Literally and Seriously

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/opinion/trump-musk-cabinet-education.html

("When It Rains, It Pours")

For nearly a decade now we have been told to take Donald Trump seriously but not literally, or maybe it was literally but not seriously. I am not sure which. It was often hard to distinguish one from the other.

But no matter whether he intended the excesses of which he spoke or merely spoke of excesses no matter his intent, we took a measure of comfort in knowing the more lunatic the offering the less it was likely to transpire. No longer.

With Elon Musk talking in his ear, the Supreme Court giving him unfettered access to the darkest regions of his brain, Congress rolling over and playing dead on his appointments and the Republican party applauding even his most grotesque, obscene, ridiculous mandates and dictates, this nation is one strong breeze from becoming but a giant executive order.

It can no more be that we rely on a nod and a wink to semi-ignore the rants and the demands, the suggested cruelties and contemplated catastrophes.

For we, as a country, as a democracy, are now at Defcon One. Literally. Seriously.