Chuck Annal lives in Concord.

Some time back, I submitted a My Turn piece to the Monitor titled “Call Me a COG (Cranky Old Guy).” In it, I complained about a number of instances that represented how “cheapened” many things had become.

I referenced everything from cereal boxes so flimsy they collapse in your hands when you pour cereal into a bowl to blister packs that require a utility knife to open and childproof containers that require the strength of Thor to open. And it was all in good fun. I even hinted that perhaps a second humorous COG letter might be possible.

This is not that letter.

Little did I know then that The Cheapening of America would morph into the disastrous situation our country faces today. We now have a convicted felon and compulsive liar as president, a spineless Republican congress running in fear from him, a newly appointed cabinet of inexperienced and off-the-grid sycophants and a Supreme Court that includes a former frat boy accused of rape, an ethically-challenged, long-standing justice (yes, you, Justice Thomas) and a right-wing religious fanatic who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade despite swearing during her confirmation hearing not to do so.

The felon president, in defiance of Congress, has issued executive orders essentially crippling the federal government. More disconcerting is the felon president’s pardon of every Jan. 6 rioter, including members of various white supremacy organizations who are now protected and free to execute further mayhem.

Then, there’s Mr. Musk, one of the richest men on the planet, who is now a chief advisor to the President, gaining access to classified documents and determining which agencies in the federal government should be shut down. A wealthy individual with access to sensitive information reminds me of the oligarchs who play a major role in Putin’s Russia. Is this where we’re headed, rich guys controlling the federal government?

I would like to think that we will weather all this and defy the Cheapening of America, but I see no immediate relief in sight. The Democratic Party, a possible hope, seems to have opted for self-flagellation after their loss to the felon president. If anything, I think of the lines from Yeats’s poem The Second Coming: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

I think we all know what has to happen to reverse the Cheapening of America. In the words of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Right now, I don’t see any “good men” (or women) on the horizon who will step forward and declare, “Enough is enough! Give me back my country!”

Can we keep our hope alive or have we, indeed, reached a point of sheer hopelessness, succumbing to the worst who are “full of passionate intensity?”