“Death by a Thousand Cuts” is more than a Taylor Swift song title. It’s the name of a form of execution, practiced over centuries in China, in which the victims were killed slowly and agonizingly over a protracted period of time, by repeated small cuts to their flesh.
In its metaphorical form, it applies to any process which slowly eats away at an existing structure, as opposed to its rapid destruction. I don’t think anyone reading this doubts where this is going: America is currently suffering its own Death by a Thousand Cuts.
It started with the pardoning of hundreds of convicted insurrectionists. It moved forward with emasculation of huge swaths of the federal bureaucracy. Then came cuts to alternative energy initiatives and EPA regulations. Public healthcare has been abandoned. The norms of federal intervention into the business of states and cities were sidestepped with declarations of non-existent emergencies. Innocent people, positive contributors to society, are being swept up in a brown-shirt-like dragnet that seemingly can’t discriminate between good and evil. First LA, now DC have been militarized, along with vast swaths of the Southwest states. Our vaunted free enterprise system is being turned into State Capitalism. And it seems Ukraine might be thrown under the bus in the quest for a “Piece” Prize. There are dozens more examples, but I’m too exhausted, or too depressed, to list them. Just watch the news
So, let me posit this to the many folks who voted for the man-child/madman who is holding the knife that is slowly killing our democracy: How soon will he be coming for your guns? A brief Google search will reveal that autocrats really don’t like their subjects to be armed:
• China: Private citizens are generally prohibited from owning firearms.
• In Russia, gun ownership is permitted for self-defense, hunting, and sports, but is subject to strict regulations.
• In North Korea, civilian gun ownership is heavily restricted.
• In Myanmar, gun ownership is heavily restricted and mainly reserved for individuals deemed “loyal to the state.”
• In Hungary gun ownership is strictly regulated with some of the most stringent laws in the European Union.
• Gun ownership in Iran is heavily restricted and primarily limited to certain government-affiliated groups and individuals.
So, can we pin our hopes at stopping this deadly flaying of our body politic on the hope that some of the misguided who voted for Donald Trump will take a look around and think, “Hey, I might could’a made a mistake”? Doubtful. If they elected someone they already knew to be a liar, cheat, felon and overall poor sportsman, they are probably blind to the fact that they are approaching the head of the line being led to the slaughter?
Well, at least the rest of us, the illuminati and those who espouse being independent, are still in the majority. So, coming November ’26, we can elect a Congress that will impeach him, or at least stop his knife wielding. But wait! Seems that there’s an intense Red State Gerrymandering effort under way to steal even that option. The cuts continue, and are now beginning to reach to our very national innards. Me, I’m stocking up on band-aids and pain killers.
©2025 David B Bucher
SoEast 