Really interesting article from The Atlantic titled HOW HITLER DISMANTLED A DEMOCRACY IN 53 DAYS.

More then anytime in my lifetime I feel just how fragile democracy can be. It really reminds me of that line from The Gladiator

There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.

Democracy is such a special and unique thing. Being able to disagree over and over again. To have differing opinions and ideas, with a promise that as long as those opinions and ideas don’t hurt your neighbor, or your neighbors opinions and ideas didn’t hurt you they were ok.

Today Trump is testing every perception we have of law and order. Finding and exploiting weakness in the law, in our willingness to prosecute the law or our willingness to care.

This article hits on this idea directly.

Hans Frank served as Hitler’s private attorney and chief legal strategist in the early years of the Nazi movement. While later awaiting execution at Nuremberg for his complicity in Nazi atrocities, Frank commented on his client’s uncanny capacity for sensing “the potential weakness inherent in every formal form of law” and then ruthlessly exploiting that weakness.

The American dream isn’t being able to get rich quickly. It’s the idea of freedom, safety and equality. That every person should have the ability to worship, love, dream, speak, live and work as they see fit within the confines of that promise existing for all of us.

Reading this article cements how importance of that promise being for everyone and how important the fight for that promise is.