James Jatras, former U.S. State Department official and advisor to the Senate Republican Leadership, gave a glimpse of the reality in Washington, D.C. in an interview with Iran’s Tasnim News Agency posted today. “The illusion of ‘democracy,’ constitution and rule of law is finally gone,” he said. “Of course this has nothing to do with phony calls of ‘racism’ but with demonization of the historic American nation and its traditions, values, and identity.” Jatras explicitly described the Jan. 6 events at the U.S. Capitol and the response to them as “as the functional equivalent” of the Reichstag Fire of 1933. “After Jan. 20, it will be followed by a flurry of Executive actions and legislation (cheered on by most of the Republicans) to remove the last vestiges of what was a free country,” he said. “The First Amendment (freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association) are only formalities now, the Second Amendment (right to bear arms, considered central to Americans’ concept of free citizenry) is in severe danger.”