That dilemma stems from newly proposed USPS rules that seek to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed this spring to crack down on mail-in voting. If courts let the order stand, it would give the federal government an unprecedented role in elections — and could put even more voter data in the hands of Trump officials searching for supposed election fraud.
If the judiciary doesn’t block this implementation, I think we’re basically cooked. I think the federal Republic will functionally cease to exist and we’ll slowly disintegrate over time. I have no idea whether that process will be violent. But I’m not confident that it won’t be.
We live in a dystopia and it’s so disappointing and stupid. When I think about the sacrifices people like my grandparents made during the civil rights movement to secure the rights and liberties we enjoy, this wildly precipitous regression breaks my heart.
Yes, progress isn’t linear. This is well-understood. And I don’t have the benefit of lived experience to know whether this bout of regression is fundamentally worse or different. But I am well-read and well-acquainted with history. My feeling is that we could lose it all.
Fortunately, I am often wrong. I hope I am this time.