In March to 1973 John Dean famously warned that Watergate was "a cancer on the presidency." Today, almost 44 years later, we are afflicted with a cancer on the soul of our entire nation.
We have a self-admitted serial sexual abuser in the Oval Office who determination to lie, demonize, insult, and profit at every conceivable turn displays a pathology matched only by the worst tyrants.
Conservatism has metastasized into into an invading agent of the body politic.
Evangelical Republicans, people who profess only the highest morala, worship Trump even as he stands in stark contrast against the very beliefs that they proudly tout. They embrace Roy Moore, who is a probable pedophile and a proven violator of the rule of law and the Constitution because no Democrat can ever be acceptable.
White supremacists march openly in the streets in torchlight parades of hatred directly lifted from the Nazi playbook and are called "very fine people" and are
welcomed as staunch supporters of the Republican Party.
This is the greatest crisis our country has faced. It it is an attack on pluralism, brotherhood and a dedication to a shining ideal once called America. It is capitulation to avarice, nourished by tribal hatred, and abetted by insanity.
God can't help us. The true test is if we can help ourselves.
55
As much as I admire your take on Trump, I think it wrong to focus on him. He serves as a distractor from the horrifying agenda that is being pursued by minions of the Koch Brothers and like-minded neo-Nazi billionaires through the GOP radicals they "elected" and their creature Mike Pence, who chose most of the Administration's appointees. The moral decline and self-inflicted damage that you so well describe is coming largely from them, with Trump waving his hands and telling people to look at his outrageous claims instead.
45
Self-destruction is precisely the right phrase. You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.
18
" ... we’re now ruled by people who have no interest in letting hard thinking get in the way of whatever policies they want to follow ... America has given me a lot to be thankful for. But it looks, more and more, as if that was a different country from the one we live in now." (Paul Krugman, NYTimes, Nov2017) I have lived through the same time period as Mr. Krugman, and pretty much see it the same way. After being mostly undamaged after winning WWII, Americans went through a period of triumphalism. This morphed into a sense of entitlement, which some considered "exceptionalism". Rather than education, college was a source of credentials leading to a high paid job at places like Enron. Then the wheels started wobbling, if not falling off, with deep recessions and financial meltdowns. Finally, people were frustrated, even desperate, and began accepting demagogues like Mr. Trump. A troubling arc, indeed.
31
If Trump read this article he would have stopped at the first quote and said, "Look! He said I was 'extremely smart!'" Perhaps he would then tweet....
3
Like Joe McCarthy, Trump has rode a wave of blind rage from a base that intimidates primary elections for every GOP congressperson. Fear of 'commies' gave McCarthy momentum; his attack on democracy was contained.
Trump seems capable of corrupting even the most reasonable Republicans in partisan fervor, fundamentalist values (Market & white 'Christian') and a flummoxed opposition.
A Welch-like correction of McCarthy - waking up all decent legislators & the public- can only be achieved in the mid terms.
In the meantime, horrendous tax cuts, decimation of crucial agencies including the State Dept, chaotic incoherent global strategies, relegation of major policy decisions to unelected weirdo appointees & advisors (Kelly, Kushner, Bannon, Miller, Sanders & Stone) may not be easy to repair. Turn out is all.
27
I noticed that things began to go downhill when Reagan was elected president. He cut taxes on the rich and now the rich own the country. No country can succeed when a cabal of billionaires have more money than the government. Our government, especially the Republican Party, is owned by the Koch’s, the DeVos’s, the Popes, etc. And their wholly owned subsidiary, the Republican Party is preparing to cannibalize most of us with their heinous tax plan.
81
It is not just Trump, the RNC is fully complicit in this. In fact this is the sort of thing they have been aiming for creating since they got behind reagan.
You ought to consider how much and in the open the RNC, Party Members and Their "unaffiliated" Conservative supporter's methods and practices resemble Soviet Communist methods and practices and have done since the Clinton Admin. Even Project Veritas openly also calls itself American Pravda!
"Pravda" was the Soviet newspaper well known for being their propaganda arm and openly dishonest reporting.
Pravda is Russian for Truth. Get it?
22
There is no " self " in the destruction of democracy you mention in your commentary. It is purely a slow moving right wing, Republican, fascist take over of our government, including the Judiciary. It is a fascist Republican takeover of our civil liberties. It is a Republican fascist takeover of our culture. It is an attempted Republican fascist takeover of our free press. It's there everyday everywhere you look. The real crime is the totally impotent, weak kneed Democrats who are just too polite and too proper to get in those fascist faces and make them admit the truth about their motives.
It's FASCISM plain and simple. Why are you too afraid to say it?
37
How could a populace of ostensibly intelligent, and fairly well educated elect not alone a 'carnival barker,' and sleazy entertainer and sexual molesting who has cheated hundreds out of funds, and who has never done anybody good anywhere, and whose third wife posed naked on the cover of a major magazine, I ask. Has the country gone as 'mad' and this jester with the orange hair, and aging, scornful brain, to let this character is represent the USA. Sadly, he fits the stereotype of the 'ugly American' and let's face it, he was elected by equally ugly Americans whose sick hatred and absence of a moral compass will sink this nation.
24
MAGA?
1
Oh, I think the N.Y. Times' adamant refusal to publish anything a rich person might not like doesn't give them much room to criticize others.
3
CORRECTION:
Wake up people - Here is the real boogieman! And it ain't Putin!!
3
I pray that 'What doesn't kill US makes US stronger'.
1
American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections
===============
That Hillary Clinton is really something isn't she?
7
Trump and his supporters will either be heroes of a great, fascist state that arises in the USA, or will forever be condemned at traitors and villains among a free, prosperous democracy that escapes their attempts to destroy it.
13
Explaining the election to those outside the US. Americans are stupid (see Alabama), but usually common sense sets in afterwards. That is no longer the case with the election of November 8, 2016. The country is going bonkers!!!! It's as of those shows on syfy network showing the US as a destroyed or third worldish with the rich living behind a wall may come true. The seeds have been sown.
8
I BLAME the GOP for the unraveling of our country... these shameful people still get on TV and preach conservatism ! Better they preach Dictatorship/ Racism/Bigotry.
SHAME on you 'conservatives' you are TRAITORS and need to be treated as such !
19
American Democracy is under no threat. Those that think so are deluded--and mostly Liberals--who are horrified that Trump is reversing Liberalism.
To all you Liberals out there (99.99% of NY Times readers), democracy didn't seem to be threatened when you were winning the push for a Progressive agenda. But now that it's rightly being reversed--it's also no cause for alarm.
Grow up, Liberals. You lost--and some of your most cherished policies are being unwound. To invoke the apocalypse is just being whiny.
7
In my view, everything the author mentions can be traced to one source: Fox News.
13
Axis of evils is well in control of US democracy. Millitary industrial,Sickcare industrials,Greedcare pocketeers,Pocketcare most partisan pollsters,Yescare advisors & polished speech writers & Foxytailcare in/offshore lobbying groups gonna eat away the entire pie of US wealth. So far the world's most vibrant & global magnetic powerhouse type nation seems loosing its prosperity,shine,dignity,influence,charisma,power with authenticity & respect in global stands. The politicians & very few greediest elements is ruining US with millions falling behind with least resources,non adequate healthcare system & staggering ever increasing deficit mountain. Failure to see,listen about & attend steeply widening economic gaps between have nothing & few cornering/grab everything will ruin everything US stood for. One more warning about markets ballooned with low interest rates,tax cuts & irresponsible behaviors of few in power including financial institutions & market maniputors that past gonna come to haunt US soon when lies gonna come out.
2
We will become just another banana republic in the americas. China will become the new superpower. The reign of the great white nations, britain and the usa is over, crumbled by quest for money and power, aided by undereducated masses.
14
That a party calling itself "Republican" does this to a republic is despicable.
3
Pigs in clover. And we let it happen.
4
This hyperbolic, polemic recitation of smears shows how utterly dishonest and intellectually bankrupt the left has become. Every single charge made against Trump in this article, based on the flimsiest of justifications, was demonstrably true of Obama. The only reason for Trump's "low standing" among foreigners vs. Obama is the media's relentless deification of Obama and slander of Trump.
When Obama came to office with no experience, and numerous life long ties to genuine far left extremists, carried on a tsunami of hypnotized worship, a cult of personality unseen in American history, and proceeded to seek every means possible to circumvent the legislature, the left stood and cheered their dear leader. When Obama lied blatantly to the public about major policy issues, they cheered. When his administration was exposed using its power to inhibit political opposition, they were silent. When his secretary of state brazenly broke the law and was then let off the hook by his Justice Department, the media yawned.
But no, Obama didn't do all of this damage (despite the article citing how radically he polarized the country), Trump did. Sure. Totally credible.
4
Impeachment as soon as the Democrats win the House in 2018.
13
Let's stop blaming Trump for the destruction of democracy and put the blame where it belongs - on the Trumpsters, the white American male whiners who can't carry their own weight.
No more Blue State support for the Red States. Set them adrift and see if they can keep up with the rest of us. Call it tough love.
They think everything about our country is a disaster - well, that's because they've been holding us back. Imagine what we could do without their dead weight.
26
Despite all the atrocities committed by Trump, I still don't see any contrition expressed by ANYONE in the comments section f
They couldn't keep it white. But they could keep the greed going.
2
Friedrich Nietzsche's depiction of "The Slave" is Donald Trump.
1
Please , No more pictures of trump. It's in poor taste and it's disgusting.
9
Trump is not alone. The Republican Party is complicit by enabling his crimes and misdemeanors. As long as Trump is their useful idiot, and as long as the GOP remains in complete control of the government, we are in for unbridled corruption and degradation. The most important thing we can do as Americans is vote next year, and vote out every single Republican on the ballot.
12
I’m scared.
8
It is safe to say, that anyone who paid attention to our democracy and freedoms (instead of being brainwashed by fascist faux news) and sat out the last election is culpable in our demise.
9
I think using Arendt here is a bit off base. It lets about 60 million Americans off the hook for the crime of voting for Trump. You have to be willfully ignorant or very full of hate to get past Trump's evil and dangerous nature.
11
"Partisan polarization, which helped give rise to Trump in the first place."
So what caused the partisan polarization?
We know what the problem is but nobody has the guts to say it.
It's cable news television... It's Fox News and CNN and MSNBC. They know that hate sells and they know that it is addictive. People say we need a new fairness doctrine.
What we need is a civility doctrine. If you can't be civil on tv then you get fired just like if you sexually harass women you get fired. Why is sexual harassment considered a fireable offense but lying about and debasing people you don't agree with politically is not?
4
This idea that Trump is failing is getting more and more strained by the day. Your editorials are getting less and less reasonable...
4
The tax cut stems from the same mind, that thought to have Mexico pay for the wall - kicking common folk in the groin and having them pay for that.
From Kennedy to Reagan (a person I do not otherwise like to applaud / good riddance) our Presidents demanded to pull down walls. This one, and his friend BiBi, build them.
5
Putin must be busting with laughter over the self destruction of the American Government.
The GOP is handing him a win on America.
The rules on treason will have to be rewritten when this episode is finally over.
6
An oligarchy class is emerging in a rapidly deteriorating democracy in America. Big donors and wealthy Americans are calling the shots and meanwhile income inequity grows. It is a sad state of affairs to see this liberal democracy, the beacon to others in the world, crash and burn as the President, politicians and a third of the country turn a blind eye to the dismantling and deconstruction of the state. Dear lord, America wake up!
9
Please. Why then is this person still in power. We had problems but we were good.
2
We are headed for national catastrophe. The unthinkable is now on the table: Civil War, Coup d'etat, Martial Law, Economic, Civil and Social Collapse. The United States as we knew it is over. Trump and the GOP have killed it. What happens next will be the final ruination of our country.
9
Putin's lap dog-in charge has, with his master's help, has for the price of a few dozen artillery shells paid to hackers has succeeded, in a short span of time, that which 70 years of Soviet dreaming could not accomplish.
4
This is personal for me. I have not spoken to my only brother since he voted for Trump. My father and all three uncles actively dodged bullets in World War II to defend the United States and why anyone would vote for a dangerous, idiotic proto-facist, who, before the election, made extremely clear who he was, is incomprehensible to me. It was an insult to my father and is an insult to what the United States stands for.
21
This is depressing beyond description.
8
Is the Trump Republican tax-cut-for-the-rich law a definitive tipping point? When the wink and joke become deadly serious? And the damage is broad and deep? When our democracy is damaged irreparably? When a reactionary violent racist corrupt authoritarian oligarchy is born?
The Trump Republican tax-cut-for-the-rich law is deeply telling: secretive, hurried, careless, cruel, fundamentally dishonest, corrupt, and simply terrible for working and middle class Americans.
House and Senate Republicans made a deal with the president who is, among other things, a narcissist and pathological liar. They would neither impeach him nor exercise their oversight duties as required by the Constitution. In exchange, they would get this miserable legislation. Of course, they had already lost their way. But Trump is now eating them alive from the inside out.
Early on, Goebbels was just a provocative clown given to inciting street brawls. The anti-Semitic cartoons in Der Stürmer were just a sly joke. But then suddenly they weren't clown or joke anymore.
7
Trump is a master of speaking to the basest instincts of his supporters, and those GOP members of Congress whom he has apparently bullied into submission. But look at his actions, do not be led astray by his hateful, ignorant, and self-serving words.
In less than a year so much of not only our government, but our civilization, has been damaged, dismembered, and discarded...all to the detriment of the very people who put him where he is...and they are stupid enough, and lazy enough, and intellectually incapable enough, to believe his incessant pandering to their bigotry, racism, misogyny, self-righteousness, and phobias.
We are a nation led by Benedict Donald, a real and extremely dangerous threat to us and to the world...and a traitor who sees himself as above the law...a future dictator, if he is not stopped.
