U.S.A. R.I.P.

 As far as I'm concerned the United States of America is dead, or it will be dead at high noon on January 20, 2025.  That 248 year long project that began with the bold declaration that all people are created equal and have certain unalienable rights as a birthright, that ended slavery in bloodshed, that expanded the franchise to labor, to women, to African Americans, and to other minorities, that expanded rights for citizens is now over.  A new country will begin in its place next year, an unfamiliar country that we've never lived in before, a country where people are always careful what they say in public and in print, where people report and betray neighbors, friends, and family.  We will have a new country with new and novel laws prohibiting "slander of the state," "insulting the army," and such like that.  People will be arrested and tried for blasphemy and maybe even apostasy in this new state.

I doubt I will live to see the resumption of that original project of expanding democracy.  Perhaps a future generation will take it up again.