Rick Wilson and the rest of the Lincoln Project are determined to ring the alarm bells now because we’ve crossed the Rubicon with respect to a dangerous and likely violent future in this country. We can no longer avoid serious damage to our democracy, but we can limit it.

It is the opening weekend in the NFL. One of the few things that Liberals and MAGAs (they are not conservatives) can agree upon is that the NFL is fun, our new national sport. And yet it’s harmful in this environment. It provides a distraction that leads to the appearance of normalcy, which is dangerous. It is too easy for most Americans to shrug off the looming conflict as yet another “first world problem,” easily solved.

But if, somehow, the NFL season depended upon agreed-upon values and a commitment to democracy by both parties, wouldn’t those issues be addressed within perhaps two weeks? Two months at the most?

We are spoiled. We’re soft, we’re arrogant, and we take our toys, lifestyles, stability, and power for granted. “It can’t happen here,” many would and do say, over and over. We would never see an intersection manned by a citizen militia, checking cars and “keeping law and order” without any attention to the laws, right? We would never see entrances to interstates blocked by people determined to disrupt the country in protest, right?

But some people do realize just how close we are to fascism, where the Constitution and the Bill of Rights go out the door, all to allow a minority of Americans to retain power. Remember Joe Scarborough? He talked to a pillar of GOP power in Washington since Reagan. This pillar said that we could replace the U.S. government because it’s about people. That’s fascism.

Yes, that’s fascism, and Rick Wilson realizes just how close we are. So forgive his language because offending people with the language might be the only way to turn heads away from the game.

You don't get "a little pregnant" just like you aren't "a little fascist."

In all caps, @TheRickWilson shows what F-A-S-C-I-S-M is for the people in the back. pic.twitter.com/dQiA4BGDFB

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 10, 2022

Again, if people could just turn the game off for 30 seconds, or – if they took the games away completely until we settled our differences amicably and democratically under the Constitution, we could get people to understand that we don’t have the luxury of looking away much longer.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman