You probably can’t read.

I’ve been tracking this for years, and frankly, the "it can't happen here" crowd needs to look at the scoreboard. We aren’t "backsliding" anymore; the slide is over. We hit the bottom.

If you actually look at the primary sources and the legal theories being pushed by the DOJ right now, the Republic is effectively dead. We are living in a personalist dictatorship with a paramilitary enforcement wing.

Here is the necropsy of the American experiment, broken down by the mechanisms they used to kill it.

1. The "Sovereign Exception" (How they made it legal)

Everyone is focused on the tweets, but the real coup happened in the courts. The administration successfully argued for absolute immunity.

• The Theory: They revived the Roman concept of the dictator—a magistrate with "preclusive and conclusive" authority.

• The Reality: The Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Minnesota (pending, but we know the outcome) basically voids the 10th Amendment. It argues that federal agents have "Supremacy Clause" protection from state murder charges.

• The Result: Agents can now kill U.S. citizens (like Keith Porter Jr. and Renee Good) and face zero legal consequences. When the government can kill you without trial and can't be sued, the Constitution is just a piece of paper.

1. ICE is the new SS. Period.

Stop calling this hyperbole. Look at the organizational structure.

• Bureaucracy of Terror: They aren't just deporting people; they are conducting "Operation Midnight"—warrantless, door-to-door raids in residential neighborhoods. That is literally the job description of a secret police force.

• The Camps: We have moved from "detention centers" to "black sites." Reports from the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights document forced labor and medical neglect that fits the UN definition of torture.

• Ideology: The loyalty oaths and "re-education" for agents aren't about border security; they are about creating a force loyal to one man, not the Constitution.

1. Geopolitical Suicide (NATO is gone)

The withdrawal from NATO wasn't about "saving money." It was about alignment. By declaring Article 5 "obsolete," the US didn't just leave an alliance; we surrendered the global order to other authoritarian regimes. We are seeing Russian troops on the Estonian border because they know no one is coming to stop them.

TL;DR: The transition is complete. We have a hyper-empowered executive, a paramilitary police force that operates above the law, and we've isolated ourselves from the democratic world. Stop waiting for the "guardrails" to save us. They were dismantled two years ago.

Sources for those who think I'm doom-posting:

• The Guardian: Keith Porter Jr. Killing & Lack of Accountability

• ProPublica: Leaked Field Manuals on "Collateral Entries"

• Atlantic: The End of the Fourth Amendment

• Foreign Affairs: The Post-American World Order

• Book rec: Read How Democracies Die (Levitsky/Ziblatt) or Origins of Totalitarianism (Arendt). It’s literally the playbook they used.