The violation of the White House (standing in for our democracy) and the Louvre are perfect symbols and metaphors for the wanton destruction of our sacred historic institutions. These violations have much in common, not the least of which is their brutality and blatant disregard for process, law and decency. One more thing they share is that this is not what we expected.

We all know, because we have all seen countless movies, how a bold robbery of a museum is supposed to take place. We know that museums are well fortified, and the security is strong and hi-tech. Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis or George Clooney put together an elite (multi-ethnic) team with specialized safe-crackers, tech gurus and muscle. They case the joint, find the internal cameras, figure out how to evade the invisible laser beams and disarm the alarms. The plot is intricate and demands the cover of darkness, as well as subtlety, stealth and silence. That’s how it’s done. In the movies.

It is not accomplished by driving a truck with a cherry picker up to a museum in broad daylight, then, dressed as workmen climbing up to the balcony, breaking a window and then carrying out a smash and grab, as if in a 7-11. But that is how the reality played out, as against our more involved Hollywood expectations. No stealth. No subtlety. No cover of darkness. No security. No armed response. There were cameras in the form of smart phones to make up for the unconscionable absence of fixed museum cameras.

Security, I guess, was predicated on the idea that no one was stupid enough to break in during business hours and just take what they want. Everything was blatant and brutal, not cunning or subtle. This is not what we—or the French—were expecting. The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, raised derisive laughter and jeers when she said that the theft “was a significant failure, but the security system did not fail.”

Now look at our White House, the “People’s House” and compare its desecration—both as a building and a symbol of our nation. We expect democracy to be attacked. We’ve seen those movies too. We’ve seen the White House attacked and destroyed by super villains, foreign powers and aliens from outer space. Ultimately, it is always saved or rebuilt. However, this is in the movies. We do not expect a brutal and (to mix the metaphor) frontal assault from inside the White House. We expect, once again, stealth, subversion, infiltration and intricate plans. We do not expect our elected president to summon the demolition team and tear down the East Wing. Blatant and brutal and apparently irreversible.

Where were the guards, the guardrails, the process, the boards and commissions designed to protect our sacred sites? Such boards and commissions exist but were ignored and bypassed. The Trump plan was only slightly different from the Paris “smash and grab.” It was smash, destroy and not get caught up with Plan Check or a dozen other panels. Break now and turn questions of if he “can do that?” into “Can he get away with having done that?” Like the violated Louvre, the violated White House is a fact, a fact on the ground in the form of a pile of rubble.

Most liberals, and all progressives, expected Trump to attack our institutions and undermine our social contract, the Constitution and our democracy. We did not anticipate the speed, the directness and ferocity of these attacks. We should have and not only because of Trump’s unique constellation of pathologies, but also as a sign of our times and current toxic culture. Sadly, the watchwords of technology are “Move fast and break things,” and our social contract seems to be, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.”

Trump, like the Paris thieves, employs no subtlety, little stealth and never silence. They both commit frontal assaults on our cultural heritage and institutions. They shock us with their audacity, that no doubt some will perversely admire; but most of us will detest and decry these affronts to history and decency done in plain sight in front of people who only stand there and record it on their phones. We the People cannot save our democracy by only being part of a passive audience. Saving our society involves, well, involvement and commitment. It is showing up, standing up and speaking up.