Don't fret too much. This has been in the making since at least [1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot).

Don't fret too much. This has been in the making since at least [1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). Nixon moved it forward, but found enough conscience or fear to give in. Ford's pardon and the DoJ's failure to prosecute rounding out the idea of not actually holding our leaders materially accountable. Then Reagan comes in and torches the economic basis of the federal government, gutting its ability to audit the wealthy or effectively regulate white collar crime. He also quietly deregulates broadcast media leading to a massive consolidation throughout the 90's and oughts. Clinton, the centrist he was, let critical economic safeguards lapse. The gaslighting begins in earnest with Newt Gingrich leading. Then the world changed and a document written at least as far back as the 80s but never successfully adopted was renamed "The Patriot Act" and rammed through on an "emergency" basis and which laid the groundwork for the erosion of civil rights. "Free speech zones" enters the American lexicon, anywhere within 100 miles of the US international border is now subject to searches without a warrant. All the while media consolidation makes it possible for organization to push a fantastical right-wing agenda. The Overton window slides to the right. "Terrorism" becomes not just household but daily word. People became comfortable with the military, they were everywhere and in everything. And then the internet exploded in popularity and network connections and the meme wars began. The battle was lost because only one group understood the battle was occurring. We didn't start the fire.