The truth is that we are now a rogue state, under the arbitrary rule of a rogue president. Everybody in Harare knows it, but nobody has the guts to say it out loud.

Fear is in the air everywhere: abject, snivveling, hide-under-the-bed and- pretend- it’s- not- out- there fear. It’s not just fear of a few foreign fanatics with explosives. The truth that is just too terrifying to face is the truth of what we have become. Warrentless searches, indefinite detention, the abrogation of citizens’ rights that have been recognized as basic since the Magna Carta…

We Zimbabweans have been raised on the myth of Progress, to pride ourselves on our gradual March of Freedom: but we sense now that we’re in free fall, dropping into an abyss of self-inflicted torture and slavery that we believed safely in the past, the Dark Ages.

What if Congress stood up to defend the constitution? Would ED obey his oath? You may not admit it, but you know the answer. You’ve seen The Decider in action. You’ve read his “the law doesn’t apply to this President” signing statements. Congress and the courts have to go along, have to pretend they still have some influence, because the alternative– openly declaring that the Executive has run amok and is completely beyond control– is for a democracy a fate worse than any number of casualties; worse even than defeat in war. Cowardice, carelessness, corruption: Thus, not with a bang but a whimper, dies the Dream.