11
Trump won the vote. Accept the bit about a free press but the biggest problem in the world is Islam and he's onto it. His second priority was jobs for the working class the sum of whom have been forgotten by ill serving gender bending emotionally unstable new atheist post modernist seeking to destroy all the Christian tenets of Western democracy. To be replaced with what? Motherhood statements.
1
It is time for a worldwide march against bigotry and hatred.
8
Is this how civil wars get started?
4
Donald Trump isn't taking us there. Trump is who he is, and despite of - or maybe including - his chronic lying, it has been obvious for years, and during the campaign, that Trump is a cad, a lout, pathologically narcissistic, ill-equipped for the job, a bully, a thug, a criminal, a racist, a misogynist...a really bad person. The people who are taking us there, therefore, are those who voted for him and the Republicans in Congress who know Trump is a disturbed person who has no business being in the Oval Office, but who are willing to send this country up the Trump River (in Greek lore, known as the River Styx) just so they can get a tax cut for wealthy corporations passed.
I blame them, not Trump.
9
Stock market hits new highs, unemployment hits lows, consumer confidence is up, the economy is booming but the Times is unhappy.
The people do not want what you i.e. The Times/the left are selling/trying to impose on the people. Put another way, elections have consequences.
2
Trump is just fulfilling his debt to Putin. Weakening America is job number 1; self enriching is close blind.
4
Every day we answer the question "just how stupid are we?".
6
The undoing of the democracy is not so much the result of Russia interfering in the electoral process, but in the ability of the President to replace hardworking knowledgable people with millionaires who have supported his rise to power. People with little or no experience, heading up departments of enormous importance to the country and our world peace.
This is what happens when a rich showman, with no scruples, has almost absolute power. Frightening to watch.
6
This chart brings gladness to the hearts of all conservatives. They see foreign dissatisfaction with the US as a sign that they are right - there is only one way and that's the American way. Everyone else is misguided. It fits their self-image - gun happy, bellicose, thumbing their collective noses at anyone who disagrees, and a complete lack of interest in how their actions affect others. This is history. You can look it up.
8
Thank you for a clear and well articulated summary of why this man is not fit to lead this country. Yet, we have those like Senator Lindsey Graham decry how the media is falsely portraying Trump as crazy and not fit to be president. While in February of 2016 the same Lindsey Graham said Trump was a "kook" and "not fit to be president".
Even Bannon once said that Trump had about a 30% chance of filling his tenure as president. Perhaps he was being prophetic. In any case, many of us are thankful to the free press for providing us with a glimmer of hope.
4
Since those video tweets yesterday , I have concluded that DJT is not just U.S.'s Public Enemy #1, but in fact the Most Dangerous Human alive today in the entire world.
But the Kochs and Mercers et al. will have their tax cuts, and complete disintegration of the nation's safety net, so Congress Does NOTHING about it...
6
The unwillingness to accept a legally elected president is far more dangerous to democracy than some tweets.
3
Did Trump fundamentally change America like the prior President said he would do? Do the current President fail to protect us from North Korea or sign a ridiculous deal with Iran? Did the current President invade Libya after promising we wouldn't when they gave up his nuclear ambitions? Did the current President continue to fail to get us to 3.0% G.D.P. growth? No, the current President has been positive as opposed to your lord and savior. America is getting better because the 13 times the last President acted unconstitutionally according to the U.S. Supreme Court is over.
1
Many commenters have pointed out the perverse influence of money in politics: Citizens United, etc. We certainly need to address this problem.
But we should also acknowledge that democracy can overcome money.
Mrs. Clinton spent about $1 billion and lost. Mr. Trump spent about half as much and won. Money alone does win elections. Fox News and Breitbart certainly helped Mr. Trump. But so did the NY Times, and all of the so-called MSM who gave him free coverage.
The Koch Brothers did not support Trump (although the Mercers and Adelson did). By contrast, Mrs. Clinton had no shortage of campaign funding.
Beyond that, Bernie Sanders did surprisingly well with small donations from many citizens. A billion dollars will not guarantee an electoral victory. (And it only takes $3 per citizen to get to that amount.)
Most importantly, democracy is a participatory endeavor. And resources such as the internet and social media cost very little. Face-to-face campaigning by volunteers is free. How effective are expensive TV and print ads when Americans are cutting the cord and canceling subscriptions? A candidate does not need a huge campaign war chest to win if they have motivated volunteers.
Corporate money in elections is certainly a problem. But both Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders proved that you can have an impact in spite of that - if you can inspire voters as democracy intended you to do.
8
Well written and thought out.
The most astonishing observation is that Trump supporters are giddy with delight at each additional lie, slur and insult. Their support for Trump may indeed originate in the dysfunction of the American political system that has evolved through industrial de-regulation starting in the 1980's. Industry and rich Plutocrats now run government, not the voters!
While Trump supporters may recognize that dysfunction they stand steadfast on the demolition of the very structure that could repair it. They delight in Trump the clown, but they vote to put the same culprits into Congress year after year. With that support, Congress proceeds to anchor and increase its power and enhance the dysfunction that the Trump supporter rail against. It is a very dangerous and terrifying vicious circle.
Voters need to wake up and vote!
3
Trump is on on a slippery slope. This man's tenuous grasp on reality has debased the american social fabric and his acts are damaging institutions designed to provide for the common welfare of the country. He is a clear and present danger. He isn't a comic figure. He is a potential tyrant.
3
After six years living in France as expats, we to feel like refugees in our own country. Will anyone take us in?
Mr. Edsall offers the following quote from a scholar: “obviously we should investigate Russian meddling to the fullest, but to blame Putin for the mess we are in today would be ridiculous. We Americans created this mess.”
I hope we are all clear on this point. American democracy has always had a staunch cultural wall to guard it against sliding into authoritarian communism.
But what we are learning is, our right flank we have always left largely open, and the other menace to liberal democracy -- fascism -- has found fertile ground there.
4
Why then is this person still in power. We had something good, flawed yes, but better than anything else on earth. Why are we sitting back and letting this madman ruin it.
3
The political cartoonist, HERBLOCK, wrote about McCarthy in "Persona Au Gratin" in his book, Here and Now (1955).
It is instructive in the current era of Trump that what sustained McCarthy was not so much his gullible followers but the tacit support of otherwise “respectable” people."
For more information you may wish to contact the Herb Block Foundation.
2
I don't understand what it is about foreign academics installed in US universities who speak of "our" democracy and "our" country. Research universities are second to none in globalism, for good reasons, as academics hop from post-doc to professorship across the globe in search of intellectual fertilization to further their career.
However, Acemoglu grew up in Turkey until adulthood, studied in England and only got to the US at age 27, and even then into the international bubble of MIT. It smacks of fakeness to talk of "our democracy" by someone whose formative years were spent in Turkey. Very different, and not "ours" in so many ways.
It would be normal to say "US" or "American" democracy. For a Turk to conflate his experience of government with that of the United States is outlandish.
This seems quite common when academics from third-world countries get to the US and appear to try to fit in with whatever means at hand, including flattery of approving adhesion to the audience's experience. Rarely do Japanese, German or French academics use such intimate terms to describe their cultural affiliation, perhaps because these countries are quite democracies but of a different kind and tradition than the one in the US. Nothing as far removed as Turkey, though.
1
Justice David Souter predicted that civic ignorance will be the downfall of democracy. He explained what will happen when people no longer understand how our government works:
"What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough, as they might do, for example, with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown, some one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’"
If you look at the way conspiracy theories and verifiable lies dominate social media discourse about politics, you'll see the civic ignorance Justice Souter was trying to warn us against. Trump is the logical product of that civic ignorance. "I alone can fix it," said Trump. But his campaign promises were absurd and even self-contradictory. Even many of his fellow Republicans thought so. Yet, enough Americans didn't know or didn't care, and Trump became President. Edsall's headline is absolutely correct: American democracy isn't being destroyed from without. It's self-destructing.
7
We have met the enemy, and they is us.
The real problem isn't Trump, it's us. He is but a symptom.
As long as we could blame some vague entity like "the establishment" or "the system", which everyone defined differently, for our problems, the center held, but now that it's clear that our real problem is our fellow citizens, all bets are off.
There is no possible middle ground on Trump. You either love him or loathe him. Only the comatose are neutral. We have achieved perfect political polarization in the age of Trump. This condition is both unprecedented and unsustainable.
4
Basically a good piece, but Mr. Edsall lets the republicans off too easily in saying only that they have shown little willingness to confront him. The republican party laid the foundation for Trump. He is simply their point man, and it is their agenda of enriching the rich and empowering the powerful that he is pushing forward.
3
As much as I did not want to read your article today, I did. I am on the verge of tears for our country. I am saddened by what is happening to our country and have a very hard time wondering how Congress can be so negligent in it's duties. I'm sure the tax bill will be passed, just as I knew Trump would be elected.
Please tell me what we can do. I am at a loss.
2
The American Era is over, and maybe that is a good thing - let some other country "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe..." We had a good run, about a hundred years, but when our vaunted democratic, constitutional form of government, presented as a model to be emulated by other countries, coughs up a Donald J. Trump, maybe it's time to get off the field.
6
My Gratitude for this thorough piece of work in this crucial Time. I believe,
simply....that we are under the Rule of a diagnosable and self-revealed
Sociopathic Personality Disorder with a devout Following. In his own
personal Access statement, which he now tries to "walk back", "President"
Trump reveals a list of symptoms of his Diagnosis. Meanwhile, he has been
able to also dominate our Media, 24/7, with his chronic Presence. Our
Country's CEO is, thereby, also our COA (Center Of Attention). He is
Diagnosable.....We, the People, stand in Need of Treatment.
2
The process of putting America back on the right track must begin with a free press that is unafraid to go where the facts lead them. The media must be willing to call out a lie when it is placed before the public. This has not been the case in recent years.
2
as a Gemini, I think I've read that the US is a Gemini nation - not 'led' by a Gemini POTUS - lightweight ?
if the US has based a lot of its exports on entertainment (movies, software, the internet, Facebook) then the ultimate achievement is the 'are you being entertained?' President.
I'm reminded of the Chinese curse - 'may you live in interesting times' - we're standing in it.
Now what's that smell ?
2
Fifth column? A coup? How can we tell? One thing is clear, though... the US that I grew up in no longer seems to exist as an institution. If anything, the current government appears fixed on destroying pretty much everything constructive since the Great Depression and maybe before. The future appears grim... when will the shooting start?
3
Republicans disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters on these voter roles. They are equally culpable. They are lying about the tax bill. They will replace the healthcare law with law that is much worse. Putin? What about Pennsylvania 6-5000?
1
Every people has the government they deserve. This IS NOT an accident nor a mysterious occurrence. Nothing else to add....
2
In short:
"The longer Trump stays in office, the greater the danger"
13
Thank you for this excellent piece, Mr. Edsall. You are one of the most insightful opinion writers at the Times.
You are absolutely correct that, as a nation, ultimately we did this to ourselves. We have become polarized, and we collectively elected Mr. Trump.
I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.
I have come to the conclusion that the political axis that really matters at this historical juncture is not liberal-conservative, but rather order-chaos.
I am still trying to figure out why so many Americans are so angry - to the point that they want to destroy our institutions rather than change them from within. I genuinely do not see our country as being structural broken, or fundamentally different today than the land I have lived in since I was born in 1969.
But after November 8, 2016, I had no choice but to acknowledge that a great many of my fellow citizens are angry, with almost a revolutionary fervor. They prefer chaos over order: "deconstruction of the administrative state."
Where is this anger coming from? It is easy to tear things down, but much harder to build their replacements. What do these people really want? And how will we find common ground again, and bring people together behind a common and shared national identity?
I wish I had the answers. I never thought that the future of the American experiment would be in jeopardy during my lifetime.
17
An excellent description of the present situation. But nothing about how we got here.Nothing about how the foreign policy establishment, Republican and Democratic, in pursuing their strategic political objectives, agreed to foreign economic policies more favorable to foreign countries than to us and, equally damaging, at the same time showed no such interest or energy in making certain that there were simultaneously effective programs to aid/retrain etc. American workers. Domestically, the progressive and labor wings of the Democratic party were marginalized and the Democratic establishment adopted identity politics and 'Republican lite' economic policies in practice if not in theory, and still refuses to give up a reliance on 'big money' even after
Sanders showed campaigns could be adequately finance even without them.
To rely on Republican co-partisans for change is wishful thinking and the Democratic establishment is offering mainly 'we're not Trump'. Did Schumer or Pelosi ever loudly, clearly, and repeatedly enunciate or proclaim a credible and coherent 'tax reform' alternative? Did I miss it? The civil rights and women's suffrage movements only gained real momentum when people became active participants putting their time, energy, and bodies on the line. Students today, here in Ann Arbor, can be aroused to action in regard to identity issues (racism, genderism, etc) but broader society-economic issue give way to finding a secure rung on the economic ladder.
12
Well articulated.
The Times had better figure out what's in front of them: Donald Trump, with the help of the GOP, is gleefully, methodically and (if he can) irreversibly subverting American democracy. It is not an accident.
12
I very strongly disagree with the fundamental premise of Mr. Edsall's piece. The reality of the divisions in America - the toxic discourse, fear, and contempt for 'others' has been a central fact of American life since the civil war. Not the only fact, but a fact nonetheless. President Trump is us. He is the exposed underbelly of a social media dominated world of inter-connectivity, one in which every burp and burble is instantly picked-up, echoed, and expanded into a deafening roar overwhelming any dense enough to shut off the real world and instead inhabit the tubes, otherwise known as the web. American democracy suffered a much more substantive attack when a cabal of the richest in America very nearly succeeded in purchasing the US presidency for the ultimate corrupt hack. It's possible a Rubio, or a Bush might have defeated the candidate of 'we can buy this nomination,' but we'll never find that out. American democracy has never been healthier. The same cannot be said for the Democratic party. Corruption and dishonesty is rife. The best candidate the party has is an elderly socialist. Blaming Trump for the lack of clear policy ideas and alternatives isn't going to win Democrats any elections. 2016 should have taught Mr. Edsall that much.
