“He’s told us what he will do. It’s very easy to see the steps that he will take. People who say, ‘Well, if he’s elected, it’s not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances,’ don’t fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted. One of the things that we see happening today is a sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States. If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can’t do it by himself. He has to have collaborators. And the story of Mike Johnson is a story of, of a collaborator and of someone who knew then – and knows now – that what he’s doing and saying is wrong, but he’s willing to do it in an effort to please Donald Trump. And that’s what makes it dangerous.” – Former Rep. Liz Cheney, speaking to CBS News.
I am diametrically opposed to nearly everything she stands for in “normal” American politics but I agree with every fucking word she says here, and that’s why I still respect her as a politician despite a deep and fundamental disagreement on a huge number of issues: she genuinely still believes that small-d democracy really matters.
I just wish everyone would stop assuming “it’ll be fine”.
It wasn’t fine on January 30th, 1933; it won’t be fine if Trump manages to pull off a win.
It can happen here, and it will if we aren’t really fucking careful.