On 7 January, 2021 the day after Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol a shaken Sean Hannity began exchanging text messages with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Hanity laid out a 5 point plan for moving forward. But the most memorable admonishment was: “no more crazy people.”

The slogan for the incoming Trump Administration might more aptly be, Make America Crazy Again. The White house is well on its way to becoming an insane asylum once more. Crazy people tend to surround themselves with other crazy people. Doing so has the effect of reaffirming and normalizing words and conduct which others from outside their circle see as not normal and alarming.

Donald Trump is unhinged. Just because he or his supporters believe that his form of crazy equates to a method by which his madness achieves his ends does not make it less crazy it just makes it more pervasive.

One of the main reasons Donald Trump was driven from the White House in 2020 was that the craziness emanating from the Oval Office had become too much for anyone paying attention to bear. It wasn’t just his own craziness, it actually became a national craziness and in significant ways an international craziness as well.

The new White House Oval Office Club taking shape seems to break down into two distinct groups, the truly crazy and the care providers who mind them. Matt Gaetz was among other things a whacko. Pete Hegseth rather disturbing issues cannot be hidden no matter how hard he tries. Tulsi Gabbard almost makes sense unless you actually listen to what she is saying and then you wonder why she’s still talking. Kash Patel is either an anarchist, a madman or both. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. espouses medical viewpoints that are rejected by every national health director in the world as utter quackery. You can make the case that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk may not actually be crazy, but they certainly like to talk crazy, which is a unique form of crazy unto itself that has no place being anywhere near a position of public trust. This is true goofiness in possession of awesome power.

Democracy is not a magic shield that acts in a vacuum to ward off Fascist actors and their intentions. Democracy is a toolbox which left unused in a dark place accomplishes nothing. If the American democratic republic is to survive as our forefathers envisioned it we must use the tools they provided in the Constitution. Oppose. Demand accountability. Ask questions. Push for greater transparency. Be free. Be independent. Be fearless. Remember the old boxing adage, Everybody gets knocked down, champions get back up. They can target any one of us, but they can’t target all of us.

We got an inspiring real time lesson from the citizens of South Korea recently. Fascism and its real-time manifestation martial law were defeated by ordinary citizens who valued their democracy. Not here in America but there in South Korea.

Use the tools.