The pervasive climate of anti-Trump hate has made the intellectually limited lazy as well as unimaginative. Sad.
2
Baloney.
Any day the Progressives complain about their agenda being derailed, is a good day.
That is precisely what Trump was elected to do.
The only thing that is self destructing is the collectivist Progressive movement.
The sooner, the better.
5
I find it shocking that people can be so absolutely certain that one party is correct. There is lots wrong with both parties. We should be looking at a different way to elect people other than these two lousy parties who essentially decide what paltry choices we have.
3
You are happy about destroying our American institutions. You probably decry the "deep state." You are an anarachist.
What will you replace it with?
2
It's the privilege of reporters and commentators for the New York Times to not accept public commentary, and this is the closest I can find to an appropriate article concerning Pres. Trump's twitter remarks on the videos from Britain First. The Brits may have gone suicidal, with their cloying need to pacify a Muslim population that is contributing nothing to its safety (more British citizens joined ISIS than joined the British military), has little to contribute to its economy (please, did you notice the number of head scarves pouring out of the welfare apartments of Grenville Towers?) and which is gradually eroding British civil rights (go on, wear a miniskirt in Hyde Park. See how fast you get confronted by the developing religious police). As well as endangering the lives of British citizens. Every one of those taped incidents is either argued away or dismissed as too insulting to Muslim sensibiities. As we watch thousands of ISIS trained British citizens return to a nation that seems incapable of arresting them until they kill someone, I'm glad that we have a President who seems interested in our survival.
4
There are over a billion Muslims in the world. Apparently you believe that one in six humans is our enemy.
What about Dylann Roof? What about Stephen Paddock? What about Adam Lanza? What about James Holmes? What about Timothy McVeigh?
5
Could you please provide sources for your statements regarding numbers and timeframes of British Muslims entering British military service, joining ISIS, and returning. Thank you.
4
I became a U.S. citizen in the early 90's. At that time, I believed in America as a country of progress and vitality, and that it was in process of overcoming it's dark past of racism, unbridled capitalism and arrogant interference in other countries.
I no longer hold those beliefs.
Mr Edsall writes: "The test facing our democracy now is whether the rules of engagement that makes our system work can be restored." This does not address whether a large portion of our electorate (over one-third still support Trump) or the increasingly powerful financial interests (who are now getting exactly what they want) actually want it restored.
Religous zealotry and contempt for government as a means to produce a civilized society have grown beyond all reason; in the name of "freedom", toddlers are now allowed hunting licenses in Wisconsin and other states.
Trump is not the cause, but the result, of the growing strength of these anti-democratic strains in American society that are leading it to oligarchy or fascism. I do not know whether I will stay to fight with those who believe in reason, education, economic justice and creation of equal opportunity, or return to my native land. I am lucky to have a choice.
16
To the extent people on the far right talk or act in ways that undermine or threaten racial or gender equality, it is not necessary to follow the prescriptions of the far left to counterbalance the threat. The case for racial and gender equality is firmly rooted in a morality based on our common humanity and can be defended on those grounds.
To the extent people on the far left talk or act in ways that undermine or threaten prosperity, it is not necessary to follow the prescriptions of the tea party or the WSJ editorial page to counterbalance the threat. Regulation that is targeted and well thought out and no more onerous than regulation during the time of Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and probably FDR should allow plenty of room for prosperity and the opportunity to share in it.
Perhaps we need to make the point more often when either side justifies its excesses by pointing to the excesses of the other side.
4
I accept the premise of this piece, that our country is only as great as we want it to be.
In the 30's, there were the isolationists and nazi sympathizers, but the majority of Americans were willing to follow their elected leaders, beginning with FDR, who articulated a vision and set of values that established the US as a world superpower.
Now, we've gone and thrown that all away, and with it all the sacrifices made by the generations that came before us to create that "shining city on a hill" of which Ronald Reagan spoke so eloquently, by voting for someone manifestly un-qualified, by temperament, intellect, and experience, to the office.
The last time I said something like that, people jumped all over me, pointing out that Trump lost the popular vote.
I will offer up something chilling that I read in my nephew's history text-book -- only 30-something percent of Germans voted for Chancellor Hitler in '33. But that's all that it took. You know the rest.
13
It's always instructive to read the articles, and the comments about them, in the NYT echo chamber. To state that opinions are unanimously left wing would be an exaggeration, but the percentages certainly rival black voter support levels for Barack Obama. But, I digress.
Let's just say that reading this article, and the comments here reminds me of a Bill Buckley quote, which went something like this:
Liberals talk a great deal about the importance of listening to other points of view. But, it often amazes them to learn that there ARE other points of view.....
5
So what exactly is your other point of view, TransitDave?
I'm listening. . .
2
“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln
5
I wonder: if after the publicans vote in their obscene tax break for the rich will they start to pull back from tRump having got what they were after?
5
The problem is not with trump or the other Republican officials who do nothing to protect us from him but with the people who voted for them and continue to support them.
This isn't just about congenital lying and misinformation but a level of willful ignorance and blind obedience to demogogory we may not have seen since the rise of fascism in Germany.
What is remarkable is the level of support in Israel for a president who embraces neofascists. This underscores more than anything the twisted times we are living in.
9
Al Franken grabbed that lady soldier, he needs to go.
3
We have a Congress so steeped in legal corruption that they will not exert control of DT in any manner. Only an overwhelming defeat of Republicans in 2018 will put the brakes on this careening clown car of conservative con artists. And even then, we may have to apply emergency triage on our ailing democracy, goddess save us.
6
Government for the corporations by the corporations ..... and this is called "democracy"??
14
It's tougher when it's a self inflicted wound!
2
Eros and Thanatos, in fact, and in deed.
1
At the end of the line, when all hope is lost--cometh a coup-- writing finis to 1787.
We must recognize that our elected representatives, who are willing to be aghast at Trumps behavior off the record but exhibit spineless acquiescence otherwise, refuse to save us from this madman who seems to be intent on destroying the republic. Getting fat tax cuts for their patrons seems to be the only important goal to the majority in Congress. Come November 2018, out with the bums!
5
The Final Paragraph of the above article expresses my feelings & fears 100% correctly! The longer Trump & Associates continue to keep people dazed & confused with a constant barrage of Fake News & other Alarming Tweets, Scandals, etc the longer he & his 'bought & paid for' Minions have to Cover Up their Dirty Tracks & bring this country Down!!
4
I no longer recognize the United States anymore, the country I knew is gone.
13
Has the Apocalypse come? Thomas Edsall cataloging all the ways Donald Trump is working to destroy our democracy and make himself a dictator? "I am all astonishment!"
Seriously, it's both comforting and terrifying to hear a legitimate Conservative voice express so eloquently what has motivated Resist!, Indivisible, and, I presume, the Anti-fascists, aka, Antifa. It doesn't take university professors to point it out, though they give a more solid foundation to the argument.
But let us remember that the seed that grew into this virulent, poisonous plant that is Trump could only grown in fertile soil, and that soil has been cultivated from the right since the days of LBJ. With the rise of moderate Southern governors like Dale Bumpers, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, we thought the poison of Southern racism, the fountainhead and locus of racism in America, was finally crushed. But we were SO wrong!
I date the beginning to 2 sources: Jerry Falwell's hate-filled sermons that never actually called for racism or anti-semitism, and the push-back from Bob Jones University being denied religious tax immunity because it blatantly and openly preached racism. But it accelerated in 1988 with the "Willie Horton" ads for Poppy Bush, and again with the 2000 push-polls in the SC primary. But it went super-sonic when the US elected its first Black President and ALL the racists were fired up, and Donald Trump rode that wave into the WH.
9
Instead of "Making America Great Again" #45 is determined to destroy all that does and has made our country great. Along with Zinke at Interior and Pruitt at EPA, he is systematically destroying our environment and natural resources; along with Tillerson at State, he's destroying our Foreign Service and failing to conduct a well thought out foreign policy, preferring to incoherent tweets in the early hours of the money; Sessions at DOJ and #45's judicial nominations are trying their best to undermine our legal system; DeVos at Education who thinks grizzly bears are a threat to our nation's school children and who's made a bundle off of proprietary schools, is trying to dismantle our public school system; Pai at the FCC is working hard to undermine free speech; Mnuchin at Treasury is actually happy to look like a villain from a Bond movie; and last but not least, #45's tax scam, is set to take money from seniors and the middle class to give to corporations, foreign investors and the rich.
As if this if this wasn't enough, he is also spews forth his bigotry, ignorance and misogyny in virtually every utterance he makes.
Rather than MAGA, #45 is trying to make it OK for America to be hateful and ignorant. Sad.
5
It's not just Trump. The Republican elephant through gerrymandering, voter suppression tactics, catering to a few billionaires, dog whistling, and false advertising about their voodoo economics has trampled democracy for decades.
4
No. Trump has been a tool, gut the destruction of American democreacy owes much to the ghost of the Civil War and to oligarchs like the Koch Brothers.
2
Surely the title of this opinion piece should be The Trump-Destruction of American Democracy.
And destruction is probably too gentle a word to describe what he's doing. Perhaps Pillage would be better. Sigh.
5
The scariest thing is that every word, every sentence, every column, every editorial that properly and accurately denounces Trump is the very fuel that powers his insanity. We are in a no-win downward spiral. The wounds inflicted by Trump and his sycophants, and his minions will never heal properly.
3
Dear American History Scholars,
Your assignment has three parts.
First is to read George Washington’s “Farewell Address”. This and other readings can be found on the Senate website.
Second is to read what the Senate has to say about the “Farewell Address”.
Third is to write both of your senators to ask them if they believe they are taking Washington’s advice seriously. Include any points you would like to highlight.
I will leave it to your own judgment as to how well your Senators follow the advice that they have annually praised.
2
The greatest civilizations have, for the most part, died from within.
Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of this circumstance.
8
The point of blaming Russia is that the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia is of interest, because it is our only chance of getting rid of Trump. Trump's (not Putin's) damage to American democracy is palpable, but how do we get the GOP to vote for impeachment unless Trump has committed treason? Insulting the British PM, Native Americans, women, American heroes, and a free press won't get him impeached. Neither will his boasting about sexual assault. Mueller is the only way, unless Trump clearly and suddenly subverts the Constitution, which he may just do...
4
This is a thoughtful and articulate piece, but also notable for what is missing: any real engagement with root causes. Trump is not the cause of the problem, merely an opportunity for the cause to fully manifest itself.
It has been fashionable to say that Trump's presidency had no grace period, no honeymoon. But that's not really so. True, no one on the left cut him any slack, but the great Establishment moderate center has bent over backwards to give Trump every opportunity to see the error of his ways and sign on to loyal service in the noble elitist enterprise. For months there was learned insider babble about how the office would shape the man, smooth the rough edges. Then there was an endless flow of absurd speculation as to how beneath Trump's manic impulsiveness lay some clever and subtle contrarian strategy.
No more. Edsall's article (and similar recent Times offerings) underscore that that the Establishment centrist honeymoon with Trump is now officially over. This week Republican legislators will cynically link arms with a mentally ill narcissistic president to ram through a destructive tax cut beloved only by the rich donors who have bought their fawning allegiance. It doesn't get any worse than that. Edsall appears to be seriously wondering whether the Establishment institutional framework can still be salvaged. One could suggest that the tax bill fiasco appears to answer that question.
9
Many writers today talked about how future historians and generations will view us. "You knew," they'll say. "What did you do about it?"
It really is time to shake off the disappointment, and clean house.
1
Trump's White House has no windows, only mirrors. And it is getting more and more difficult to differentiate between Trump and Caligula. How long will the party in power allow this mendacity without acting responsibly? There is no time to spare.
5
I think a RICO investigation of Congress is in order. Both sides of the aisle, while we're at it.
2
Brilliant summary of the state of our democracy, I guess for those of us who still believe in, or even think about, democracy.
1
The trauma I am feeling in the Trump tsunami is far worse than that of the smoldering ruin of the Trade Center I had to breath for months, many years ago. I usually read Edsal for a glimmer of optimism. None to be had today...
So when my Trump supporting uncle, at 82 loses his social security and medicare, I will feel bad, but must worry about my own solvency. Welcome to the mafia state.
8
A comprehensive article. The America of today is a very different place than it was when I emigrated to Canada in 1978. I'm happy to be Canadian, and thankful to my younger self for a prescient choice based mostly on intuition. But we can't ignore the impact of America's malaise on Canadians ... and the rest of the planet. However is the era of Trump really a profound shift in American political and social norms. Or is it the crumbling of long-maintained facade?
9
This has been not only terrifying but so discouraging. Putin succeeded without firing a shot in destroying our country. How the Electoral College not have seen this is beyond me. We've all had examples by his words and actions during the campaign. When Trump announced "he could stand at the corner of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and still be elected" didn't that send shudders through all of us. When he made fun of a disabled reported didn't that shock our moral sensibilities? When he stated "if we have nuclear weapons why aren't we using them?" The members of the EC surely knew of these statements and actions and as we all know there were others. The EC can vote any way they so choose. They failed us as much if not more than his mostly under educated base. The only hope i have is Mr. Mueller hauling Trump and his thugs to justice.
Meanwhile on clear nights i look at the Cosmos. It is for some unknown reason my comfort, my hope, It's so stunning and beautiful and as we are part of it, surely we will work our way to better solutions. How can it be otherwise?
