Will we even notice when democracy is gone? [View all]

Will we even notice when democracy is gone?
Normal life continues for most of us, most of the time — but everything we took for granted is slipping away

By Mike Lofgren
Contributing Writer
Published September 1, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) We’d better start by stating that the metaphor involving boiling a frog by gradually increasing the temperature of the water is a myth. That the story is so widespread shows its appeal as a means of illustrating the inability or unwillingness of people to react to a threat if it is sufficiently concealed or slow-moving.

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Unless you had the bad fortune to be a federal government employee, the texture of your lived experience probably hasn’t changed much in the last several months. Companies have mostly tried to “hold the line” with price increases related to Donald Trump’s tariff policies, but businesses are not philanthropic enterprises and will raise them sooner rather than later.

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If you pay attention to the details, America is rapidly transforming from a service state — one that provides education, health care, infrastructure and parks to its citizens — into a carceral state that punishes and imprisons them.

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Looking further ahead, what happens when not only vaccines and medicines are no longer available (biomedical research has been slashed across the board) but the supply of physicians begins to dwindle as prospective medical students from other countries are prevented from studying here and taking up practices? The same may happen with nurses and other hospital staff (a large proportion come from countries like the Philippines) or attendants in nursing facilities. That, apparently, is how we make America healthy again. Trump’s GOP underlings are also conspiring to destroy health care at the state level as well. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/01/will-we-even-notice-when-democracy-is-gone/