1/ There's an environmental metaphor for what's happening right now, explained to me by arborist Sir Tim Smit.

It's called 'death flowering' and it happens when an old tree is diseased and rotting from the inside.

Suddenly, that dying tree will burst, even out of season, into

2/ excessive flowering and fruiting. Or it will suffer from 'epicormic growth' of messy buds and branches on its trunk elsewhere.

The diseased tree is throwing up flowers and fruits as a desperate last attempt to breed and continue itself

3/ the 'death flowering' tree might briefly look healthy and impressive, but it's core is rotten and all the colour and growth burns up the last strength the tree actually has.

It can take years, but the tree is doomed and the death flowering is because it knows it

4/ Trump, Cruz and the GOP in the US and other 'strongmen' attempts around the world - they are death flowers

White supremacists - death flowers

INCEL misogynists - death flowers

The chaotic growth, bursting energy with no direction, the urgency against losing entitlements,

5/ they are dying and know it, deep down. This isn't their world anymore.

Epicormic growth isn't sustainable. It's desperation.

But, here's the kicker. You can't wait for a death flowering tree to just fall. Foresters will get their axe when they spot them,

6/ because these trees can infect and damage the forest itself. They are dangerous and their rot might pass to other trees.

You gotta chop them down.

Those death flowers are destructive and need felling.

7/ Your vote is the axe.

The incredible organizers in Georgia and elsewhere are foresters of democracy. Elections are the Arbor day of the political woodland.

In the US, you've started to prune your death flowers

8/ but the potential for rot remains.

We all have to be tree surgeons this year, and the next and next.

Again, thanks to Sir Tim Smit for the analogy and apologies if I remembered it wrong.

But this story has fueled my hope and determination for months now.