The Shepard Scale

Setting the tone in a post-Constitution society

I’ve been writing about political topics, activism and whatnot for almost 20 years, and while the slope has always been proverbially slippery, the current state of things brings to mind a visual of kids on a toboggan, careening out of control down a slick hillside toward the big tree at the bottom. In other words, no matter who you are or what you believe, there’s no way this ends well.

In talking to people from conservatives to anarchists, I hear a host of emotions that run the gamut from sadness to disappointment to even anger at what is happening around us—and what could still occur.

The overarching question in the face of all this insanity, however, isn’t “how did we get here?” There are discussion boards, social media groups, and water cooler conversations all over the place that debate the history and the method of it all. Ask 50 people how we woke up to find ourselves in this mess, and you’ll get 40 different answers. The truth is, it doesn’t even matter anymore; arguing about i…