Me: Well. He did it. He finally did it. Trump declares an emergency to get his dumb fuckin wall.
Friend: Oh shit.
Me: Y’know, people gave me so much shit for comparing him to other dictators. Caesar pulled this same trick, and the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire.
Friend: Y’know, Hitler did that.
Me: Exactly! Yes! “Don’t compare Trump to Hitler”, they said, “He’s not competent or evil enough, he’s just a con man”, or “That’s offensive to Holocaust survivors”
Friend: I thought Holocaust survivors were the first people to say that.
Me: THEY WERE.
Friend: So what is the next thing?
Me: Hope it doesn’t escalate. Watch it escalate. Hope the courts can stop him from the worst of it.
Friend: And if nothing can stop him?
Me: This has never happened with a global superpower before. It could go a lot of ways. None of them are good.
Friend: So what do we do next?
Me: Listen, I talk like I know what I’m doing but this hasn’t happened here before. Normally we’re the ones doing the meddling in other countries’ freedom, and that always ends violently. I’m just as clueless as you are. Keep an ear to the ground and show up at protests. And fucking vote.
Friend: Well of course I’m gonna vote.
Me: Yeah but not everyone votes.
So fucking vote.