Disturbingly relevant. :( This was written about 2019 and I would LOVE to see an updated version taking into account the actions of the last 2 years!
- "Have they or their partisan allies sponsored or encouraged mob attacks on opponents? Have they tacitly endorsed violence by their supporters by refusing to unambiguously condemn it and punish it?" Does this sound familiar?
- "Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media: . . . Have they threatened to take legal or punitive action against critics in rival parties, civil society or the media?" Sound familiar too?
- "Have they tacitly endorsed violence by their supporters by refusing to unambiguously condemn it and punish it? Trump has. Have they praised or refused to condemn other significant acts of political violence, either in the past or elsewhere in the world? Trump has. Have they supported laws or policies that restrict liberties such as expanded libel or defamation laws or laws restricting protests, criticism of the government, or certain Civic or political organizations? Trump has. Have they threatened to take legal or other punitive action against critics in rival parties, civil society, or the media? Trump has. Have they praised repressive measures taken by other governments either in the past or elsewhere in the world? Trump has. This all should have set off alarm bells. The primary process had failed in its gatekeeping role and allowed a man unfit for office to run as a mainstream Party candidate."
- "Because these measures are carried out piecemeal and with the appearance of legality, the drift into authoritarianism does always set off alarm bells. Citizens are often slow to realize that their democracy is being dismantled even as it happens before their eyes. One of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defense of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion."
- "Polarization can destroy democratic norms. When socioeconomic, racial, or religious differences give rise to extreme partisanship in which societies sort themselves into political camps whose world views are not just different but mutually exclusive, toleration becomes harder to sustain."
- "White Protestant voters are not just any constituency. For nearly two centuries, they comprised the majority of the US electorate and were politically, economically, and culturally dominant in American society. Now, again, white Protestants are a minority of the electorate, and declining. And they have hunkered down in the Republican party. In his 1964 essay, the paranoid Style of American politics historian Richard Hofstetter described the phenomenon of status anxiety, which he believed is most likely to emerge when a group's social status, identity, and sense of belonging are perceived to be under existential threat. This leads to a style of politics that is overheated, over suspicious, over aggressive, grandiose, and apocalyptic. Half a century after its publication, Hofstetter's publication may be more relevant than ever. The struggle against declining majority status is in good part what fuels the intense animosity that is to define the American right."
- "The Senate was likewise transformed by the arrival of Gingrich senators, whose ideology, aversion to compromise, and willingness to obstruct legislation helped speed the end of the body's traditional folkways. Though few realized it at the time Gingrich and his allies were on the cusp of a new wave of polarization rooted in growing public discontent, particularly among the Republican base. Gingrich didn't create this polarization, but he was one of the first Republicans to exploit the shift in popular sentiment, and his leadership helped to establish Politics as Warfare as the GOP's dominant strategy."
- "Although mass responses to extremist appeals matters more is whether political elites and especially political parties serve as filters. Put simply, political parties are democracy's gate keepers."
- "If partisan animosity prevails over mutual toleration, those in control of Congress may prioritize defense of the president over the performance of their constitutional duties. In an effort to stave off opposition victory, they may abandon their oversight role, enabling the president to get away with abusive, illegal, even authoritarian acts. Such a transformation from Watchdog into lap dog… "
- "Trump, even before his inauguration, tested positive on all four measures on our litmus test for autocrats. The first sign is a weak commitment to the Democratic rules of the game. Trump met this measure when he questioned the legitimacy of the electoral process and made the unprecedented suggestion that he might not accept the results of the 2016 election."
- "Levels of voter fraud in the United States are very low and because elections are administered by state and local governments, it is effectively impossible to coordinate national level voting fraud."
- "Under Donald Trump, the United States appears to be abandoning its role as democracy promoter for the first time since the cold war. President Trump's is the least pro-democratic of any US administration since Nixon's. Moreover, America is no longer a democratic model. A president whose country attacks the Press, threatens to lock up his rival, and declares that he might not accept election results cannot credibly defend democracy. "
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