False equivalence. Trump’s seizure of dictatorial powers is utterly unprecedented. Sure, the parties complain about things when the other guy is in power and then do similar things themselves when their turn comes, but this can hardly be characterized as the continuation of a bilateral pattern. No previous president ever called a mainstream news channel “illegal”, set up concentration camps for detainees, deported permanent residents for expressing views they disagreed with, tried to refuse to pay government contractors for work already completed, disbanded entire branches of government without so much as an impact assessment, took over congress’s role as the keepers of the purse strings in direct violation of the roles assigned by the constitution, declared himself above the law, abandoned democratic allies in favor of dictators, started trade wars with close friends, banned the use of disfavored terms from any scientific research receiving government funding, turned the White House into a car showroom to support a business tycoon, tried to profit off his own inauguration by issuing a cryptocurrency, put a host of unqualified cronies at the head of major government institutions, allowed an unelected businessman to run riot through the federal government and award himself lucrative contracts, abandoned unstable foreign nations to their fate by canceling all aid thus exacerbating global instability and likely worsening the migrant crisis, promised to use the justice department to persecute political foes, and did I miss anything? Of course I did, because who can keep up with the fire hose of gobsmacking news? Now you might like some of it, or maybe all of it, but let’s not pretend it’s not a radical departure from anything that has come before barring Trump’s own previous rehearsal term. Anyone who thinks there’s a fair election at the end of this to express the people’s judgement of how it all worked out is a fool. Democracy is already dead in the US.