Nothing grinds my gears more than when my far-right colleagues spend all day denigrating and weakening our democracy, then declare that dictatorship is the only answer to our woes as a nation.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Because calling for dictatorship is pretty easy, especially when you think Dear Leader is on your “side.”

But these brave culture warriors have no clue what living under an authoritarian regime is like, and I, for one, hope they never have to find out. If history has shown us anything, it’s that dictatorships are like pyramid schemes: fantastic for the few at the top, and really, really bad for the rest of us.

Trust me, I get it: Democracy can be damn frustrating at times — take it from a guy who sees it up close every day.

Ours is a government of and by the people. It’s flawed because we the people are flawed, and that’s OK. Because we can work to make it better. We’ve done it a thousand times in our history. That’s the beauty of democracy: We get to learn from our mistakes. We get to grow, change, move forward.

This is still the greatest democracy in the history of the world, and we must do everything in our power to protect it. If you can, I encourage you to chip in $25 to help deliver the most resounding defeat the MAGA circus has ever faced, win back the House majority, and leave a stronger, more effective democracy to our kids.

Sean Casten