justice is blind now. that s a lofty standard. sta but because americans have long believed in fairnessndarericans, and because most of the people in charge of administering that system have behave d in good faith, this country has, for liv the most part, lived up to its core ideal for two hundred and fifty years, making it the greatest country in the world. but the populist surgthe of 2016 changed everything permanent. washington s suddenly felt more threatened by its own voters, by american voters than by any foreign adversary, donald trump. dom, seem more dangerous than isis. they panicked and in their panic, our leaders decided to turn the american legal system as well as thete american intel agencies and if necessary, the u.s. armyopponen. against their political opponents. they felt they had n theyo choin doing this. they abandoned the ancient principld e of equality under the law, and they replaced it with what is effectively a loyalty oath. opponents of the regime
the relationships that they have inlationshiprdern omee the outcome that they want. and that has always been trutreo on foreign policy. for for many, many, many years.p relationald trump comes up onto the scene of washington, a man with whom they have noas relationship, a man who has no affinity for them, who doesn tbo care about them, value whautt they value. e an and this for them is a panic moment. it is a panic moment. yea and we are now living in the seventh year of that panic ,turning our entire democracy upside down. and i will tell you, if a prosecutor in manhattan can take control of our entiress presidential election process, that by what definition can we say that we even havet definiti a democracy in this country? right. no, i mean, we were mocked, i thought justly by the president of el salvador yesterday, said we r prest going to take any more lectures about democracy from a country that interferesl in its own electios like this. and unfortunately, he s right. he has se