Rise and fall

A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants rise and fall.

A scary lesson is that sometimes they take their countries and their people down with them.

It’s increasingly clear that Trump’s fall is coming. Will we survive it?

While we were in Czechia, two-thirds of voters in Hungary rejected the Trump-like Viktor Orban. Czechs were happy about that.

Democrats take note: Peter Magyar, who beat Orban and is pretty conservative himself, won by focusing on people’s economic problems and government corruption.

During our stay, we didn’t detect any anti-American feeling. Maybe it was our friendly faces – and credit cards.

In one Prague beer hall, a burly, tattooed waiter asked where in the States we were from. Told North Carolina, he proudly said he’s heading to Naples, Florida for a vacation in May.

With the five- and six-hour time difference, it was even harder than usual to keep up with the gyrations, contradictions and nonsense that constantly spewed from Trump’s mouth and Truth Social account.

Was the war in Iran over or still raging on? Was the Strait of Hormuz open or closed? Was he talking to the ayatollahs or bombing them back to the Stone Age?

As we marveled at medieval cathedrals, Trump attacked the Pope.

On Orthodox Easter, he likened himself to Jesus Christ.

That was too much for some MAGAs, even if not for the always-forgiving and fawning Franklin Graham.

There was commentary that, finally, Trump had crossed the line of acceptability.

But how many times has he crossed that line in the last 11 years?

The prospect of change in this fall’s elections is encouraging.

If Democrats capture the House or Senate or both, we will see Congress exercise some restraint and impose some accountability.

But make no mistake: That will mean two years of bitter, divisive political warfare.

At the end, will the United States stand strong as ever?

Or will we follow the decline of so many countries and empires that once called themselves great?