3
The EC can vote any way they so choose.
==================
Actually not true. Most states have laws to stop faithless electors
1
I agree with Mr. Edsall 100%. If we were a third world country, in my humble opinion Trump and his swamp mates would be overthrown and forever banished from that country. However, we are (luckily) not a third world country, we had a democracy before Trump came into the picture. I almost fainted the day after the election knowing Trump won, and Hillary lost. I have always believed to give someone a chance despite being a native New Yorker and having watched Trump for many years and his bizarre behavior. I really wanted Trump to be a good President, however after almost a year after being sworn in, he has demonstrated that he is incapable of being even a mediocre President, even that is a stretch.
The famous words of President Kennedy come to mind, "ask not what your county can do for you, ask what you can do for your country ". Since Trump is on record that he will again run for President in 2020, I think it is our responsibility to vote him out of office ... that is what WE can do for our country.
6
Many of the following comments seem to pride themselves on blaming the current woes of our democracy on _both_ political parties. Democrats are far from innocent, but, as anyone with a sense for history can tell you, it is the GOP that is _largely_ responsible for the shift from a compromising approach to governing, to a slash-and-burn model. And, crucially, race-baiting and xenophobia have become the GOP's bread-and-butter -- what does that tell you? In short, one of our political parties has become decidedly unAmerican in orientation. Or put more accurately, the GOP has seen for some time that its political fortune relies on it becoming more and more undemocratic, and cravenly reliant on hate as its key motivating force.
Until _that_ problem gets sorted out, nothing else will.
9
Is it possible that Trump's rapidly escalating detachment from reality is actually his strategy to avoid culpability for any and all of his coming indictments? Perhaps he's thinking that if he and his lawyers can point to sufficient evidence of crazy, his prosecutors might just let him go.
1
The piece leveled many charges against the president, but are those charges really true? If one does not like a person, it is easy for one to believe anything bad about that person.
As I see it, the media have been hostile to the president, and that hostility may lead people to conclude the worse about the president.
The piece compared Mr. Trump's standing to that of Mr. Obama's on the international stage. But it would have been far more useful to include the standings of many more presidents. Of course, if I am compared to Mother Theresa, I would look bad, but if a couple million people are compared to mother Theresa, the finding would be that I am not much different from those millions -- I would just be a normal person.
1
"The piece compared Mr. Trump's standing to that of Mr. Obama's on the international stage. But it would have been far more useful to include the standings of many more presidents."
Fair question. I'd like to see that as well.
I strongly suspect that the United States has not been as disrespected across the globe as we are today under Mr. Trump for well over a century, if not since our inception as a nation.
2
As far as I know, there was only one action so far that can be labeled as unlawful and undemocratic after Trump's election. That was at CFPB by an Obama appointed agency head. But his action was nullified by the court. Other than that American economy and American democracy is doing better. Even "fake news" CNN is in a better shape. Swamps in Hollywood, media, and Congress are getting drained. People who were scared to come out are no more scared. Liberals and fake news tried their level best to discredit the president, but he is still standing and hitting back to their astonishment. That is what is really happening, a challenge by Trump to their dominance.
4
Dear Trump supporter; highly educated with the ability to write so eloquently and succinctly.
Witnessing Trump’s era is like being extremely tired in a extremely hot day, and experiencing jet lag on top of that. Extremely surreal, hopelessness invaded our heart, we have lost the surprise factor. What surprises me though is, we are passively witnessing the destruction of our institutions and simply contemplating in aw.
4
We need to start talking about general strike. It is the only way we can personally engage this crisis. We are donating to organizations like the ACLU. We are subscribing to news outlets. We will be voting again soon, but this is going to require general strike in the end.
3
We need to start talking about general strike. It is the only way we can personally engage this crisis
==================
Like the "women's strike" last winter nobody noticed
Millions knew all this but still voted for him.
A nation gets the government it deserves.
4
Pre-Trump, the US and the "West" had a huge part in creating present day China and Russia by sending all of our investment dollars to China(a still communist but oh so stable system with cheap, docile labor) and shunning Russia(a messy new democracy with slightly more expensive and unruly labor).
Those were arguably sins of omission whereas Trump's are of commission.
3
The basic theory was we wanted markets in China & to exploit Russia. Putin wouldn't be in power if we had strengthened Russia instead of feeding off its corruption.
2
We owe this all, of course, to the treasonous Supreme Court justices who handed over our democracy to the wealthiest corporate interests in the Citizens United case. The power of money in our increasingly dysfunctional political system was already huge when the opinion came down in 2010. Now, however, the genie is out of the bottle. Those Supreme Court justices knew precisely what they were doing. If we actually cared about democracy, they would be in jail. Trump is merely a tool of those who really run this country (and threaten the crass, power and status hungry senators and congresspeople with financing their opponents to keep the legislative branch under their control). American democracy is on the slippery slope and we are picking up speed.
7
We owe this all, of course, to the treasonous Supreme Court justices who handed over our democracy to the wealthiest corporate interests in the Citizens United case. The power of money in our increasingly dysfunctional political system was already huge when the opinion came down in 2010. Now, however, the genie is out of the bottle
==================
You can't be serious.
Hillary and her allies spent twice what Trump and his allies spent in 2016.
If anything, I would say the power of money and political advertising is waning. People are just tuning it out these days.
3
Your calculus does not include external funding & influence, one of Putins gifts. Second Citizens United was directly a result of their propaganda piece against HRC. Context matters as does dark money.
Running on the premise that he was going to fix the problems capitalism caused for the working class, we now see the only thing propping the madman up is pure capitalistic greed in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy. Maybe the first step is admitting what the problem really is.
I would say GDP growth above 3%, a booming stock market, very low unemployment, and booming consumer confidence are propping him up just fine for now.
3
For which, Trump should be saying "Thanks Obama". But once Trump succeeds in bringing it all down, Trump will blame it on Obama. That is the way Trump rolls.
5
It is indeed our fault.
I am astonished at how few people know who their elected officials are. When I ask someone who their state congressional representatives are or who their general assembly members are they do not know and furthermore are annoyed when I ask. Often they aren't even aware why a state general assembly exists or what it does.
I have been to primaries where the count of participants are in the several hundreds.
Few read any in-depth information about politics and are not interested in the issues. When they do have opinions on anything they are often parroted from the latest titillating headline from the internet. They resent being made aware that more accurate information may be available if it conflicts with their belief system and proves them wrong- ie they say they don't like talking politics and politicians are all the same- crooks.
We need and we have one amazing and tireless politician who is able to bridge that gap and explain things in simple terms to people why and how government affect them- Bernie Sanders. We need more. Too bad the New York Times marginalized him. It's your fault too.
1
If Constitutional norms, political mores, institutional safeguards and supposedly principled political actors can't arrest this destruction, and by all accounts it is likely to continue if not stopped by some other countervailing force, one might be lead to think that there is only one alternative left. What do you suppose that is?
1
How fragile we are. Reagan arrived and promptly made us a debtor nation, and now this horror.
2018 may determine if we have a chance to turn it around.
7
How fragile we are. Reagan arrived and promptly made us a debtor nation, and now this horror.
========================
We were a debtor nation long before Reagan arrived on the scene.
Since 1930, the US has had a balanced budget in only 7 years.
1
In January 1981, when Reagan declared the federal budget to be 'out of control,' the deficit had reached almost $74 billion, the federal debt $930 billion. Within two years, the deficit was $208 billion. The debt by 1988 totaled $2.6 trillion. In those eight years, the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the largest debtor nation."
1
Rubbish deflection meaning nothing.
Gutting Federal agencies increases social and political chaos. Increased funding for the military, and militarizing the police, creates tools to control that chaos. To what end? We are in the middle of a massive, well-planned, and well-funded coup d'etat engineered by the Koch brothers and American oligarchs. We are losing ground every single day.
8
Gutting Federal agencies increases social and political chaos.
===================
So what agencies have been "gutted" and what is the resultant chaos?
I believe that Trump’s Presidency will be remembered as the decline of our democracy. Where are the leaders who can help us regain our foundations? The ideals of the Constitution of been warped and distorted by those in power as a means to deny others their rights.
Trump becoming the 45th President is the saddest event of my lifetime. He has done more to destroy the principles of every branch of our government and it is unending.
5
I work for a medium sized multi-national tech company. I live in the US but my daily conversations are with colleagues in Europe and Asia most of whom have a similar kind of roughly liberal politics. I have no contacts with rural Christian Alabama. I never have and I probably never will. So in a sense I don't really live in the US as much as I live in a certain sphere of international business, international law, international culture, and international behavioral norms. So the question, "what is happening to my supposedly democratic country" may become less interesting as time goes by. The purpose of nation states may evolve away from protecting the rights and economic interests of their citizens to one of suppressing -- through a combination of propaganda, incarceration, and pure violence -- the significant part of their populations that haven't made it into the internal sphere where all the action is. Liberal democracy might thrive in the international sphere but die at the national level.
4
There is an old saying that goes kind of like this:
Trust is the hardest thing to build, the easiest thing to break, and once broken nearly impossible to rebuild.
The Donald has broken the hard earned, spanning nearly 250 years, trust in America, in just one year.
11
Which actually applies more to the current main-stream media than any other institution. The media has been caught telling so many lies and distortions in recent years that 85% of people think they are doing a terrible job and about 50% don't believe them any more.
I'm old enough to remember when the NYTimes claimed GW Bush had broken the hard earned trust in America when he was in office. Then suddenly it was magically restored when you know who took office in 2009. Meh
2
It should be apparent to everyone in this country that the bizarre, mentally challenged individual breathing fire from the White House like a national dragon is supremely unsuited to the complex role he is playing. It should also be apparent that leaving him in place with a supine Congress and a sympathetic Supreme Court will quickly destroy our democracy. Unfortunately, there are many citizens who are either unaware or don't care. By the time they awaken to reality, it could well be too late to repair the wreckage he has created.
It seems to me that we in the majority who definitely do care what happens in these United States must prepare now for overturning the complicit GOP majorities in the House and Senate. We can still stop the madman and the madness.
5
People outside the U.S. were astonished that Americans would knowingly support a man so entirely unqualified to become their President. It undermined their confidence in and regard for the country they had taken to be such a strong ally, partner and world leader. If the U.S. is not able to rid itself of this colossal mistake well before the next scheduled presidential election it will send a strong message to the rest of the world that the United States of America has imploded and can never be relied on again even if they do not re-elect Trump. The world will have seen what is possible in the U.S. and note that it could happen again. Erstwhile allies will plan their affairs (economic, political, defence) without reference to America, even while keeping a polite smile on their faces.
7
Representative democracy is the only form of government that can vote itself out if existence. That may have happened.
8
It is nearing time for pitchforks and torches, literally. The die has been cast: it is the common man vs the oligarchs, and the oligarchs have the government. I haven't seen--I don't think any of have seen--a situation this dire since the Kansas Compromise that set the stage for the Civil War. And not only are we a nation divided--utterly polarized, we are a well-armed nation, with reportedly at least one firearm per citizen. I don't think Trump et. al. have any idea that their actions constitute playing with matches in the power shed. This is, for me, an increasingly frightening time.
8
Excellent, while depressing about apparently now needing some kind of force to counter Republican and corporate Democrat ruthlessness. John Kelly was correct about failure to compromise but didn't realize it was because there was no possible compromise with ruthless people. It took the Civil War to give the rule of law any chance for change. Neville Chamberlain woke up to it eventually, too. It's cold comfort to know I'm not alone in thinking along these lines, including along with others commenting here. Additionally spot-on depressing is "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," edited by Dr. Lee at Yale. Yes, when people who've survived later on and write about the disaster that now has all the signs of happening, commenting "Who knew?", the answer is *somebody* did!
2
Let us not forget that the one thing Trump claims as an accomplishment is the Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination. This is a fundamentally lawless appointment, available only because McConnell directly disobeyed the Constitution. Advise and Consent does not mean "refuse to act".
The combination of "Citizens United" and McConnell's contempt of Constitution are the primary enablers to our government's conversion to a kleptocracy by Trump and the Republican party. The Republican Party's war on democracy now includes voter suppression, and a full slate of nonsense-spewers and fact deniers--all for the financial benefit of a few thousand of our citizens and corporations who are already exceedingly wealthy--and greedy.
An educated, informed, voting citizenry is a prerequisite to a successful democracy. The Republican party has declared war on education, information, and voting. Hence Trump.
7
If our democracy fails it won’t be the fault of Congress, the lunatic king, or the courts. Nor will it be because Russia is talk of the town. It’ll be because I allowed it, because we allowed it.
I don’t want to be beaten with a club, bitten by a dog, shot with rubber bullets, or killed anymore than the next person, I want to live in peace and harmony. Sitting back and watching the unraveling and listening to my fellow citizens defeatist language is becoming intolerable.
It’s important to remember that beyond petitioning the government there are citizens that aren’t answerable to the people to contend with as well - corporate citizens. When threatened they hold human citizens financial well-being hostage while simultaneously empowering the government to act with interest not favorable to the population.
Although I’m not a sociologist, It’s my belief the President was elected because most who voted for him are marginalized. The selfish rationalization is, “if I’m marginalized, so will we all be marginalized.” The continued support he receives from supporters and commentators is proof of the collective wish to equalize, but it’s doing greater harm than is understood.
The failure to see how the pieces connect and support each other is how we ended up at this moment in time. The continued failure to realize enlightenment is the wish of the wizard and continued self-imposed implosion of the populace.
3
It is a gift that Trump is incompetent. We now have a chance to portray future undemocratic actions as an attempt to mask incompetence, just like Trump. Trump's supporters are outnumbered and older. Future generations will see Trump like I see Nixon or Harding. Politicians will have to avoid Trump behaviors. We just need to make it for 3 more years. We may even be able to amend the constitution to deal with some of these problems (undisclosed finances in foreign countries, for example). Just think of what the GOP would have visited on the United States if Trump was a competent autocrat.
