America's Second Civil War Has Begun

I find myself doing my best to take in the events of the past few days, and I am at the brink of total despair when I think about the future of this country.  Maybe I shouldn't say "this country."  Maybe I should say what's left of this country.

And I am simultaneously haunted by Donald Trump's words from 2016 about how, when he was President, there would be so much "winning" that we simply couldn't stand it.

He was right about that much.  I can't stand it, and I don't think the vast majority of Americans can stand it, either.  If the following isn't perfectly clear by now, you are either working overtime not to pay attention, or you are so deeply in the tank for Trump that not even death could persuade you:  "winning," for Trump and his most devoted followers, means a full-scale racial civil war, one designed to upend the entire constitutional order of the past 200-plus years and replace it with a power structure based solely on white supremacy.

We have, almost from the moment of Barack Obama'a election, seen an acceleration of this trend, one that has been slowly on track under the media radar for decades.  White men armed to the teeth  Assault-rifle mass shootings in the most innocent of settings, even elemenatry schools.  "Stand-your-ground" laws that have no purpose except to facilitate the targeting and shooting of young men of color.  White people, women in particular, patrolling neighborhoods ready to make "citizen's arrests" of delivery drivers and movers who are guilty only of being black.  And the escalation of police assaults on suspects of color that has gone hand-in hand with the over-militarization of local police forces in the post-9/11 era.

But, in the Trump years, this acceleration has reached a climax, especially in recent months and days.

Breonna Taylor.

Amy Cooper.

The horrific murder-by-cop-knee of George Floyd, and the subsequent violence unleashed by the police against peaceful protests of that murder.

Assaults by the police that not only did not spare the media, but actually targeted them.

And outside agitators, mostly white and conservative, determined to upend the protests for their own purposes.  In the short run, to spread violence and fear.  In the long run, to lay the foundation for martial law and an open dictatorship of white men.

If you think that Trump and his more deep-pocketed supporters aren't behind this, you haven't been paying attention.

We all need to start paying attention now.  It may not be long before we need to do a lot more than that if we want to save our democracy.