It’s here. Inauguration Day for the 45th president of the United States. Entering high office this afternoon is the first man in the country’s history who has neither served in the military nor in public office — no previous civil service — before assuming the presidency. He’s a mendacious reality TV star and real estate magnate who got himself elected by appealing to the worst of our nature. He also holds the dubious distinction of being the first president-elect to incite foreign powers on Twitter.

While I have grave concerns about what will transpire domestically over the next four years, my biggest worry is our foreign policy. It won’t take much for President Twitter Fingers to create an international incident. Considering the advisers from whom he will (presumably) take counsel, there’s additional concern for what could go wrong. No one is truly ready to become president of the United States. The responsibilities are too vast and the burden of the office too heavy. That said the man taking the oath of office today has a temperament that suggests trouble lies ahead. Undoubtedly, any blame for his failures will be placed on others — by him. I’m certain if it’s doing its job the Fourth Estate will be accused often. It’s buck passing not buck stopping in this Oval Office.

Those old Ronald Reagan Morning in America commercials from the 1980s seem quaint now as we enter a combative Midnight in America. The audacity of hope has been dashed by the new sheriff, who has a darkness about him that doesn’t bode well. Judging from the bumpy and often needlessly antagonistic transition following the election, I don’t see how the new president will be more statesman-like now that he’s in the White House.

Not too long ago I read an article by entrepreneur and academic Tobias Stone. He suggests that our election of a populist candidate shouldn’t be viewed in a bubble but in the context of an already volatile world. Consider what’s happening right now: Brexit, nationalism’s rise in Europe (hello again, Marine Le Pen!), Russia’s malfeasance, North Korea’s muscle flexing, China’s rise, Syria’s crisis, the Middle East’s persistent instability… Stone points out that at fairly regular intervals humans enter times of mass destruction but often miss the signs of trouble approaching while dismissing the few observers who see the impending storm. World War I and World War II were our last catastrophic conflicts, costing about 95 million lives. Today pressure is again building in an explosive global keg. Will it subside or will a spark set it off? What happens when an ill-advised trade war launches a global recession? Or with uncertainty around the world and tensions running high, what would it take for a small armed conflict to become regional? A regional conflict to spread farther? Who decides to use a nuclear device? It doesn’t have to be a missile strike. What if it’s a dirty bomb set off in a city? Then what? This obviously goes beyond just the United States. Cool heads are needed in crisis from all, but the new leader of the free world conducts foreign policy in 140 characters or less. There’s not much room for nuance in his weltanschauung.

So what now? The fight against the new president’s cynical view of America and the world has just begun. Protests and marches are planned. A couple weeks ago, Charles M. Blow wrote a piece in The New York Times about holding an anti-inauguration. My anti-inauguration observation will be sleeping through the ceremony and avoiding most media coverage throughout the day. Being a light in the coming darkness takes energy, so I’m sleeping in. That and I simply don’t care to watch the darkness fall with pomp and circumstance on CNN. Be on the right side of history. Be a light with me. We can control that together as an affront to the incoming president’s authoritarian tendencies. He still answers to us, not the other way around. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  Fight for what’s true and right. Onward we go.