We have taken another step on the slippery slope in the journey from democracy to authoritarian rule.   We have seen the discredit of the free press, we have seen the efforts to shape the courts, we have seen and continue to experience the conspiracy theories borne out in the individual personality wrapped in paranoia that is beating back a supposed deep-state.  Furthermore, data and science and truth is lost to political context, everything is seen in the context of for or against.  Division is the state of the dis-union.  Now the next step, secret police.  Secret federal police, part of political theater.  In the context of “law and order”… neither is being achieved.  The law is broken, without accountability.  This is not policing, this is provocative theater, creating fear and division.   How can there be accountability when there are no name tags on paramilitary being deployed in the streets, completely unwelcome by the leaders of a community?  What do arrests mean, when there is no “lawful” authority established?   How can tear gassing mothers aligned to encourage peaceful protest and discourage violence be justified as a deescalation?  It is quite the opposite.   What about the video of a Navy Veteran being beaten and pepper sprayed because he asked to talk to the “secret police”, is this what we think democracy looks like?  Is this what we believe the right to assemble, and the right to free speech means?  And then who are these men in fatigues, with weapons and helmets that are part of this slide to authoritarian rule?

But let’s not mince words, because when combined with tolerance for neo-Nazi white-supremacist, it is clear that this slippery slope is really a backward slide toward fascism.

Beware the next steps: the intentional limitations on voting, the ratcheting of fear mongering, and then the final invalidation of democratic election results.
Wake-up America!