A Test

 A recent poll, which just so happen to be my favorite kind of poll, suggested that a majority of Americans believe that they believe it is likely that America will cease to be a democracy in the future. Fifty-three percent of Republicans, fifty-five percent of Democrats. For those without a particular political affiliation the number was forty-nine percent. 

A few things: This poll was taken just after the first January 6 Committee hearing was aired on most networks. Nineteen million Americans tuned in to watch the holes in their country's government on display. Of course, this is pretty pitiful compared to the hundred plus glued to their sets for your standard Super Bowl or anything where disguised bachelors have to sing while preparing a dish for Gordon Ramsay, but since there were no new Pepsi or Ford commercials to be found during those two hours, that's a lot of eyes on the train wreck. It should also be noted that a similar poll was not taken in the days and hours after January 6, 2020. My guess is that those numbers might have crept up a bit. 

And no one was asked to say how far in the future they saw democracy going extinct. It's pretty hard to imagine that our robot overlords would allow such a feeble construct as a representative democracy to exist in their rule. And my imaginings of voting rights for the Eloi would be highly restricted if they exist at all when the Morlocks come to power. 

Apologies for the rampant nerd flurry there, but it pains me to think that we seem to be already teetering on the brink of surrender before we have a real test of this thing. Try throwing Donald Trump in jail for the crimes he and his minions committed. See if democracy can actually stand up to seeing a charlatan former game show host get the treatment he deserves. Vote for people who believe in democracy. Elect people who are looking to shore it up. 

"that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."