Bill St. Clair

(17) Members of the FBI and other government officials will have to speak out, both publicly and through leaks that extend/deepen the story.

(18) Activists will have to fight through exhaustion, and then fight some more.

(19) Journalists with a conscience will have to challenge their bosses and push past media organizations' comfort zones.

(20) Dems in congress will need to make credible threats to shut everything down, and they will need to keep making them.

(21) And, on top of that, the administration will need to keep being bumbling idiots. (which is the point I'm most optimistic about.)

(22) Much more likely is that we'll look back on these days and remember them as an era of democratic decline. (...)

(23) Democratic systems are governed both by laws and norms. We're now learning that if an administration is willing to violate all norms...

(24) Then many of the laws limiting bad behavior are, as a practical matter, bluffs.