Beautifully crafted this democratic grand experiment. It depends for legitimacy and efficacy on the populace exercising the right to vote. Like balance in the media, the theory goes that the fringe elements will be held in check by the majority in the middle. Not in terms of politics, but in terms of those who agree that what is good for the country is by extension good for its people.

The people must agree that what is important is our system of laws, our system of government, and our agreement that the constitution is the foundation. Over time politics and power corrupted has altered the landscape through gerrymandering. Stacking the deck is an old Vegas tradition now run wild. And both parties are guilty of this. It’s not illegal, but it’s dirty. Much the way Trump ran his campaign and now the country.

Based on the sentiments running through our political and cultural dialogue currently, it is clear that America and American democracy is in decline. It is not a byproduct of rampant and uncontrolled immigration as Trump claims. It is the triumph of the fringe. There has always been an element of those unhappy and disenfranchised, always searching for a cause celeb to rally around to both embolden them and strengthen their resolve.

With the help of Trump, they have gained a platform and a legitimacy never before afforded them. More than white supremacy, more than evangelical intractability, it’s a coalescence of wing nuttery. The bogeyman has taken many forms: illegal, rampant, uncontrolled immigration; socialist Democrats; trade inequities, Obamacare, guns. But more than anything, they are convinced that nothing short of anarchy and a complete overthrow of government is not only justified, but a moral imperative. This from the fringe, spurned by conventional wisdom and prevailing mores and norms, bolstered by a maverick in the White House, by evangelicals with a different but no less destructive agenda, this fringe that has taken hold and will not relinquish this newfound power without vile and apocalyptic consequences.

Unless…we intervene. We rise up. We vote. And we never give up. And beware the steaming divots.