This is not a drill and no, people are not overreacting

Part history lesson, part cautionary tale here. Courtesy of the Philippines.

1965

• Ferdinand Marcos wins the presidential election
• Increase in industrialization and infrastructure projects
• Cabinet appointments are largely technocrats and intellectuals
• Increase in funding to the Armed Forces
• New "schools" and "learning institutions" established across the Philippines

1968

• Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr warns that Marcos is paving the way for a "garrison state"

1969

• Marcos runs for a second term and wins
• Marcos mandates that all public institutions must carry a picture of the President
• Second term is plagued by economic upheaval
• Students demand educational reforms
• Crime rates rise

1970

• The First Quarter Storm happens on October 30th. Students and protestors are silenced by military forces
• Student protests and violence are rampant around Metro Manila

1971

• The Liberal Party holds a campaign rally at Plaza Miranda to announce support for senators and mayors
• Two grenades get tossed on stage during the rally
• Marcos suspends the writ of habeas corpus
• Marcos rounds up and arrests, or otherwise silences, opposition in an effort to get rid of rivals in the Liberal Party

1972

• Student activists take over Diliman campus at the University of the Philippines, declaring it a free commune
• Government dissolves the free commune
• Protests continue, as do violent clashes with armed forces
• Martial law is declared

1981

• A year passes since Marcos promised to lift martial law but martial law remains in place, allegedly in the name of national security and public order
• Presidential elections are boycotted
• Marcos wins another six-year term

1983

• Opposition leader Ninoy Aquino returns to the Philippines after exile in the United States and is assasinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport upon arrival

1986

• In a snap presidential election, fraudulent election results declare Marcos the winner
• Corazon Aquino's (Ninoy's partner) supporters do not accept the fraudulent results
• General Fidel Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile withdraw support for Marcos, defect and barricade themselves inside of Camp Crame
• The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution and the Philippine Revolution of 1986, lasts three days
• Over two million Filipino citizens demonstrate at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Manila and successfully, and peacefully, oust Marcos and help restore democracy in the Philippines
• Corazon Aquino is elected becoming the first female president in Asia

While I'm tremendously proud to come from a people that participated in one of the largest peaceful and successful demonstrations of its time then elected Asia's first female president, I'd be thrilled to not see this cycle repeat here in the United States.

White nationalists will be at the highest levels of government. The incoming vice president believes electrocuting Americans will somehow save our country. The next head of the Environmental Protection Agency doesn't believe in science. The president-elect has publicly denigrated pretty much every group in the country except straight, white men.  The list goes on...

People have a right to fear for their health, their safety, the fate of this country, the fate of this world. The fear is completely justified.

This is it, y'all. This is the bottom. Or so I pray it is.

And if you've made it this far, I suggest you read Masha Gessen's, Autocracy: Rules for Survival.