ON THE RAZOR’S EDGE

“In a democracy,” the Greek historian Herodatus wrote in the 5th century BC, “there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law.”

The first democracy was created by decree in ancient Athens. It lasted almost two hundred years.

Our American democracy, also created by a group decree, is now almost 250 years old, and it is teetering on a razor’s edge. The January 6 Select Committee is revealing to us how close we came to losing our equality before the law. And many Americans, including a shocking number of monstrously hypocritical Republican elected officials, continue to support this move toward autocracy tainted with the smell of militant fascism.

Most of western democracies are reeling at the American plight, and are further energized to help preserve the democratic country of Ukraine under attack by a fascistic regime as brutal and poised toward greater domination as the Nazis it fought against in World War II.