Why do otherwise normal people support evil ideas, like racism, without even realizing it is racism? Because evil is always girded in righteousness. The feeling of being right is so intoxicating. It triggers our ego and makes us feel invincible. It ruins marriages and takes us off in directions we could never imagine. The trouble is, right is not always good. People don’t argue over goodness. But they will go to the mat over righteousness. This is where evil finds its opening. Evil has a way of sneaking in under the wire, undetected. It gets tangled up with the heady feeling of righteousness. That’s when all hell breaks loose and eventually evil takes over and evil becomes the new normal.

We are now at the point where good people are simply too exhausted to stand up against the evil that is so obviously upon us. It is perpetrated and perpetuated on a daily basis, with insults, racial epitaphs, shocking revelations, policies and laws, we can barely keep up with. It is a cancer, metesticising otherwise normal “cells” and turning them into our own worst enemy. I keep asking, “why are we not in the street, marching?” Are we already past the point of no return?

Democrats see that Trump is gaining support and think, “I wonder what they see that I’m just not seeing.” Meanwhile, Trump supporters never wonder what their opponents are thinking. It’s simply “my way or the highway.” That tenacity is one aspect of evil we often don’t consider. In fact, we’re more likely to celebrate their winning attitude. It’s as American as Nike shoes.

If we are indeed facing the presence of a tenacious and deeply embedded evil, then we need a viable strategy to stop what is happening. I think the idea of simply waiting until 2020, as if the evil will magically just go away when we cast our votes, assuming there must be more good people than evil, is the height of naivety. I’m sure the “Good Germans” hoped the same. People have been given the go ahead for expressing their once dormant hatred; they are now ceasing the opportunity to act upon their darkest hatreds and fears.

These people know what they are doing and are fully committed to the “righteousness” of their cause. They are not going to give up their power. Trump and his sycophants are willing to do ANYTHING to get what they want. Such is the nature of evil. Their opponents, who take pride in their integrity, who are fighting for good and who refuse to play by the same rules, don’t stand a chance of defeating this monster. Republicans are stacking the deck, even as we speak. They are gerrymandering, suppressing the vote, de-funding efforts to curtail voter fraud and Russian interference, while Democrats ponder and dither. Sorry to say it, but I’m not convinced an election, whatever the result can stop this juggernaut.

Remember when Superman went rogue? Or when Anakin became Darth Vader? Go back as far as Medusa, Loki, and The Sirens. These ancient myths and allegories of the fallen hero, are playing out right now. Except this time WE are the fallen heroes, with no Avengers in sight.

They say evil never dies but that it never wins in the end, because there are always more good people than evil people. But we forget that evil is not a person. It is simply a force. It hasn’t agreed to any such terms. Trump is not evil; he is only its pawn. Nor are his followers. But once evil gains a foothold it will never let go.

I’m afraid by the time we as a nation do wake up, when the real, obvious atrocities begin, it will be too late. And this time we won’t have an America to come to our rescue. The world’s policeman will have become the unstoppable evil we always feared from abroad.

This is the inevitable trajectory of all great empires throughout time. From Rome to Nazi Germany, they all start with a good idea but then evil asserts itself into the mix. America has been on this track since the beginning. Woven into our culture is the history of Conquistadors, Manifest Destiny, and Jim Crow. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it would take to reverse the direction of this train, before it derails.