Everyone will come to the same conclusion at different times, in their own fashion. Some will be happy and some will be sad, but none can avoid the awful truth presented to us all without mercy in the last election: We are living in the post-republic America.
De Tocqueville knew it immediately and it has taken the better part of two centuries to accomplish the hazard he saw in the new American-style of government. Not that it was new to de Tocqueville, at least the understanding of democracy did not escape him, but when he remarked (paraphrased) that America would survive until the people realized they could vote themselves largess from the public treasury, he saw our future.
The last election was the first one I know of where the people dependent on government, or interested in the spoils to be had from electing one individual over another stood up to demand their loot. Be that “free” medicine and medical care, an extension of unemployment benefits (when the election was past and a higher unemployment figure could be tolerated) or just the greed of demanding more money from the wealthy, it is all the same.
