It was when the supreme court judged he could act like a king, the summer before he was elected, inventing things the constitution never said and setting the example of lawlessness Trump now follows up on confidently.

And continuing to pull on that thread, when the Senate refused to vote on Supreme Court nominees for the president in 2016.

Call it the pebble that started the landslide but I lay it at the Patriot Act, which was passed in October, 2001. The passing of the law was bad enough but the subsequent extensions of the law by both parties cemented the government's intent.

In other words we might have killed Osama Bin Laden, but he won. The U.S truly is a "shadow of it's former self."