It always amuses me when we hear "that's not who we are as a nation"

[Hortensis]

16. RW forces of evil, and I believe that's a valid decription, have been

working for over 5 decades to take over and undermine our institutions. They've been greatly empowered by the explosion in wealth and weaponization of the internet.

Though all through that time they were unable to stop the progression of that moral arc of a people empowered by democracy. Neither misuse of the electoral college nor of the filibuster have been enough to stop the majority from prevailing over the long term.

That's why the conservative white man's party has turned to weaponizing everything and everyone they can to smash our democracy -- before it and the continuing progression of equality inexorably destroy them. They saw the writing on the wall for them many years ago.

Meanwhile, Americans were busy going about their lives -- as they should have been able to, but wrong in believing that the security and freedoms their institutions secured for them would always be there, like gravity. Most still can't imagine losing them. But it's because they haven't yet comprehended the reality of the forces determined to take them away, not because they've all joined them.