1
Again its not American politicians it is the republican party and conservatives. Liberals are not out here attacking the freedom of the press. Liberals are not out here trying to put woefully unqualified people in positions of authority.
4
A couple of points: first, President Trump is a product of social media. The "crazies" and fringe elements in our society have been around forever, but they inhabited relatively isolated pockets and depended on "snail mail" to communicate. Not any more! Social media gave them both a platform and an audience of like-minded souls: A highly combustable mixture! In this climate, no viewpoint is too extreme and no statement too outrageous, which facilitated the rise of Trump and his ilk. Which brings me to the second point: In the words of Peter Parker's late Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility." Trump is behaving like someone who has wanted to be President since he was a kid: "Lookit all the stuff I can do!" Unfortunately, that attitude carries with it no consideration of the consequences and no sense of responsibility...and we all pay the price (along with our democracy and the world at-large).
1
Mr. Edsall's column is painful reading for American patriots because it is an accurate summation of the predicament this country is facing. Meanwhile the republicans in congress are frantically preparing legislation that will rape the country by transferring wealth from the middle class to the rich and create another trillion dollar budget deficit, take health insurance from millions, punish the non-rich who seek higher education, plunder the environment and handicap clean energy. And they do this while the specter of nuclear war looms over much of the world while our State Department is in disarray and Trump becomes, apparently, even more unhinged. The republicans in congress could stop all this if they cared about anything else but their careers and their rich patrons.
7
That tRump is unfit for office has become self-evident. That so many Republicans have failed to publicly respond to this crisis means they too are unfit for office. Both are a clear and present danger to the future of the nation.
3
Forget about Russia? Forget about Trump “for a moment” and think about equally fraudulent representatives of sections of the country where allegedly marginalized citizens with every recourse available to change their circumstances for the better have opted instead to falsify their claims and pretend they can drag everyone else through the gutter.
My regret is that Theresa May did not categorically dismiss Trump as a compulsive, incompetent, and corruptible fool destined to be isolated and to destroy his entire family.
1
We need to look behind the curtain. And we see more evil white billionaire geezers pulling the strings. The casino owners, the Mercers, The Kochs, the sports franchise owners - a gilded oligarchic class that is stuffing itself senseless in a form that in other countries and other times lead to revolt and civil wars.
2
thank you donald and you misguided vision of America - I hope you are satisfied
The parallels to Germany in the 1930s are terrifying. We're led by a loudmouthed boor who knows exactly what to say to whom and exactly how to turn powerless groups into scapegoats.
He's propped up by craven cynics who'll do anything to be near power (Kelly, Huckabee Sanders) and repugnant politicians who see him as a route to gain for themselves and their inner circle (McConnell, Ryan). Next come the weaklings who crow a bit about him but then fall in line while pretending to be "mavericks" (McCain, Corker). And finally, there is the base. Trump's vile, wannabe Aryan base, who have no concept of the horror that they're cheering for.
A madness has fallen on the United States, and it's been decades in the making. I can hope that we find a way out of this without destroying ourselves, but I'm deeply afraid that we won't. No blinders on here.
16
Good news, bad news: there's absolutely nothing on the Trump/Republican agenda that the majority of Americans approve of. Nothing. The American public is actually fairly united in our sense of purpose. The question is, how can we vote in enough politicians at the national level who support what the great majority of us actually want?
9
American politicians? When’s the last time a Democrat supported voter suppression? Denigrated the free press? Expressed openly racist and bigoted views?
Not American politicians. Republicans. Stop mealy-mouthing. It’s all on one side of the aisle; and it worked a treat with the white electorate. There’s your identity politics.
20
“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
― H.L. Mencken
3
Sorry. But I"m a sometime Latin teacher. And when I read articles like this, my mind immediately runs back to. . . .
. . .ancient Rome. Two thoughts:
(1) The Roman republic, just before Caesar's final victory. Corruption--endemic! Incessant mob violence in the streets. Maladministration of provinces by corrupt governors. And there was. . .
Julius Caesar himself. Skillfully appealing to the poor, the disenfranchised, the down and out.
And the conservative opposition. The diehards. The inflexible Caesar-haters. Willing to bring down--and sakes! they DID bring down--the entire edifice of government rather than see him succeed. Way to go, guys!
And, of course, there was Cicero. Who--for all his penetration, all his matchless eloquence. . . .
. .. seems never--NEVER!--to have understood what was going on. "Cicero! Sir! The Republic you extol endlessly--that Republic is a dream and a memory. Nothing more!"
He died trying to bring it back to life.
(2) The last days of ancient Rome. Et moritur et ridet, declared one disgruntled Roman--"She's dying--and she's laughing."
No conception of just how powerful those barbarian tribes really WERE. No conception of how the Empire was bulging and leaking at the seams. There were always the games. You know--divert the people. Get their mind off things.
And so the Empire died. It died laughing.
Food for thought, my fellow Americans. Food for thought.
17
Trump distracts the public while his party loots the treasury for their donors. Once the looting is finished, they'll get rid of Trump.
Much of the blame for the cynicism which installed Trump lies with the 'centrist' Democrats who betrayed the public with GOP polices in Democrat wrapping.
7
I'm so glad I got out.
11
We're shocked to find out that populism, as begun in 1960 and carried out by a procession of charismatic outsiders (mostly Democrats), has led us to this.
2
He's not charismatic, just lacking the self respect most of us have. He's a tea party parrot. Who doesn't like being catered to?
I read a lot of the panic and terror about the state of the Nation in papers, periodicals, and hear more on various news outlets. But I see little actual change (for the better or worse) on the street, in the stores, or at the gym.
Trump's got a big mouth, and he's crude and boorish in his manners. And speaking of the gym, he's like the guy always boasting about his 'conquests' when everyone knows it's just a load of hooey. But if you look at his deeds, he's actually moved to return much assumed Administrative power back to its proper home with Congress. Strip away the hysteria over his addiction twitting and he's normal to the point of near banality. He's also the first president since Carter to actually forge equally commendable ties with Israel and much of the Arab world. (Regarding the Pew survey, it’s a very selective list, and the views of such countries as Japan might well be subject to revision/different interpretation. But then again, how much international perception is tinted by the US news media's continual outrage at everything in Trump?)
Perhaps, the real problem is not Trump, but that the Democrats and Republicans have descended into the mutual demonization of each other. If Republicans support something, they're in it for the rich; if the Democrats support something, they're trying to force some liberal social position down everyone's throat. Maybe the truth is “There ain’t no good guy; there ain’t no bad buy; there’s only you and me and we just disagree.”
2
Why do you presume that Donald Trump is not a foreign agent?
"President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign could."
6
This article expresses many of my deepest fears, the chief of which is, "Political norms that are the bulwark of our democracy cannot be easily repaired once damaged." It is infinitely easier to smash something than it is to build it.
3
All the more reason that it's high time that the Democratic Party put forth real proposals to address the income inequality that helped bring us to this pass. Accept what Bernie Sanders has been saying - develop real antidotes to the giveaways to the rich that are exemplified in the Repbublicans' horrible tax bill. Give "average citizens" solid ideas that will help right the imbalance and give voters a reason to have enthusiasm to vote D in the 2018 elections. There was a reason that Bernie attracted those massive crowds.
10
"The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed?"
Until now, we only had examples of totalitarian regimes distorting the truth by nationalizing the media, which then become a propaganda machine for the government rather than being "free".
Today however, there's a totally new and unprecedented way to take away this kind of crucial freedom - crucial for a democracy to survive and function properly: by having private sector media starting to systematically distort the truth about the state of the union and of the other major political party, in order to make their voter base fired up and electing them, no matter what is happening in real life.
So yes, this is America's democracy self-destructing, but it's not democracy as such that is at fault here, it's ONE specific political party and its propaganda machine that have done this to us: the GOP and Fox News.
So why isn't this op-ed calling things by their name?
For two decades now, Fox News is spreading lie after lie, and the GOP leadership takes them over (and produces some new ones, immediately supported by FN) and then spreads them as if they were the truth.
Trump is only the top of the iceberg. He merely decided to embody the "persona" that the GOP had already created anyhow, and that was just waiting for an actor-entertained to be filled.
10
The number one best article I have seen in a while. Keep up the good work NYT.
Will democracy survive The Trump? Only time will tell.
8
Can an incompetent leader make fundamental changes to American democracy? Can a man who is unable to work within the system and is unable to work outside the system change America and what it stands for in ways that will endure and forever alter the American system? This emperor has no clothes. He is a great pretender. A leader who brings fundamental change must have a sense of self awareness and a weighty agenda of his own. Trump is less than a lightweight. He is bumbling through his presidency.
Instead of crying about it, why don't the Democrats come up with a candidate who will beat Trump in 2020. The Democrats should have a Presidential Search Committee if they don't already!
7
My faith in America survived the Vietnam years, which I think is the wellspring for cynicism among Americans about whether government can be trusted. That faith is not the same thing as an exceptionalism that presumes we can do no wrong and is not to be confused with inerrancy. Rather it's been a faith that America is essentially good. That this American could put a charlatan like Trump into the Oval Office shakes that belief. That the party that he has adapted to his own purposes lets him run amok so long as he will sign their laws and nominate their judges and government officials challenges that belief. It's hard to take pride in being an American these days.
10
My grandparents and parents always spoke reverently of FDR, and they generally saw Washington and its politicians hard at work trying to ease the lives of all Americans. This was during the Depression.
Washington was the font of programs to help the less fortunate, and in general looked after the welfare of Americans.
Today, Washington is a dysfunctional tangle of do-nothing politicians and agencies.
I see virtually no return on the thousands of dollars in taxes I pay each year.
Moreover, somewhere along the way, we forgot about being a united country. Division, partisanship and the debilitating presence of racism took hold and have yet to let go.
Trump's ascension was simply the end product of a political culture given over to rot.
In a healthy and thriving America, Donald Trump would never have been more than a wacky novelty candidate.
Instead, he's our president.
He brought Trump down on ourselves.
We need to make racism as abhorrent as sexual abuse. Just now racism is voiced and practiced by the nation's leader.
We also must uproot a political culture that puts personal and partisan gain ahead of patriotism.
3
Clearly, what is being destroyed is the ideologically liberal order – and the destruction presaged goes well beyond what I would wish. But that does not constitute “the destruction of American democracy”. Neither Tom nor the left generally get to credibly equate their ideological framework with “democracy”. As far as I can tell, the world still marvels at our elections, the winners still take offices and exercise what power their coalitions can muster and their offices specify, and the Times is still free to excoriate Donald Trump and Republicans as a phylum.
So … how is “American democracy” threatened?
Answer: it’s not. But those who wield this club obviously think it sounds catchy.
4
"The world still marvels at our elections". You do realize, don't you, that there a large number of well functioning democracies in our world that also hold elections?
1
After reading many of the responses here, I fear that a root cause of our situation is still with too many of us.
Call it "bothsideism" the ridiculous notion that each party is equally responsible for the rise of the Trump.
While I have always accepted that those seeking high office are likely to 'gild the lily' only one has run on platforms where up is down (anyone with any education knows trickle down is a fraud), that they will essentially turn us into a Christian theocracy, that government is the enemy, that Democrat is a pseudonym for Communist, that any gun control is creeping Fascism, that science is a lie, and that their deepest fears fueling their hatreds are all real, that polite speech is imposed "political correctness '.
Yes I hate all these ideas and moreover the people who in their greed, and lust for power continue to sell them.
6
Thomas, Where have you been? The Republican objective, led by Christian Dominionists, the Seven Mountains movement among others is to rewrite the American Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, to make Christianity the country’s official religion. Once that is established, Old Testement law will replace civil law as we have known it and a patriarch will rule the land. His name may even be Trump.
1
When my black friends would try to explain what it felt like to be a stranger in one's own country - the sense of powerlessness and disdain from authorizes -- I had no frame of reference. The arrogance and stupidity of this Republican cabal brings the point home. A tiny group of rich men are intent on rolling back government, much of which was put in place to protect us from *them*. The GOP seems intent on restoring the model of the Confederacy where a tiny fraction held all wealth, wielded all power and denied rights to anyone unlike themselves. If it is not too late, this group of gangsters needs to be brought to heel. My great fear is that Trumpism will survive Trump himself. We need a grand re-birth of democracy and a new dedication to the idea of America as a place of opportunity, tolerance and freedom from the tyranny of the rich.
15
Donald Trump is no more responsible for our current state than Putin is.
Americans are responsible for Trump. With all they knew about him, enough American citizens still voted for Trump to put him into the oval office. Republican legislators allow him to continue governing.
Without the support of his FOX News watching followers Trump would never have been elected. His supporters believed and still believe that the eight years before Trump, 2008 Global Financial Crisis brought to you by the GOP not withstanding, were the worst years in American history. The news they receive, and the only news they believe tells them America now is the worst place on earth. Now. Since Obama. But it didn't used to be that way..
Our fellow Americans who support Trump cannot be bothered with worrying about North Korea, China, Russia or the Middle East. Their clear and present danger lies at home. Their real enemies are those who want to outlaw Christmas, create Death Panels, are soft on crime, weak on illegal immigrants support terrorists by cutting defense spending, selling babies to medical laboratories and putting our lives in danger by not building the wall. Just to name a few. People who don't want to "Make America Great Again" are the real enemy. Pelosi, Shummer and the "Democrat Party are the real enemy. So who has time to worry about nuclear war?
