying part is that none of this is new. It's just the next move in a playbook that's as old as Empire itself. Declare an emergency, pick your villain, strip local authority, flood the streets with loyal enforcers, and make their presence normal until no one remembers life without them. Then you go find a new enemy and another and another and another until the enemy is you. The reason so many refuse to see it isn't because the signs aren't there. It's because the signs don't look exactly like the history book said they would. Because the uniforms are different or the propaganda comes in high definition because the speeches are crass instead of grand. But the core of it still the same. There's one man above the law, surrounded by loyalists, pointing the machinery of the state at whoever he chooses. And you may feel safe now because you're not in his crosshairs. You may cheer because a sword is aimed at people you think have ruined the country.

But history never stops teaching the same goddamn lesson. Once you hand a man that kind of power, the target always changes. It moves from the outsider to the denter to the doubter to anyone who fails to kneel quickly enough. And when it moves to you, there will be no one left to stand beside you. The neighbor you laughed at, the journalist you mocked, the protester you called a traitor, they'll be gone. And calling for limits to power isn't weakness. It's the very idea of America. It's what the founders risk their lives for. So if you wave that flag and say you respect it, you have a duty to defend it against anyone who crosses that line. Whether you love that man or not, Donald Trump has crossed it. So wave that flag in Tater Dick's face and remind him that America has never needed a monarch, never needed a centralized strongman to tell us who we are. And that shouldn't start now. Because freedom is not about who holds a sword. It's about whether the sword should be raised at all. And if we don't stop it now together, then no hat or flag or chant will save you when the day comes that your loyalty is no longer enough. Define still there.