Reading the news this morning, in particular the reports of Elon Musk and Donald Trump blandly announcing an intention to “shut down” a government agency without input from Congress, it seems clearer than ever that we are at a moment of crisis with no real parallel in American history. While there are far too many unknowns in the picture for anyone to make confident statements about how we should respond or predictions about how things will play out, I think that we need to recognize that we (and I hope that I can include whoever is reading this in that “we”) are not obligated to follow the rules that have governed political conflict in America when our adversaries control many of the levers of power and are behaving as if those rules do not exist. While this quotation (taken from BlueSky Social this morning) is more violent in tone than I am fully comfortable with, I think it vividly speaks to the challenge we face:
