In the second paragraph, writer Jay Winik uses a figurative expression known as an idiom. Find and write down the idiom. Then, explain the idiom's intended (not literal) meaning. Why, do you suppose, Winik chose to include this simple idiom in such a complicated article?

"decapitation of the government" is the idiom Jay Winik used in the second paragraph. The idiom's intended meaning is the severance of the top government officials from the remainder of civil society through assassination. I think the idiom was chosen to add a grave visual description of the sense of the moment.