By Mona Charen, The National Memo
As I watched election returns on the evening of November 5, 2024, I was struck by the sense that Americans had missed the memo. Across the nation, in blue states as well as red, county after county showed a marked rightward shift. It was so seemingly normal. What do you do when groceries are much more expensive than four years ago, the border is flooded with immigrants? You vote for the other guy.
It has been only four weeks since Trump took the oath of office, and I wonder whether casual voters or even those who truly despised Joe Biden have taken onboard what they’ve done. The American republic is barreling toward a constitutional crisis as the president attempts to rule as an autocrat (“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” he claimed), a heedless billionaire smashes through people’s lives and complex systems he doesn’t understand with sadistic glee, the Justice Department descends into corrupt bargains antithetical to the ethical standards upheld for two centuries, a Putin/Assad apologist sits atop our intelligence agencies, a conspiracy theorist/anti-vaccine fool directs our health agencies, and the United States is in the process of reversing 80 years of world leadership.
