We live in an America that re-elected a man who led a conspiracy to overturn an election, one that began as a legal and media assault, and ended in violence. That’s not hyperbole. It’s the raw fact of our political present. And while pundits churn through weekly news cycles like it’s still a normal democracy, something foundational has cracked beneath the surface.
This isn’t just unprecedented in recent memory, but a giant rupture in the deeper arc of American history. The last time the Capitol was physically overrun was during the War of 1812, when a foreign power burned it down. In 2021, it was Americans, and at the behest of a sitting president. That isn’t just a scandal. That’s a regime crisis.
So when people ask me to react to the latest poll, the latest scandal, the latest ratings flop, I struggle. Because behind all that noise, a darker reality is brewing: we’re not arguing over who governs within the system, and we’re watching the system itself buckle under the weight of authoritarianism, disinformation, and elite impunity.
In other words, we’re not just in uncharted waters. We’re in a new ocean entirely.
