For those who find it difficult to process the daily blowtorch of news, it has come down to one fairly obvious event that inflames everything else: this is what it looks like when a republic dies.

There has been warning along the way. The parallels with Rome have been clear and the utter dysfunction of government manifest constantly. Decency died a long time ago, and the vulnerable have suffered as pawns for years before it culminated in the destruction of families for pure political sport.

But the warnings fell on ears deafened by the trumpets of war, incapable of caring the slightest bit for the republic itself. So that brings us to a time when it is obvious that we have one, maybe two last chances to save the centuries old birthright, a republic enshrined for the purpose of protecting freedom.

Say, does that star-spangled banner still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Who is in charge of the nation right now? If you picked someone you voted for, you are probably wrong. There is certainly no one elected into the executive branch steering the nation. That has been laid to rest by a series of interviews by Carl Bernstein and an anonymous op-ed telling us to not worry, the adults are in charge.

Perhaps you want to point to someone in congress who is representing your interests that has some power. But rather than rely on consensus, as our system once demanded, it’s entirely winner-take-all. If you representative is not on the correct side, you have nothing. There is no one there for you.

There’s always reason to have faith in the courts as a last chance. But the process of ramming through a highly partisan warrior for the purpose of stopping the highest court from being effective is in the works right now.

So what is left? Who is in charge? Those who were not elected. People you might not even be able to name.

We aren’t here yet, but only for a lack of competence.

We can all be assured that many have the best of intentions. Given the simple and obvious fact that Congress has no intention of stopping this president, there is a lot of comfort in an internal resistance operating in the White House. Someone has to make sure the planet doesn’t blow up in the short term. When a day comes for the Republic to be restored, it is comforting to know that there might well be some pieces left of it.

But we do not have a republic any longer.  We haven’t for some time.

This is what empires look like. This is how they run. The imperial court always has the most power, and it’s manipulated and channeled through a series of ministers who work to their own designs. No large amount of territory has every been truly and completely ruled by one person – nothing has every truly worked that way. And yet, as wonderful as empires look from the outside, this lack of transparency and inability to identify who is really in charge is ultimately their downfall. Every time.

We are crossing that point now. It is almost complete. Palace intrigue is only one degenerate form of politics, and when it becomes the norm it is not possible to have a republic.

What is happening right now on CNN? On twitter? What have the Russians fed into your social media stream? What are the ‘hot button” issues of the day? Are you outraged by the secret video captured or the protests that took the streets? It’s impossible to make sense of that which beats us all senseless, except for one central point:

This is what it looks like when a republic dies.