We're an optimistic country. We tough things out. We look on the sunny side. So when a seemingly mindless but entertaining dolt comes forth and says vote for me, we vote and prepare to be entertained. The excrescence who is the Governor of Maine is a case study. George Wallace and Huey Long were not far removed.

But if you were writing a novel about the destruction of democracy and therefore of the USA you would go no further than the current occupant of the White House.

Whirlwind deconstruction Bannon-Trump style

Here's my "I dare you" trump test.

There's Kelly, the new chief of staff. There's Steve Bannon, deconstructionist in chief. Bannon is intentionally provocative and a true believer, though at bottom cynical and nihilistic. If one of the two goes, which one? If Bannon my hopes for the survival of democracy rise. I would figure maybe we can get through four years of this and actually have an election in 2020. I forsee a Trump-Kelly clash very soon.

Failing the test

If Bannon is the victor, I would assume that the logic I have consistently attributed to Trump, Bannon and Pam Geller is secure. It is the worst of logics. It takes us down a road that crumbles great ideas and reduces things to the smallest and most venal of emotions. It sets ends according to exclusions and means according to cruelty and abuse.

The author of today;s NYT column embedded below has been a consistent warning voice. I think he is being quite mild. But even in a judicious mode, the warning is clear. We are on the slippery slope, and before we know what can happen, it will have happened. Read this.

Most of what Trump is doing is under the radar.

How many know that he has threatened local police authorities with a lack of federal funding if they do not join up with ICE? How many know ICE persecutes immigrants in the spirit of Trump's Muslim Ban and in defiance of the court decisions against just what he is doing? How many are aware that he can and will destroy Obamacare without any help from the second branch of government which he has openly mocked?

What is needed

It is not hard to Google a list of things Trump is doing in defiance of democracy.

The subject of this article is the question asked in the embed above -- do we have what it takes to stop Trump soon enough to keep from being overpowered?

A job for John Lewis

We need a nonviolent army that can rise above the histrionics of Donald Trump who will doubtless try to foment conflict between the cops he thinks he can control (and may well be able to) and untutored demonstrators who are not experienced and can be put into compromising situations. If resistance is the way forward, we need a John Lewis to guide it.