I’m about halfway through Diane McWhorter’s brilliantly written article. I share much of her alarm regarding the docility of us Americans after so arrogant and so successful a series of power grabs by the executive and the unquestioning acceptance—and in many cases outright support—of the legislature. Decent Americans must shudder when considering the connivance of large segments of the judiciary.

I’m going back to finish the article, of course, but my sense at this point is that McWhorter’s fear (if that’s what it is) and her trenchant analysis are elements of a warning best-heeded but not a signal for large-scale civil disobedience. Yet. I say this because none of what I have so far read mentions the American military without whose cooperation US-conducted genocide within national borders is not possible.

As long as this is true—and let’s pray it never becomes untrue—we Americans are not liable for our docility, though we are responsible, morally and spiritually, for the ones who are lost.