“Right Now, the U.S. Is Ceasing to Be a Democracy” | Donald Trump is currently transforming the U.S. into an authoritarian state, argues Harvard Professor Steven Levitsky, author of “How Democracies Die.” And he is using an unexpected twist in the authoritarian playbook to do so.
Posted by GirasoleDE
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Remember when swing voters and “progressives” said this was just fear mongering, and called us “blue maga” for trying to warn them?
well this was a depressing read
When comparing the moves Trump has made since his inauguration with those of established autocrats, where do you see the similarities?
**Levitsky:** What is striking about the first two months of the Trump administration is not that it reminds me of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland, Narendra Modi in India or **Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. It’s worse. Trump and his allies have been much more openly authoritarian than any of these figures. They are eagerly embracing authoritarianism.** See, for example, the apparent enthusiasm with which they are refusing to comply with court orders and attacking justices.
> Our Constitution will remain in place, the opposition will not be banned, and elections will be held again. But in those elections, there will no longer be a level playing field between Republicans and Democrats.
Yup, that’s the “fun” thing.
Except for the most shameless autocrats, Most dictators want to keep the veneer of democracy standing to keep a veneer of legitimacy. What scares me most of the USA is that once Trump bites it the GOP manages to effectively close ranks and keep his changes to finish transforming the country into a permanent GOP strangehold, where they may be even be democratic Presidents but they are powerless to enact change with the Republicans firmly stopping them of having sizable representation on the other two chambers.