I think the fact that you are a citizen and I am not is important. You are at the proverbial sharp end of an exceedingly sharp stick. One would have to be inhuman not to be emotionally impacted and deeply worried. I try to keep that front of mind when I write, but don’t often succeed. I have two motivations here. One is that I really like the U.S. I have visited 30-40 times at a very rough guess and have never had a serious bad experience. So I am hoping for you to emerge in a way that the damage can be unwound as much as possible and the mistake never be repeated. My second driving force is that I see your country as a possible case study of decline. My historical studies focused intensely on Great Britain, and I have read enough about Rome to have a sense of “decline” means in superpowers and how/why it comes about. When I am being dispassionate, there are numerous comparisons that can be made especially between Edwardian England and current day US. To me, your country is solidly on that path. When Britain decayed as the world superpower, America replaced it, not, I should add without two wars, a Holocaust and the Holodomor. But by 1950 the world order was clearly America’s to set and that was reassuring. But now, it’s an entirely different scenario. The expression, “Après moi, le déluge”, frequently comes to mind. There is *no suitable Democratic replacement* for America as superpower. China, India, and Russia, most especially the first named, would be ghastly replacements as the acknowledged superpower. It is extremely important to me that America recover. I post fairly frequently here because I have deep respect for the group and I think I have much to learn and a little to contribute to a forum that could become very powerful. I detest invective. I detest group think. This group has a number of people who seem to post in only to float with the prevailing winds. They present nothing substantive. On an individual basis I empathize with them. We are all needy - their neediness shows in an obvious desire to be part of the group. That’s fine. But when there is a large group doing that, the calibre of discussion plunges, and others buoyed by the likes of the groupies, are confident then that their opinion is impregnably correct and feel free to let loose cutting comments to those who disagree. The harm comes not from a single person who acts as a cheerleader. It comes when that becomes a large group. It empowers others and the tone goes way, way down. This series of posts is my ideal of how discussion should take place. It has been thoroughly civil. I feel that your rebuttal was in good faith and forced me to slow down and think again about the track I was on. Cheers to you, Fern. :)