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What’s the Opposite of a Jan 6th Extraordinary Rebuke?
Where the Fire Started
The issue of the Trump report released by Jack Smith shows an extraordinary failure of democracy and leadership. It is not a small matter, not even a central issue to America, but central to all of democracy ever. That is not an exaggeration. We have just reached the point where we have failed as a democracy. We know the essential principle, the line between democracy and autocracy, is openly crossed.
No more significant issue stands before us today. Pretending and telling everyone you’re a democracy while showing the world you are not is a meaningful distinction from not telling and not showing at all. The world knows we occupy most countries with our military bases, over 800. Still, the Global North countries disregard this massive global occupation and the most enormous single-country military build-up ever in human history, bar none, as long as it gets protection, free passage of their goods, and benefits. The illusion of acting like a democracy can be inspirational. When that illusion is gone, no inspiration exists; only what remains is how leaders, or the leaders of a state, act and the intent they act under. In other words, the state is at the mercy of its leader’s “benevolence” — or whims. This will again be Trump.