6
A black man was president for 8 years and the white power structure is furious - and scared. Their mechanisms to keep a person like Obama from governing (gerrymandering, voter suppression, Electoral College) failed. With future demographics not in their favor, they are doubling down - on the courts, the destruction of federal agencies, on a tax bill - that will keep the masses in their place.
Trump is the super-ego of white hegemonic fear. Putin is its ally. China is its beneficiary. The silent majority are its victims.
13
What is even more telling is that the GOP lead congress is sitting idly by while the country is being torn apart. At long last "don't you have any shame Senators!"
8
No, they have no shame! WE THE PEOPLE must get up off our collective behinds and fight this takeover of our government. I am sick of reading comments decrying the state of affairs yet we do nothing but post online about how terrible things are becoming. Words without action mean nothing.
The gutlessness and passivity of Americans in the face of chronic injustice staggers me. Folks in Europe protest in the streets for relative trifles compared to the myriad forms of unfair practices and values which Americans shrug off as so many slings and arrows, ranging from ingrained racism in law enforcement to the the extortionate tuition rates levied by greedy institutions of higher earning formerly known as colleges. Unfortunately even the most pacific protester in the US today can be charged with rioting, such an efficient way for Trump's thugs to put a clampdown on any form of legitimate dissidence. I expect little hope on the part of a brainwashed and ignorant zombie population which seems to make up the majority of the American electorate today....
10
As a resident of Bluer than Blue Massachusetts, I am defeated and powerless in the face of this disaster. My representatives in Congress are uniformly opposed to the President and his minions and their corrupt, greedy, despicable behavior. What can I do? I want to make a difference, but I don't know how. I'm certainly open to suggestions.
4
I've occasionally toyed with the idea of persons from Blue areas moving to resettle Red states and flip the electoral college. Bonus if they focus on the right districts to turn the state Blue as well. Then we could also undo gerrymandering (maybe the Electoral College itself?) and get on with our lives.
I'm not willing to put up and leave my Blue Chicago at this time though, so I'll shut up. It is an idea...
1
America richly deserves Trump. We are a nation of callous narcissists who are addicted to our iPhones. All Putin must do to subjugate us is to neutralize our devises and we will rush to surrender in return for getting back on line.
4
I am 69 years old. I am very glad that I will not be around in 30 or 40 years and have to live in the America that today's Americans will have brought on themselves. It will not be pretty. It may be that the Boomers may be the last generation to have been born, lived and died in what may have been America's greatest years.
10
Sure Boomer's delusions of grandeur over the last 30 to 40 years had nothing to do with the current situation.
Bet you are wrong. 1977 brought the waning years of the Carter administration, stagflation and malaise, another oil price shock, 20% interest rates and the Iranian hostage crisis. 40 years before that—1937 with the Great Depression and the holocaust and WW II looming. I bet in 40 years we are much better off than we are now, just as now is really better than 40 years ago and that was better than 40 years before that.
Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes spent a careers making political opposition an "evil" and demonizing and propagandizing on a daily basis. Even with the pitiful Ailes being exposed as a total hypocrite along with Bill OReilly, the Murdoch disaster has twisted political discourse and made outright lying a political plus.
The fact that a mediocre media hack like Sean Hannity can have the ear of the POTUS is a sad sad testimony to the damage done.
8
Well, I guess the Democrats should have done more during the Obama years to include the white working class of America, and nominated a presidential candidate that spoke to all Americans.
4
What happened to personal responsibility?
White working class, the mythical beast that supposedly did the deed. White people voted for Trump. Working people were not the biggest segment of that, upper middle class posers were
Oh, please so now it's President Obama's fault that you voted for a lying narcissist who is unqualified to be President. Why don't you take personal responsibility (like you want everyone else to do) for voting for this disaster. Maybe when you lose your healthcare, or your clean drinking water among other things you will take a long look in the mirror. It won't be President Obama staring back at you.
Trump won because he had a TV reality show. We the people are too dumbed down to be capable of any other type of reasoning. The bread and circuses that made the ancient Romans happy and docile are now Starbucks and phones in everyone's hands. And so another empire falls.
12
No nation or civilization lasts forever as a preeminent force, and the progression upwards or downwards is not without blips or bumps.
But by pretty much any standard or measure -- including the standard of living of the MAJORITY of the people and the respect with which the US is viewed by other nations (see graphic in article), the US is in sharp and clear decline, close to free-fall in many respects. That's obvious.
The only real question is whether there's a path back 'upwards' towards progress, prosperity, and respect. Sadly -- with our current crop of "leaders" and the deep damage being done to our democratic and economic systems -- it's hard to see how. In such a climate of hopelessness, extremism and the jaw-of-the-jungle tends to emerge and even prevail...
8
If we're trying to prevent the election of future Donald Trumps, perhaps we could start by not letting Hillary Clinton run for President.
While Ms. Clinton has many talents, it should be quite obvious by now that running for President is not among them. In 2008 she was trounced by a single-term junior senator from Illinois. She barely eked out a victory in the 2016 primary over Bernie Sanders who, against any other opponent, would have been looked upon as a novelty candidate. The rest is, as they say, history.
Surely the Democratic Party can find someone capable of running a competitive Presidential campaign. I don't suppose Pat Paulson is still around, is he?
12
Agree absolutely, I seriously underestimated the huge amount of "never Hillary" sentiment in 2016, naively believing few would actually vote for Trump.
3
Jim Webb from Virginia was my first choice to challenge Hillary, but apparently Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told him not to bother, he was wasting his time...sounds like what Trump told Tillerson about N. Korea, huh?
It's crazy to compare Trump to any of the anti-democratic tyrants of history. Still, the question asked at the end of each of those awful regimes, for this-- the absolute worst administration I have seen in my nearly 70 years==will be remembered as among the worst==, how did this happen, is relevant for us. I'm not asking how he got to the White House; I've got plenty of answers for that. But I am asking, as is everyone I know, how is he allowed to continue to install so many know-nothings who care not one whit about public service in government posts, to nominate and get approval for judges deemed unfit to serve, to tweet dangerous and hateful messages, to lie compulsively about every single issue facing the country, to sign away our clean air and water? We have heard a couple of Republican senators call Trump out in forceful terms, but they have done nothing to stop this train wreck, have not lobbied their colleagues, have not voted against or even spoken against any Trump executive order or legislation that is bound to take this country down a very dark road. I'm not asking these Republicans to suddenly vote for liberal policies but for them to take a moral stand, to show some responsibility and understand that nothing in the agenda the GOP has set before us is worthy of a yes vote. Take the high ground, Jeff Flake, John McCain, and admit you need to go back to the drawing board, that you need to muzzle your president.
11
Thank you dmdaisy, you expressed my feelings perfectly.
1
Stop blaming Trump.
Where are the millions of patriotic Americans? The streets are quite and everyone is at the mall or playing Candy Corn while Rome burns. Until We the People shut this country down and demand our republic back, We the People are to blame for the collapse of our county.
13
Yes. Restore democracy by overthrowing the duly elected president. Makes total sense. The left really is losing its mind, they are the ones who have no respect for democracy or the law, they are the dangerous extremists dividing and destabilizing the country. And they've been doing it for 50 years. What has changed is that what was once correctly recognized as a dangerous extremist fringe in the 1960s is now the mainstream of the Democratic Party. We were led by a man sympathetic to Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and communists for 8 years.
And these are the people trying to pretend Trump is a threat. Any president who is not a threat to the radical left is a threat to liberal democracy, because they are sworn to destroy it. Does anybody even know how to recognize a communist when they see one anymore?
1
Please stop blaming Trump. He is the symptom; the problem is the GOP, both the voters and the politicians. Trump is just the latest cancer they have created.
17
We may be too late in recognizing what Trump is doing, and who might be behind it. Our Democracy is being quickly dismantled and carried away on some excuse or another. As in our former "State Department." America better wake up, and quickly........
4
The important thing to understand about Donald J. Trump is that he is an exemplary Republican. When some Republicans first observed his antics during the election they recoiled in horror; others felt he was exactly what was needed. The consensus was, “We need a Republican in the White House so if this is it, this is it”.
After the election, time went by and Republicans got comfortable with Trump. “He has a few rough edges, but his heart is in the right place”, was how they regarded him; they ignored the graft and the self-dealing, and the whiffs of corruption in Trump’s appointments within the executive branch. and closed ranks to defend him. “All those investigations are just partisan nonsense”, they said, and Trump went on tweeting.
They wanted lower taxes and less regulation, less enforcement, and that’s what Trump wants, too. “Get out of the way and let him make things happen for us”, the Republicans said to themselves.
Trump has the soul of a Republican, he just broadcasts it at high volume. He is self- interest personified; “What’s good for me is good and its what I want!”, he says. Isn’t that what all the Republicans say, in so many words? Their program is self-interest, whether you dress it up as ‘enlightened’, or ‘kinder, gentler’, or just raw Trump. It’s all the same thing. If you like Trump, vote Republican. If not, vote Democratic.
10
Trump is a one-note atrocity. The Republicans in Congress are the ones to blame. Trump would be gone if they had a shred of decency among them.
12
"We are not punished for our sins, but by them." - This applies well to representative democracies. But it does not promise the punishment will be proportionate to the sin.
2
Americans appear to be as a whole very unable to imagine the collapse of a society. We are one of the few (only?) countries that has not witnessed a revolution or change in government since our founding. This blindness includes a great deal many educated and well meaning people.
I'm married to a Chinese man whose parents lived through the Cultural Revolution. He's expressed ever since I've known him that stability is never guaranteed. I've internalized it by now, but it's such a foreign idea I fear many of our citizens will have to experience destruction to understand the risk.
8
My sign at the women's march read, "Protect our Democracy ", I felt it then and I feel it now.
5
American democracy was destroyed long ago, when the wealthy corporations and lobby groups started buying votes in Congress. The people have been hoodwinked into believing their vote means they will have representation.
9
The media part 1 - consolidated, corporate, rich and greedy - happy only that people tune in. The race for eyeballs - ad revenue - means "both sides have to be doing it". False equivalence is killing us, literally.
The media, part 2 - The right wing noise machine - years of AM radios blasting hate at uncritical thinkers - has really taken its toll. There is no more truth (one of the GOP's vapid mouthpieces actually said this on the Diane Rehm show!) - just belief systems. Ack! When the Fairness Doctrine went away and the right wing - the greedies - could buy airtime to propagate their greed, huge swaths of our populace became lost to reason.
Television = apathy. As long as people have their reality shows, all is well. All of the recent "wars" are simply enjoyable entertainment - no one was ever asked to sacrifice anything - just sit and watch and become transfixed with our splendid killing machinery.
Human Beings v 1.0 are highly flawed. Sure we can think and reason and go to school - but we can also be mean, nasty, greedy, and tribal. When a species begins to turn on knowledge and education, when a species shows that accumulation of wealth leads to hoarding rather than sharing, when we are divided just because of appearances or orientation - when we act as disconnected individuals rather than a collective species seeking to move ahead as one - we are in deep trouble. And that is where we are.
4
Putin did not send an army of fake voters to elect Trump. It was own citizens who elected him. We can blame the unfair electoral college system for Trump's win but that is a weak excuse. The blame belongs where it should -- to the voters.
10
This is the best summation of Trump's destructive presidency I have read thus far. Completely on point.
6
My father flew in a B-24 in combat during WW II, and I served in Iraq and Afghanistan (as an Army JAG lawyer). I love our Country, and the freedom and democracy that makes it great. I want what is best for our Nation and our citizens. Thus, I hoped that Pres. Trump would want to go down in history as a great president, and truly hoped that he would be smart enough to lift himself above his own self-interest.
Sadly, Pres. Trump cannot see beyond his own biased self-interest. His ongoing assault upon our Democracy, our Bill of Rights, our American values and our principles is astonishing. It's stupid. And shame on us, the citizenry, if we excuse and tolerate it. When a true national crisis arises, we all will pay the price.
The answer to Trumpism is sound, secular education on civics and human nature. Trump panders to tribalism. We citizens must learn to recognize the "us versus them" mentality, so that civil discourse can be restored in governance. Americans are increasingly propagandized into tribes (e.g., political party, religious affiliation, pro-law & order, etc.) where people with opposing views become the enemy. The Founding Fathers knew better, devising a Constitution that attempted to check such tribalism.
For our Country's sake, all patriotic Americans, whether Liberal or Conservative, Dem or Rep, should reject Pres. Trump's anti-American methods. Democracy requires that people to work together, not tear each other apart.
12
The malignity of the republican party is ever more evident today as they head toward passage of a kleptocratic tax "reform" bill and they continue to support trump so that they can continue to steal the future of all Americans other than the 1%. Unfortunately, republican politicians do not seem to fear the time when the electorate realizes that what they and trump are telling them is a pack of lies. If the base watched anything but Fox non-news they might not have turned the country over to the republicans and trump in the first place but thanks to ignorance we have all been sold out and all of us are in grave peril.
4
Either these guys go to prison, or we have completely transitioned to a new shiny Oligarchy.
There is nothing in between.
6
This is almost totally a Republican enterprise. Yes, Trump has captured the party from the "Establishment," but only because that Establishment served it up with decades of dog whistle race-baiting, voter suppression, and God-gays-guns-gets-you-tax-cuts.
Democratic politicians are not perfect -- they are people, and they are politicians. Yes, they are not as brutally effective at winning elections as Republicans. But as Mark Twain said, a fear-mongering lie can travel halfway around the world while nuanced competence is still getting its boots on (probably the wrong feet the first time).
So I don't blame the Democratic politicians so much as the Bernie Bros and those who encourage them by saying that the Democrats and Republicans are the same. [Notice to Ralph Nader: It's been 17 years, but I am still looking out for you, and I will punch you in the nose on sight.] You do not have a god-given right to vote for a candidate who aligns perfectly with your politics and makes you feel all quivery inside. Obama did that for me, but that is luck and it ain't gonna happen again.
