On the National Mall, with the United States Capitol as a backdrop, democracy is dying. Or... well... melting, to be more pedantic and less poetic. A brilliant art installation funded by Ben Cohen (of "Ben and Jerry's" fame) was erected this morning and unveiled at noon, consisting of an ice sculpture spelling out "DEMOCRACY" in capital letters five feet high. They lucked out on the day chosen, since it is reportedly a sunny 70 degrees in Washington today, which means the sculpture is not going to last very much longer (there's a live feed of it available, which at roughly 5:00 P.M. Washington time had been reduced to the "D", the first "C", and the "Y", with a portion of the second "C" and nubs of a few other letters still hanging on). The message is as simple as it is brilliant: Democracy is melting away before our very eyes. Or, to rework the now-laughable banner slogan of the once-vaunted Washington Post: "DEMOCRACY" dies in broad daylight.

Cohen spoke about his reasons for financially backing the art installation:

[The ice sculpture is] showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes. I think it's a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans.... Attacks on freedom of speech. Masked, unidentified secret police snatching people off the streets and arresting and deporting them. These are horrible things that we used to talk about as happening in other countries. People being prosecuted and punished and sentenced without due process. Using the military against the population of the United States is undemocratic, right?

The artwork (titled: "Last Call -- DemocracyICED") was created in New York and was transported by refrigerated truck to the National Mall. The artists behind the installation are Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, who created it as a part of an ice-based art series:

The couple have worked with ice in the past in their "Melted Away" series, which included the word "Truth" in 2018 at the same location on the Mall and "The Future" in 2014 at the People's Climate March in New York City.

"We do this work to spark thought and provoke awareness and encourage people to engage in discussion about the issues and hopefully take some action," Ligorano said. "To witness it melting in front of the nation's capitol just adds theatrically, it sets the stage for what's really going on."

HuffPost ran some more quotes from the artists:

"It's an homage to what is and what once was," said Nora Ligorano, one of the artists behind the sculpture. She stood behind a small lectern set up by the installation as a few dozen people gathered around her, some involved with the project and others just passersby wondering what the big ice block was about.

"We have had to resurrect democracy four times up till now, but we're not sure if we're going to be able to resurrect it, exactly, today," she said, referring to moments in recent history. The other three times, she said, were the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq, the Patriot Act and former President George W. Bush's so-called war on terror.

"Nearly 20 years later, our democracy is so much further weakened than it was then, with the continued expansion of executive power, the militarization of our streets, attacks on the rule of law and weakening of our voters' rights, the dismantling of public health and scientific research," Ligorano said. "I mean, there's a long list."

. . .

"Later this week, one of the largest public demonstrations will take place here and around the country," Marshall Reese, the other artist behind the sculpture, told attendees. "It's time for all of us to resist, speak up and save our democracy before it's too late."

Reese was referring to the planned anti-Trump "No Kings" rally, which will happen around the country on Saturday, with the biggest demonstration expected to be in Washington D.C.

Protest art can be a powerful thing. It's worth pointing out that this installation is in no way related to the anonymous artist (or artists) who have been regularly putting up installations on the National Mall which feature bronze-colored statues seemingly designed to annoy Donald Trump (the most recent one was a pair of statues of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, holding hands and merrily skipping along).

While those statues were amusing (and scathing), this one is more performance art -- watching democracy melt away before our very eyes. And that is indeed a very powerful message, and one that is certainly appropriate for where we find ourselves as a country right now.

[Editor's Note: If you'd like to see the other installations in the artists' "Melted Away" series, you can visit their website to check them out. Also, while watching that live feed of the installation as I was writing this, the "Y" collapsed, leaving nothing but "D...C...." standing, which seems a karmic sort of joke, considering where it is located.]

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant