Threat to Democracy

   "It seems to me .."
   I recognized Julia's voice, Julia, my mind's frequent visitor or what a reputable doctor might call my hallucinatory friend. As if I were ill.
   But I know, and Julia knows I am not sick, just as we both know she is real. As real as you or I.
   'Something always seems to you,' I thought but did not say.
   "Testy are you?" I knew as she spoke that I was as much in her mind as she was in mine. How could that be? Was I really...? Did we both have hallucinations?
   "It seems to me.." Julia would never entertain retiring because I asked. So I did not ask. What would any reasonably informed, intellectually curious person expect. Julia had if, nothing else, staying power.
   Don't laugh. Don't question. True Julia did die a long time ago and at a relatively young age. But not without leaving her mark. Who of my circle, or that matter yours and anyone else you know, has ever been at the very center of a political movement that changed the very nature of government?
   Bit I digress.
   "It seems to me," Julia's voice rang. "that the predicament of your country is dire." I could not restrain my cackling giggle. "And that cynical cackle says what?"
   "That you are long dead and cannot know of my country."
   "Oh but can't I? Are you so naive you don't see that -- What is that trite cookie statement you use?  What goes around comes around."
   "That's how the cookie crumbles, I think you mean. It seems stupid in this case and has no relevance to what we're talking about.
   "Let us forget the cute quips," she said. "and get to the subject. I repeat your government is in dire straights. Just look at the mess brewing in Washington." I scowled and waved a dismissive hand. "And in case you think I do not know what I speak of, let me allay your doubt. Your political parties-- Republicans and Democrats you call them-- are at such loggerheads that compromise is about as likely as... I know nothing, absolutely nothing that seems less likely at the moment. That happened to us you know. And what did it do for us? War and war and more war. Then a whole new form of government. An Empire was born. Any notion of representational government -- if in fact any remained then-- shrank into a 'toady man assemble'."
   "I am well aware of the dangers of our stalemated government," I said. "But I hardly compare us to 1st century BC/AD Rome. War ran rampart in Rome for 20 years before you became an Empire. Are you suggesting war here and a downfall of our government?"
   "Jewellee, my dear naive Jewellee," she said with a tenderness in her usually curt voice. "You surely don't mean what you're saying. There is war, and there is war. War that destroys with swords and blood-- war with gradual bloodless destruction of what my father called rabble. Your patricians are destroying your rabble -- slowly and bloodlessly.  But it is war as surely as if they wielded  swords. I think you and your kind ought to be more aware. I will now go and let you ponder Or at least I hope you ponder."
   She was gone.