When the history of this period is written, Trump and the Republicans will not fare well. I just worry that the history will be written in Mandarin.
4
ALM Brisbane, CA Pending Approval
Putin did not send an army of fake voters to elect Trump. It was our own citizens who elected him. We can blame the unfair electoral college system for Trump's win but that is a weak excuse. The blame belongs where it should -- to the voters. Too many voters voted mindlessly.
2
As Voltaire said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Trump campaigned on absurdities and his actions in office have made his election an atrocity. Republicans in the house and senate, regardless of what they think, act as though they believe the absurdities Trump espouses. Dear republican senators and congressmen, for the sake of your country, of your honor, for the sake of the mirror that carries your reflection in the morning, please recognize that supporting Donald Trump is absurd.
7
Perhaps it is time to compare the rise of Hitler and the development of Nazi Germany to how the rise of Trump (supported by the Republican Congress) is leading to the demise of democracy in the United States.
Between the statements and actions of President Trump and the current laws proposed by the Republican lead U.S.Congress the U.S. is becoming a very dangerous country both for its own citizens and for the world at large.
The responsible press and the courts are the only bright spot. How long will they survive? The 2018 election is a year away. The damage by then will be possibly irreversible.
I hope groups will form to make it loud and clear in simple terms how continuation of the current trends is destroying this country.
8
Russia I understand, they have never had a liberal democracy, and never will. The situation with Israel is harder to understand. Israel has gained nothing except lip service, from Trump, a man who thinks there are "good" Nazis. Israel' move to the right was accelerated by, guess who, Russian-Jewish immigrants who knew only totalitarianism before the left Russia. It was acerbated politicians like Netenyahu who played on their fears, just as Trump plays on the fears of his base, their fear of Muslims, Blacks, domestic Jewry etc.
Thankfully I only have a few years left of my life, but my children and grandchildren, well who knows?
1
Well, opinion polls still show that a majority of registered Republicans approve of this madman and his merry band of miscreants. They may not like his tweets and his boorishness, but in their minds he is far better than Hillary or Obama.
Columns like this one, full of devastating research and commentary, receive little if any support in the South, the Midwest or the Southwest. Only on the coasts and in urban outposts like Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, et al, do such findings resonate. Republicans appear to be okay with Nazis in their midst, accused pedophiles in their Senate, and a confirmed serial deviant in the Oval Office (even the wax figure presiding over the demise of American diplomacy).
Readers of the Times ought not to take any comfort in Edsall's column. Republicans have shown that this is what they prefer from government. Only voting the bums out will change things, yet it appears that the opposition Democratic Party can't even muster a coherent voice protesting what is happening. If black voters can't even bother to go to the polls and vote against Roy Moore, then we know that American democracy is already far along the road of self-destruction.
9
This is well written and frightening summation of the problem. But honestly, its nothing we have not already heard many times. I would like much more attention dedicated from now on to realistic solutions. For example, what should people be doing to overcome voter suppression and gerrymandering? Who are the leaders we should be paying attention to? What should organizations be doing to counter Trump and what organizations need our financial support? At this point, it seems the paramount thing is to get at least one house of congress flipped to Democratic control. But as we have seen, Trump and the Republicans can do an awful lot of damage in another year. Is there anything that can be done of should we just accept that for at least the next year, we are pretty much powerless to do anything about it?
2
I think this is a momentary blip in history. I think at some point truth will mean something again. After all we survived Nixon. We survived W. There are decent, honorable leaders out there capable of restoring stability and honor to this country, leaders like Ford, Carter, and Obama. Maybe Trump is a good thing for America. It gives us a chance to glimpse the dark side and appreciate the light when it returns again.
@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
--- Donald Trump yesterday.
Recalls for me the old joke where the Lone Ranger and Tonto are surrounded by 10,000 bloodthirsty Indians and the Lone Ranger says “What are we gonna do Tonto?” and Tonto replies “What do you mean we, white man?”
2
Either the people remove Trump from office or Trump will remove the people from the former U.S.
Republicans need to impeach a dangerously unfit president and replace him with Pence. They will only help themselves in 2020.
1
It is not Trump or the Republicans who are the threat. It is the 50 million people who voted for Trump and who support him. They are the threat to the Republic. Ignorance and hate have seized millions of our fellow citizens and until that changes America will decline. Trump is the symptom, not the problem.
12
Horace,
Exactly. Very well said. Thank you for speaking out.
1
At this point the question is: does the United States still deserve its liberal democratic leadership? If part of this nation supports a crazy incompetent man while the rest just whines and hopes for a better future, is it reasonable to even think to not succumb to a foreign power?
2
Until we know what Putin has on Trump and leaders of the GOP, we will never know why Trump and the GOP have thrown our democracy under the bus. The GOP elephant takes on an entirely new meaning now - it shows our abject failure to deal with that "elephant" in our room.
1
There is a wishful notion that Mueller will somehow tuck the Trump/Republican criminality and corresponding insanity back into bed. That won't happen. The new tax laws not only destroy social institutions and further and significantly concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. In so doing, power will reside fewer and fewer hands. The question isn't 'what is going to become of America?' but 'what do the people who will have power really want?'. They don't want democracy. They don't want a multi ethnic society. They don't subscribe to justice and the rule of law. They want control.
It is not hard to imagine the country moving structurally away from its present institutional framework. The minute you mute the ability to vote and accelerate gerrymandering, you consolidate the ability of money to align its interests with messaging that reverberates chillingly through all institutions. Given we are already witnessing a republican party that makes it nakedly clear their policies flow straight from the donor class, their chokehold of self-interest will tighten and there will be movement away from an inclusive society to an exclusive society. The levers of power then become oligarchical in nature. This is the trending.
It is true that democrats wield power with some of the same attributes as republicans but republicans have jumped the shark. By serving the agenda of the few, they pervert law and represent organized criminality.
5
The problem that ultimately undid the American experiment was certainly not Russia. Russia simply saw the faults and exacerbated them.
The reason the US is on it's way to a failed nation began with greed. The aspirations to collect as much wealth as possible dangled a carrot that was irresistable to humans-and it came at the expense of all civic good. Things like social safety nets, public education, public health...all of the benefits supposed to be gained from the industrial revolution were looted. The post-scarcity society we should live in is being held back exclusively for the benefit of the immensely greedy.
Now that everyone is competing for crumbs, this is where ignorance and tribalism take over. People willingly cede their civic powers and responsibilities to a strongman in hopes of some sort of comfort, but all that's given is distraction and scapegoats-of which there's an unlimited supply.
8
The Republic is in serious peril because of the Trump states, but California is still well run. So are many other Blue states. Maybe these laboratories of democracy will preserve, and save the nation. Or maybe they will call a Constitutional Convention, and all bets will be off. It feels like America could go either way right now, and Calexit is looking better and better.
4
As a knock-on effect of our current failures as democracy It would not be surprising if after the Republicans tax bill passes that the finances of this government which used to help maintain and create a stabile society are diminished not just because of the giveaways to the rich but because of massive tax avoidance. If and when people finally wake up to what has happened will they willingly continue to pay for a government that doesn't represent them in any capacity. When that happens will US will become another Greece-like state?
6
Trump's America First policy means we don't care what happens outside our borders as long as we have a Big Wall to keep outsiders out. We don't care about trade. We will make everything here, even if it costs a lot more. We will rely on US businesses to take care of workers, while the government withdraws from regulating worker compensation, benefits, health and safety. It worked during the Roaring Twenties, which almost no one alive experienced. And then it failed, and FDR was elected. The difference now is that Republicans are manipulating the voting process to undermine any notion of democracy and entrench power in the rich and powerful. As more federal judges are appointed by Trump, the process will be sanctified. Can voters change the process? It will be very difficult and will happen only after the economy and the stock market have crashed and burned, as they did after a long period of Republican dominance at the end of the 1920s.
1
We see much conflict in the world as a result of opposing ideologies whether secular or religious. We see great conflict as a result of economics and income distribution. Maybe we humans are not as advanced as we would like to believe. Maybe the American democratic experiment has failed because we have grown too large to fast and have become too distracted by our consumerism to focus on what matters in life. Maybe the solution is to split our nation into two or three camps, the left, the right and the centrists and let people migrate to where their comfort zone is.
Edsall writes; At the moment, Trump’s co-partisans, House and Senate Republicans, have shown little willingness to confront him. The longer Trump stays in office, the greater the danger that he will inflict permanent damage on the institutions that must be essential tools in any serious attempt to confront him.
But what he does not write is what to do about it. Or how the current leadership of the Democrats are paralyzed in their inability to let go of the corporate structured gravy train they are so comfortably wedded to. We need a political revolution but first we need an internal revolution inside the party. We have been loosing elections across the board for years now and we keep making the same mistakes. What would rather do? Yammer about bathrooms, wedding cakes, and guns, or be in position to do something about them?
2
The system itself, which allowed a person like Trump to take the helm, is fundamentally broken. We have been living with the symptoms of it for decades, they just haven't been as obvious as they are now. This group may be the best hope in updating/repairing/correcting the system: www.fairvote.org
Gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and our two-party dominance allowed by the way we vote (no ranked choice or instant runoff, which would give independents a voice without the threat of "spoiling" things).
5
As bad as Trump has personally been, the more fundamental and damaging change in our democracy by far has been the complete "corporatization" of American life and democracy, a consequence of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, and of persistent efforts by Republicans to promote "trickle-down" theories of economics. Why has this been bad? 1. Corporations now have the right make unlimited campaign donations, thus controlling our politicians, and taking power away from individual voters. 2. Corporations pit cities and states against each other in a race to see who can give the biggest tax breaks and rewards. By failing to properly regulate this process (e.g. by restricting such breaks), the federal government has abetted corporations in impoverishing our cities. 3. Corporations now view workers in just one way: as a cost to be lowered if they can. This obviously hurts workers and drives even worse income inequality. 4. We used to be people first and workers second, but now humans are valued solely as "resources" (like supplies and equipment). We have been dehumanized by the corporations, and now we are being degraded by the president. Thank you, Republicans!
35
Corporations now have the right make unlimited campaign donations, thus controlling our politicians, and taking power away from individual voters
=================
This is not true at all. The campaign contribution limits are still in effect. All Citizens United said was that corporations have a right to free speech.
It recognized the absurdity that it was okay for Michael Moore's corporation to make a movie critical of George Bush in an election year but that it wasn't okay for Citizens United corporation to make a film critical of Hillary Clinton in an election year.
American democracy was in tatters before Trump arrived on the scene. It had already become an oligarchic system, unresponsive to the will of the people and responsive to big money. Examples of what citizens do not want? Massive unnecessary "defense" expenditures encouraging wars that weakens the safety of citizens; crumbling domestic infrastructure; over-expensive medical costs that feed big pharma; dilapidated public schools; tax and regulatory systems responding to monied lobbying that creates vast wealth inequality, and devastated the middle class. That's the beginning of the list. The US simply did not merit the word "democracy" - of, by and for citizens - when Trump walked into the White House. Of course, it's worse now, but the damage had been done.
10
Profound, horrifying, and truth in every word. However, I wonder if Edsall was aware 16 million foreclosures tossed 48 million people to the streets created by an engineered fraud that created global contagion that led to a $24 trillion hit to the economy that led to the tidal wave devastation of Main street while Wall Street found the failure immensely lucrative. All regulatory agencies were in on it as was the DOJ, not to mention the judiciary and BOTH parties and the masterminds are now more entrenched than ever while Trump the bellicose carnival barker is at once the consequence of said calamity, but not remotely the cause. It's about time the Edsall's of the world take a deep, dark look into the abyss they seem to conveniently obfuscate through the expediency of Trump the Terrible. '08 was the real end, everything since is window dressing.
7
A VAST conspiracy
I've accepted that our country is in permanent decline, especially in our roll as a leader of the free world. It is especially despairing to realize that the rise of Trump means authoritarian nations like Russia and China will soon dominate and the world will be a very different place for our children to grow in.
5
Even as a conservative, I do not dispute the characterization by liberals of Trump as rash, insulting and intemperate. However, I take issue with two of Edsall's assertions:
1. Divisiveness - Edsall may want to read his article.
"Pew Research Center reported that partisan conflict on fundamental political values reached record levels during Barack Obama’s presidency. " Yes, the article notes that divisiveness increased even further under Trump. But was Edsall nearly so critical of Obama's actions and speeches which seemed to separate us. Remember his speech proclaiming that "You didn't build it." which attempted to minimize the efforts of hard working Americans to make something of themselves. In another example, he blamed the earnest feelings of those who lived in the rust belt by saying they were "clinging to their guns and their religion". Though such thinking may not fit within the liberal bubble, there are many people in this country who care deeply about religion and guns as part of their culture.
2. Tyranny - “Executive authoritarianism and lawlessness can be hemmed in and checked but not fully constrained ...” It is surprising that Edsall would highlight this given that Obama declared after losing in the 2014 midterms that he could "hear the voices of those who did not vote". Even the NYT noted Obama's unilateral decrees:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/us/politics/obama-era-legacy-regulati...
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
5
I guess you forgot the part where days after Obama was elected to his first term, Mitch McConnell/ Eric Cantor and other Republican cronies stood before the press and announced that they would do everything in their power to make sure Obama was not elected for a second term.
8
Now explain how the Republican majority in legislative and judicial branches have done anything since 2010, but repudiate the majority popular vote and citizens opinions. How has tge Republican majority in legislative and judiciary done anything, but work to stop the functioning of our country and government. . . the catch phrase "We don't need no stinkin' laws or government is not an answer!"
2
I believe you seriously mistake the people Pres. Obama was addressing with “you didn’t build it”. It was addressed those who have become comfortably well-off but have forgotten the infrastructure, put into place at all levels of civic and government effort, which underlies and supports all education and enterprise.
