Felicia Bruce, Fort Pierce

Looking at “the big picture” after the election, it is hard not to be alarmed.

It is not a simple case of the more qualified, more popular candidate losing. It is not the irregularities or bizarre developments of an unpredictable and offensive campaign.

It is not the ridicule we have subjected ourselves to on the world stage. It is not truth replaced with non-facts.

It is not the media’s failure to do their jobs and being replaced by absurd tweets, or Cabinet members who have vowed to dismantle the institutions they are nominated to lead  -- “putting the arsonists in charge of putting out the fires.”

It is that the sum of these things is so much greater than any of its parts.

The country has reached a crossroads that will determine the face, force and direction of American democracy for the rest of our lives.

With 30-plus governors, more than 30 state legislatures and all branches of the federal government in the hands of one party, there is little room left for civil discourse or divergent views.

The very same special interests trying to take control of government have been preparing for this moment. They have used law schools, think tanks, lobbying groups and right-wing media to incubate radical legal arguments and groom right-wing ideologues for the Supreme Court.

A court and Congress under the control of right-wing special interests will roll back the clock to a time without marriage equality, access to abortion and birth control, health-care reform, voting rights or life- saving regulation to protect the air, land and water.

The checks and balances between branches of government are gone. The alternative checks and balances of our traditional two-party system have likewise been voted away.

This is not the path to greatness. It is a death knell.

Felicia Bruce, Fort Pierce

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