I have been encouraging people to up their security game. Finally got a bunch of people on Signal so that it is meaningful communications tool for me.

We have handed a man who appears mentally unstable, the ability to switch on a vast domestic surveillance network. The only thing that stands in his way are people trained under Bush / Obama to follow procedure. As this weekend's the immigration debacle proves, procedures are only as meaningful as the "small" people called upon to uphold.

The foundation of "checks and balances" in the United States was that we have representatives that would speak for the people. Those congressional representatives would move the ball forward. The president was never supposed to have the power to create unilateral policy. In a sense, the people need protection from someone they never wanted in the first place. The majority of Trumps views are held only by the minority. This is what people need protection from.

But these people are now slowly warming up to reality :(

Plus, there's the problem of a gradual (or even sudden) erosion of checks and balances when one person has too much power and the distinct possibility that the electorate did not foresee all the long term consequences of getting such a person elected.

Of course, you may also go for Mencken's view that "democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." But that would require a fair amount of cynicism.