In January, I made a post on all my social media platforms questioning how any POTUS can rule by decree. I wondered aloud about an unelected billionaire getting so much power. Where is the legislature, I asked? What about the judiciary? Civil society? And will the armed forces listen to him if he’s giving them what constitutes illegal orders? I was shocked at what was happening to the world’s foremost defender of democracy in its own home.
I remember the response. Mockery, laughter, telling me how I don’t understand the American democratic institutions, how deeply ingrained and enshrined freedom and democracy are in the American psyche, and how nobody can just ‘take over’. I was also booed, being compared to a conspiracy theorist, and told to, if I remember correctly, ‘calm my tits’.
As I watch the mayhem and chaos that the USA has descended into, I want you to do your best imitation of John Oliver when you visualise me uttering the next word: “Cool”
P.S.: Democracy cannot be taken for granted. Nothing is unbreakable. As Douglas Adams famously said, “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” Don’t let hubris get to you. And most certainly, don’t mock the fucking canary as it gasps for its last breath in the mine you are working. That might be the last time you laugh.
