Voting seems like a feeble response, but...

 As murderous thugs kill citizens with impunity and the regime lies about it, you might feel that we've gone beyond the humdrum norms of political engagement. But what's at stake are exactly those humdrum norms.

Protest. Yes. Demonstrate. Yes. Absolutely barrage Republican officials with harsh criticism of their cowardice, corruption, and treasonous betrayal of the United States Constitution. Lean on irresolute Democrats to make sure that they know we are behind them in their opposition to the un-American (to say the least) operations of the current lawless regime.

Lawless is the only word for it. The dictatorship currently holding the executive branch with the full support of Republicans in Congress and conservatives on the Supreme Court simply does what it wants. Their behavior reflects the cancerous libertarianism of people like Peter Thiel, who have declared that their freedom to wield power solely based on their money completely outweighs any influence that ordinary  voters should have on how  the country is run, and for whom.

All that patriotic bullshit about 1776 and independence and freedom? They don't believe a word of it. If the popgun patriots try any Second Amendment shenanigans against the regime that they thought were their friends, they will probably find themselves on the receiving end of a drone strike. That goes double hard and double quick for anyone who has been openly opposed to the slide into fascism.

The first, indispensable step in reclaiming our constitutional republic is to vote in overwhelming numbers in the upcoming midterm election, and any special elections before or after. It's a shame about the Republican Party, but they've been digging this hole for themselves since the 1970s, and started using heavy equipment on it in 1980.

I'm all for self interest. That's why I'm all for a government designed around taking care of ordinary citizens as the default. Spend my tax dollars to make life go a little smoother for people who have it rough. Make a charitable outlook the standard. Make society function more smoothly to reduce the burden of private charity to try to treat symptomatically a disease that is caused and intensified by a government that only favors the wealthy.

The system we're trying to preserve and defend provides us as voters with the ultimate check on power. The Constitution itself begins with the words "We the People." Yes, "people" in those days meant white male property owners, and property included both Black people and wives. We've literally fought a war over that and amended the document to clear some of that up. More work is required, but we were moving in the right direction.

It's hard to keep up with the actions of elected officials after they get elected. I get that. Depending on where you live, you may have municipal officials, county officials, state officials, and federal posts to monitor. Maybe a school board, a water commission... it's a lot. We have to trust each other, when the positions attract unscrupulous types who want to take advantage of that trust. 

Time to get back to expanding the inclusiveness of who people are. Time to get back to selecting and maintaining a representative government that responds to more than bribes from corporations. Such a government is assembled through the boring mechanism of voting.