Gregory-

I'm not the author, but this is obviously the point. A government that increasingly rules without the consent of the governed grows more illegitimate, and must rely on brute force and fear to cow the citizenry.

It's telling that the big win of the GOP (and the only real accomplishment of) during the Trump Administration has been the capture of the courts by the Federalist Society. The president's promise to select judges based on that organization's list is probably the only promise he has kept since 2016.

Looking down the barrel at a legacy of unpopular and disastrous policy decisions, ignoring racial and socioeconomic turmoil as well as the impending climate catastrophe, the GOP can rely on its unelected, illegitimate life-tenured judiciary to maintain the status quo, with militarized police forces in place to keep the plebs in line.

It is truly depressing when one sees that the streets of Milwaukee are more like the streets of Minsk than Mannheim.