I don't have more sophisticated words for what just happened than that – and this:
All things will be made worse. Just like in 2016, except this time with more anger, more intention, less discretion, more open corruption, less oversight, fewer consequences – and more deaths and destruction. Damned near the full authority and power of the government, of American institutions, will be deployed to accomplish their ends – maybe only a thin Democratic majority in the House to gum up the works just a little bit.
The worst people will be in charge or protected. And anyone who pushes back will be removed and replaced with someone who won't – a four-year(-or-longer) Saturday Night Massacre.
Every time I think of some new aspect, my brain gives me a way in which it can/will be made horrific. Advances made will be rolled back, hope will be broken, as will people. 1930's-Germany-style governmental control will become the norm, as will the easing of punishments for those who act violently independent of government.
A lot of already-marginalized people are gonna be in real danger and our capacity to protect them, and to do good more broadly, has just about vanished.
This is not the saddest I’ve ever been, but it is the most defeated I’ve felt. It's much worse than 2004 – and for good (read: bad) reasons.
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And this:
[O]ne of the essences of hell [is] the unceasing potential for things to become worse than you fear. –> Charles Taylor
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And this (and yes, I see the irony):
*"Prediction"
*—Mikhail Lermontov, 1830
A year will come for Russia, a dark year
When Royalty no more his crown will wear,
The Rabble who loved him once will love forget,
For Blood and Death will richest feast be set;
The fallen law no more will shield the weak,
And maid and guiltless child in vain will seek
For justice. Plague will ride
Where stinking corpses fill the countryside,
And flapping rags from cottages demand
Help none can give, while Famine rules the land.
Dawn on thy streams will shed a crimson light;
That day will be revealed the Man of Might
Whom thou wilt know. And thou wilt understand
Wherefore a naked blade is in his hand.
Bitter will be thy lot; tears flood thine eyes,
And he will laugh at all thy tears and sighs.
終