If you aren’t seeing signs that American democracy is in trouble, I would say its only because you aren’t looking. Many of the players in American politics are discarding long held standards and practices that have kept our political rivalries in balance, and prevented the kind of bitter conflict that eventually leads to the types of repressive governments we have witnessed so often over the last century.
My disgust with the orange clown leading our country is no secret - in fact I tell everyone who will listen just how deep that disgust runs. I can’t stand him, his policies, or any of the people around him – surprise… I constantly argue that Donald Trump is displaying classic authoritarian tendencies in addition to the widely reported ineptitude at governing...
Some democracies die in a hail of gunfire, or there’s a military coup, or the leaders are imprisoned, or sometimes entire political factions are even executed. This is not the typical breakdown of democracy that we see happening in America today, this would be more typical of the cold war era. What we see happening in America is much more subtle - but no less dangerous.
Military coups do occur occasionally in the world today, although they are much less common than they used to be. The primary way in which democracies have died since the end of the cold war is at the hands of elected leaders, in the hands of governments that were often freely or close to freely elected, who then use democratic institutions to weaken or destroy democracy slowly from within. Military coups happen suddenly, overnight in most cases - sudden events which trigger the breakdown, giving rise to dictators and other authoritarian regimes.
We can only hope that our American institutions are strong enough to survive this process, but surely if we were to fall into some kind of crisis, it would likely take that form – destruction from within by the very people charged with preventing it.
This doesn’t typically happen the week or even several months after the elected leader takes power, it unfolds gradually. That’s one of the things that make it extremely difficult to study, and for us citizens, make it extremely difficult to even recognize its happening.
Electoral totalitarians come to power democratically, they have democratic legitimacy from being elected, and then they gradually chip away at democratic institutions. There is a gradual tilting of the playing field toward the incumbent so it becomes harder and harder to dislodge the incumbent through democratic means. The process may take years, or it may take a decade, but at the end of the process the incumbent is firmly entrenched in power.
For example what we have witnessed in Turkey over the last ten years. Essentially president Erdowan has entrenched himself in power, and weakened the opposition to the point where it is now almost impossible to remove him by any democratic means. In this instance there continues to be elections, but the elections are tilted in favor of the incumbent, making the elections no longer fair. Through a variety of mechanisms the president is able to stay in power, and to withstand any criticism, even though public support is no longer there.
Very often what we see today is the formal architecture of democracy remains in place, but the actual substance of it is destroyed or rendered inoperable. Such as in Russia, where it only had a brief brush with anything resembling a true democracy in the late 1980’s, that quickly collapsed and has since devolved into an oligarchy. Russia has the illusion of democracy, with a parliament and institutions designed around the democratic principal, but in practice it would more accurately be described as an oligarchy or autocracy.
Never in a million years would I have considered the possibility that American democratic principals could be threatened as they are now. Under the Trump presidency we are seeing the systematic dismantling of every democratic institution that makes our country BETTER. The judiciary is being stacked with sycophantic judges, the congressional leadership on both sides governs based solely on self interest, and the population is so blinded by artificial made up issues designed to divide us, that most have no clue who the true enemy of democracy really is.
I've been reading a new book called How Democracies Die - by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Professors of Government Harvard University) Yes I know - confirmation bias... Its a great read - recommended... I'll probably write more of these "rants" as I read more of the book... It gives me a lot of material to work with... :)
If you wont take my word for it - take theirs... Get the book...
Thanks for reading...
