It won’t be for a lack of trying. YouTubers and others in the know have been trying to get the nation’s attention for a while now. For many, it’s been DEFCON 5 since forever, or at least since November 2016. Trump’s status as fascinating side show and anomaly have morphed into a ten-alarm fire.

Nearly half the country elected him for a second term, and nearly half has been miffed and mystified on a daily basis for nine years—even when he was out of office and being convicted of multiple felonies, chirping and snipping away like the poor sport he’s always been, insistent on a “glorious” comeback, the whole time putty in the hands of the real brain trust who have the country in a headlock with its poisonous Project 2025.

The fall has been meteoric and perilous. We’ve lately seen news footage of events that shouldn’t happen in a democratic republic, or whatever we aspire to be. Add to this the conditions on the world stage, and we have Russia and China licking their chops, realizing that America is led by a paper tiger, an impostor with no appreciation of history, a lying ego monster with next to no leadership skills and a penchant for only talking a good game, seemingly capable of doing something rash and stupid at any moment…

… a pushover who cares more about gold leaf and leveraging a Nobel Peace Prize than leading a country that either aspires to be a melting pot and shining city on a hill, or has been deceiving itself all along.

It’s not like there haven’t been warning signs along the way. Anyone who’s watched the news should be familiar with Donald Trump and his penchant for dealing in bovine excrement. His desire to be POTUS has never been guided by what most would consider worthy aspirations or a clear-eyed, hopeful vision. There have been other motivations, way more childish and sinister.

Between his own petty vindictiveness and the grand designs of misfit players around him, what we currently have in the way of leadership is a collection of ass kissers, quacks, conspiracy theorists and Christian Nationalist doomsayers who, ironically, have no use for benevolence or kindness. They don’t really know how to lead. They only know to take care of themselves and those who control the purse strings.

It’s a poisoning of the waters, foisted on this nation by people who think nothing of lying and fear-mongering all day, brought to bear because millions of people actually believed the polluted sludge emanating from the front of Donald Trump’s face and the deluded designer minions who must be storing their consciences in a vault at Fox News.

We should have seen this coming from before the day he descended that damned escalator. His coined phrase is “You’re fired!” (put that on your coin, Donald). He’s always had an ego the size of Jupiter. He’s always been needy and weak and angry, lusting for power. He’s a laughingstock among world leaders, and he’s always played right into the hands of those with the real brains and evil intent. Yet for reasons that mystify, enough of us thought he was the guy that would fix things.

Well, the fix is in, and it’s looking more like hell on earth every day.

The image that comes to mind when Pete Hegseth is mentioned is that of handing the car keys to a 10-year-old. The same goes for RFK, Jr.

But not Russell Vought. Hegseth and Kennedy are seriously unfunny jokes, no doubt destined to do their own damage; Vought—and JD Vance and Stephen Miller—are somehow more scary, conniving players who spend their days plotting and planning and living in their own little worlds, isolated from reality, listening to Peter Thiel and others, spewing vitriolic, Christian Nationalistic paranoid gobbledy-gook, having so much to say about what’s wrong with America and saying it in a way that makes them sound like they know what they’re talking about. Dangerous, scary, apparently angry people.

Hegseth oozes superficiality; RFK, Jr. exudes a patina of expertise and concern which in reality covers a vast body of hair-brained ignorance; Vought, Vance, and Miller, along with a few others, appear to be taking a longer view, dogged in their mission to rewrite American history and replace the constitutional framework with a cold-hearted brand of isolationism and convenient, narrowly-read, oppressive “Christianity”.

I’m just gonna get this off my chest: it’s hard to feel optimistic about the future, for at least two reasons. First, the Trump administration, or regime, cabal, whatever people are calling it, seems hellbent on destroying the foundation, and so far, that plan is working.

Second, it’s difficult to believe that Russia and China and others haven’t been actively working on disrupting the world order and hatching scenarios in which Taiwan is attacked, the NATO alliance in Europe is tested, we are drawn in, and another major conflict is born—OK, world war—weakening and distracting whatever efforts could be mounted here at home to address the Trump/Heritage Foundation problem.

Frustration is mounting here in America, because the road to authoritarianism seems uncluttered with any semblance of opposition strong enough to uproot and stop the decay. If Trump buys the farm, JD Vance will step in and be even worse, because he is possessed, well versed in poisonous rhetoric and a sinister mindset. Trump will always carry the moniker of an easy mark, a gift dropped in the laps of people like Steve Bannon, Russell Vought, and Kevin Roberts, just a malleable lackey from a broken home, with a chip on his shoulder and enough anger in his heart to keep him motivated.

One silver lining, one hope is that the military brass brought together this past week weren’t for one second swayed by the vacuous, embarrassing performances of the Secretary of Defense and whatever Donald Trump is.

Another glimmer is that protests by the general population will start to change hearts and minds, including those of Republicans in congress– or maybe they’ll finally be snapped out of their funk by Trump’s awfulness.