“How could this happen?” Perhaps every American adult has asked this question several times over in the last 10 years, irrespective of political affiliation. Those who do not consider themselves a member of the MAGA movement have asked it weekly, sometimes daily, over the last nine months. The frequency of previously unthinkable occurrences in government and society has thrown many Americans into varying measures of depression, me included.

The remaining hostages in Gaza were on their way home the last time I emerged from the PTSD of 21st century American citizenship to drop a quip and column. Since then, the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza has not held, and here at home, the United States federal government has been closed so long that federal employees missed their first full paycheck on Friday. Thousands of federal workers have been laid off or slated for layoff since the shutdown began.

Also of extreme concern: an American citizen was arrested for playing the Stormtrooper/Darth Vader theme behind National Guard troops who had no true reason to be deployed in the first place, without request from the local authorities, like the District of Columbia mayor. As if that’s not enough, an aircraft carrier strike group made its way to South America to show alleged Venezuelan drug cartels who’s boss on the same day the president destroyed the East Wing of the nation’s White House to make way for a ballroom.

How is this happening?! More importantly, how much more is there to come in the imperial presidency of a man who posted an artificial-intelligence-rendered meme of himself dumping feces across the citizens of America from an airplane. That was in response to No Kings Day last weekend that reportedly saw seven million people worldwide turnout to voice their anger over the increasingly-authoritarian United States government. And despite the incredible uplift of that event, more Independent and dramatically more Democratic voters are saying violence may indeed be justified to regain control the country.

Let me repeat that. The voters most likely to have been among those pushing for gun control over the last 40 years are now the ones suggesting the need to familiarize oneself with combat techniques.

How could this happen? And how much higher are the numbers in the NPR/PBS/Marist poll on justified violence going to climb before we get a new Congress and new president?

News of the rise of the embrace of violence came to me on the same day a 14-year-old student of mine was viciously beaten just feet from school property in a revenge attack for vehemently rebuffing the advances of a harassing wannabe boyfriend. It was a how-could-this-happen reality so unnerving and close to home it has drawn me from my academic responsibilities – and political rage baiting fatigue – back to the pages of the QC.

The quarter has come to a close, but what President Obama used to refer to as the “silly season” has opened for an apparently endless run. Our choices are as stark as those of a non-conformist inner-city child who is constantly under threat. We can stand our ground and take the beating or acquiesce to the unacceptable and lose ourselves entirely. Then, there’s the growing embrace of what’s behind door number three.

Protesters last weekend and a certain Stormtrooper satirist suggest that a great many (a majority?) are choosing to stand their ground, some even in red states, counties, and cities. But what of those rising numbers among the famously non-violent who are now justifying violence? What of talk of taking back the country from those who believe themselves to be doing the same?

Can the country really benefit by fighting thug fire with fire? It seems we need to genuinely contemplate this question. How on earth did it come to this? Indeed, how could this happen?