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"My hope is that the tides will turn," Obama said of our current political moment. "But that does require each of us to understand that this experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesn't happen just automatically."
Yes. Nailed it. Especially this: "This experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesn't happen just automatically."
If the last four years of Donald Trump in the White House have taught us anything, it should be this: Democracy is durable, yes, but it is not immune to corruption and collapse. It requires care and maintenance -- from all of us.
And at the moment, it is quite clearly under attack by Trump and the forces aligned behind him.
Don't believe me? Consider what we've learned over just the last few weeks:
"Trump has rebuffed calls from some advisers to drop the matter, instead fixating on an ongoing Republican-commissioned audit in Arizona and plotting how to secure election reviews in other states, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Georgia, according to advisers. He is most animated by the efforts in Fulton County, Ga., and Maricopa County, Ariz., according to two advisers who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations."
The evidence is literally everywhere you look.
Choosing to ignore it -- or to assume that now that Trump isn't president anymore that things will go back to "normal" -- plays directly into the hands of those who are even now actively working to undermine our democracy.
Think of American democracy like a marriage. You have to actively work to make it healthy and functional. Neglect those basics -- or ignore the forces seeking to pull it apart -- and by the time you finally realize or admit you have a problem, it might be too late to fix.
That prospect should scare every American -- no matter your party affiliation. That it doesn't suggests we are already in some real trouble.