As for those for whom “religion and guns are an important part of their culture”, I personally will tolerate quite a lot of the former as long as “your”religion doesn’t dictate what “I” can do. Gun ownership is fine too with me, but it’s obvious to so many of us that our country has failed to properly regulate the type and availability of them; hence the almost 400 mass shootings ( 4 or more victims) cited
elswhere in this paper today. That’s a failure of moral leadership.
1
"Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United States — but that we recognize as having been the precursors of democratic crisis in other places. We feel dread, as do so many other Americans, even as we try to reassure ourselves that things can’t really be that bad here." And which politicians are most guilty of saying and doing things that are unprecedented? Our President knows very well that there are now no things that he cannot get away with saying. There are no longer consequences. He apologizes for the Access Hollywood tape and year later claims it was faked. If I were to drive to the heart of Trump country and ask a red-blooded, Fox News-addled MAGA hat-wearing American about this, he, or she would argue to me that the Access Hollywood tape was fake.
If it's true that the "MSM" is biased, then the message they are biased towards is one that argues against being intolerant of someone based on skin color, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or sexuality, that argues for a safety net for the poor and especially children, that argues for healthcare for everyone, a more equitable system of taxation, treating climate change as the genuine threat that it is, etc. Only one party and political movement is on the other side of this and they are the ones who, with very few exceptions, have utterly debased political dialogue in this country and raised the practice of dissembling to a high art
1
It is not "American politicians" that are the problem! It's Republicans for God's sake. Every time it's implied that all our representatives are engaged in this sort of behavior, it gives McConnell and Ryan license to continue with their destructive policies. "Both sides" has to end.
8
The common defense among those who voted for, snd still stand by, this president is that he is "shaking things up." Indeed. The problem is such a blunt instrument approach is far more likely to produce unintended consequences than positive outcomes. If you gave a juvenile a cudgel, you'd be the one holding your breath on the sidelines. In the hands of a naive diletante like Trump such fragile systems as those comprising a democratic ediface already buffeted by global and nationalist headwinds are closer to being on life support and in need of nurture, not torture.
4
Remember that the U.S.S.R. was born in a vacuum of government and laws and flourished in a vacuum . . . exactly the vacuum Trump and the G.O.P. is creating.
1
For decades now, there have been unmistakable signs of extreme stress of our political system in the USA. We have been unwilling to face the obvious fact that the founders of our constitutional republic could not possibly anticipate the modern technology and sophisticated tools that are now available to demagogues who will ruthlessly manipulate large masses of people and consolidate power for selfish or corrupt ends. We have been unwilling to seriously address the systemic remedies that need to be considered to address the inadequacies of the 18th century safeguards our founders put in place in our Constitution. They would be appalled at our failure to buttress and strengthen those safeguards.
Now, Edsall correctly tells us we are in crisis. We are indeed. Our constitutional democracy is in grave danger. Trump is a clear and present danger to the constitutional consensus that has held us together as a nation since the Civil War.
We are now facing a grave test of our willingness to fight to preserve constitutional democracy. It will require strength, determination and wisdom. Are we up to this challenge?
3
In the 1970's I lived in Boston where I listened to a conservative talk show on radio that was followed by a liberal one. That was because the Fairness Doctrine, an FCC rule that required balancing left and right political views (there was no rule against being simple-minded obviously). In 1987 the Reagan Administration eliminated that rule. The rise of Limbaugh and his ilk followed. Fox followed not long after that.
They've all made tens and hundreds of millions as conduits for the rage many Americans feel at the changes in the social order affecting race, gender, gender identity and sexual preference, along with the arrival of immigrants from Latin America. They've made money by continually stoking that rage with lies.
Our differences have been monetized and, through the actions of a reactionary Republican party, one that has never accepted the New Deal, much less '60's social movements, politicized. There is no longer any money to be received from their donors by treating their political opponents as patriotic Americans with different views on what's best for the country. There is no money to be made by broadcasters from treating important national issues with the complexity they demand. The money is made by turning everything into a melodrama where there are only good people and bad, victims and victimizers. So we decline. And what about the left? Well, there's much less money in opposing bigotry than in promoting it.
10
When we were children, we acted on what other's would tell us. As we matured in experience, we came to think and judge for ourselves.
Now, what is true for the individual is also true for the maturation process of the collective. We are collectively maturing in our experience as a united force and capable of speaking with a common voice.
If we are to make Trumpism consistent with human history as a tale of an advancing civilization, then we must collectively reject his actions as divisive and anachronistic to the common good. We are no longer children; we are the voice of the great American experiment in democracy, standing together.
2
Every now and then all of us say (to ourselves) "Must the US really protect the free world?" But then we snap back to reality. Apparently Trump cannot snap back. So the world is going to have to defend itslef (until Nov. 2020). I hope that Americans can learn from this debacle. I hope that those who did not vote for Hillary learn to regret their choices.
2
Toom:
What other country out there that you know has a multi-billionaire dollar military/industrial complex that has been fighting never-ending wars since WW2?
Shortly after the election last November, my family made plans to emigrate. I'm a native-born American of Middle Eastern (albeit Christian) ancestry, and my spouse is Jewish. My ancestors survived the Armenian Genocide. My spouse's grandparents are Holocaust survivors.
We knew what we were seeing. At the time, I commented here about our decision to leave. My comment was met with derision, with responses claiming that our family's decision was a grossly exaggerated reaction to Trump's victory.
As expats, we've watched our nation deteriorate within the space of one calendar year. My family has never once regretted our decision to leave. Still think we were wrong?
21
Zatari:
Of course you were right. Since the days of the Southern Strategy, it became very clear what the Republican Party stood for and after Obama was elected(and the reaction) and now this President and a Party for the first time in decades, in control of all three executive branches of government, it is all out in the open for everyone to see. The unfortunate part, is native born Americans who weren't paying attention(you were), will reap the worst of all of this and for them, it is too late.
2
"President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign."
And the election of Trump was caused by the political establishment forgetting about the direct interest of the people.
Trump may be an indirect cause of our Democratic principals being shaken up but the failures of the political establishment are the diect cause.
Ignore immigration law, damage health insurance for the majority to fix a problem for a small minority, have regulations and policies that export jobs and make the 1% richer as the middle class suffers and you get Trump elected.
The establishment must stop going to extremes if they want to survive. Although democracy may be stable under an establishment that rules contrary to the will of the people, is it effectively democracy?
Don't politicians get funding, campaign to the people, and then govern to the needs of their funders? Although they are elected, if they govern to their donors is it really democracy.
One thing that is clear about Trump is that with name recognition and funding, he is far less accountable to external donors. In spite of what ever else he does, he has done some things the people have been hungaring for like enforcing immigration law, trimming regulation fat, and restablishing our proud front and center position on the world stage.
John
Front and center, but his back is facing us.
Wake up America
“enforcing integration”, aka “race-baiting xenophobia”.
“trimming regulation fat”, aka “putting the Fox in charge of the welfare of the chickens (you and I)”.
“proud front and center position on the world stage”, aka “the world can’t take its eyes off the deranged train wreck on center stage “.
What a great article. Unless we face the causes that got us here, we can never overcome them to create a country that functions for all. Trump has pretty much destroyed our institutions by packing them with like-minded repugnuts and laid waste to our principles by mockery So, no help there.
Right now, I'm of two minds. Do we wait for some great leader that rises up and somehow puts our great experiment on its feet again to serve the greater good?Or is it too late and we are condemned to watch as more of our citizens spiral downward?
1
Is there another FDR out there that was willing to fight the Republicans tooth and nail to implement his New Deal legislation that started to help average Americans during the depression, a depression that was largely caused by a Republican Hoover administration and their deregulatory policies that caused the crash of 1929? I am afraid not.
Missing in these kinds of discussions is the importance of apathetic voters and the change-nothing candidates that elicit this apathy. Trumplodytes count on this and the below 40% approvals make 2020 a likelihood.
2
Are we really to believe that other countries in the world can't tell the difference between the entire nation and just one man? Or is it because they can and they perfectly realize that it's precisely not just that one man that they're having an issue with? We all here would love to believe it was just Trump. Never mind Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, not to mention our gluttonous consumption and CO2 production.
2
So Thomas Edsall may be a patriotic conservative after all, perhaps even joining The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin in the ranks of conservative patriots who are speaking out. That's welcome.
However, the conclusion that "we've done this to ourselves," while valid, should not make Russian interference in our elections and social media a "secondary issue."
It is imperative to understand how Russia exploits our divisions and, indeed, whether it has or can manipulate election results. And we need that knowledge immediately, as we approach mid-term elections.
Finally, the issue of actual collusion or the intent to collude by The Orange Creature and his treasonous minions is just as critical to understand and punish.
Otherwise, an awakening to our shared peril is useless.
2
From George Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War," 1943:
" I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied with an ordinary lie….This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world….If the Leader says of such and such an event, 'It never happened' – well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five—well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs….
There are in reality only two safeguards. One is that however much you deny; the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back, and you consequently can’t violate it in ways that impair military efficiency. The other is that so long as some parts of the earth remain unconquered, the…tradition can be kept alive."
Let's keep it alive!
8
Donald Trump, sociopath, refractory liar, racist, sexual predator, likely delusional, has done almost unbelievable damage to America in one year.
Obviously even such a malignant President could not have been this destructive by himself. The Republican leadership, knowing full well that Trump is grossly unfit, has nonetheless declined to do what is necessary for our democracy and our people's physical safety.
They will be damned by or children and grandchildren, should those generations survive this administration.
40
We are no longer a democracy. We are opposing armed camps, one bent on imposing its authoritarian beliefs on our future, the other struggling to protect democratic ideals.
One side sees "carnage" in our streets and threats across the land, demanding an armed citizenry. They fortify walls of racism, walls of our vast prison industry, and border walls to keep the world away. They long for the illusory comfort of an economic and social order 50 years gone by, and willingly subvert electoral processes to cement their grip on the hearts and minds of America.
The embattled political minority (in fact the economic and social majority) sees hope in renewable energy and broader educational opportunities. Equality, social mobility, global engagement and power conferred by the people, not the dollar, are their values. The other side is driven by a blind, win-at-all-cost impetus. Methodology, truth, dignity, virtue, and consequences be damned.
Post-Obama racist backlash, and Russian sabotage have changed the nature of our struggle overnight. There is no retreat from this darkness now. No polite, orderly discussion of the gravity of our situation...only generations of struggle to save America from its demons.
30
Reed Erskine,
An excellent comment. It should have been an Editor's Pick. Thank you for speaking out.
2
I think this piece misses a more fundamental poison in the US system...the Christianization of American politics and society.
America has always had a religious zealotry in its public life -- some would say America was founded upon it, rather than as an antidote to too much religion (which is what I believe). However, most recently in the battle against, first, "Godless Communism," and, since then, in a host of cultural wars, religion in America's public life has been supercharged in near parallel to the weakening of America's "love," for democracy and all its ambiguities (and then came Trump).
For too many, America's political gridlock is less a battle over public policy than a battle over souls. Name the divisive topic -- from the budget to abortion, from civil rights to the believability of victims of sexual harassment -- and you will find a religious component that prevents finding equitable solutions. Religion, unlike politics, is binary. There is no real room for compromise.) The ills and self-inflicted wounds to our Democracy we see today have at their heart, not a failure of politics (which is the art of compromise) or just systems (Congressional vs. Executive authority or staffing) but an embrace of religion as a guide to political action (jihad?), which is in and of itself a killer of Democratic behavior.
19
I agree with many who posted already. Since Reagan the grooming and nurturing of this "American Conservatism" is less about American Democracy and more about handing power over to the oligarchs. I'm well in my middle age now, never have I seen in my lifetime this level of self inflicted damage in the name of "winning". The only time I've seen this is in the stadium stands of European soccer games.
We have half the country willing to cut their bellies open and shoot themselves in the face so a handful of billionaires can get richer, why? Winning of course.
We've devolved so far in to the mire that even Reagan conservatives are sounding the alarm. But the dulled and numbed electorate on the right is too busy WINNING. Look at the insanity of the right, relishing in Wall Street's record numbers, but this isn't translating into a better life for them. WINNING. Our troops are now taking casualties in more hot zones around the world, WINNING.
This crop of Republicans from Ryan, McConnell, Trump and to some extent Roberts have put in place the mechanism to ensure any subsequent administration or session of Congress will have an uphill battle to right this nation.
13
This is a superb piece. What must follow? Unrelenting pressure on elected Republicans to take action against Trump.
8
Extreme partisanship didn't begin in 2016, but it certainly reached a new level then.
President Trump was afforded no honeymoon, as "the resistance" began immediately after the election an attempt to nullify the results and discredit the president.
Some of this is karmic payback for how Republicans acted towards Obama. Some of this is a legitimate response to some of Trump's boneheaded moves (i.e. unnecessary tweets). But it is still extraordinarily harmful.
And, please, let's dispense with the notion of a righteous, courageous, unbiased media. The mainstream media has long since acted as the public relations arm of the Democratic Party, with which they share liberal beliefs. More recently, conservative media has arisen in response to play the same role for Republicans.
Lastly, we need to all understand and accept that the U.S. role in the world has been diminishing for the past 20 years. The greatest blow was the free trade deal with China, which has drained our wealth to create a true geopolitical rival. The decline preceded President Trump and will continue after him.
This decline concerns a world that is used to a stable unipolar order. It SHOULD concern them, because the current global order is crumbling and they need to find their place in what comes next.
1
I concur that the future of the U.S. as a democratic country is very much in doubt. However, the fault does not lie with Trump. The Republican party has pushed the doctrine of tax cutting to the point of sedition. The Republican party, not trump, has been busily gerrymandering so that majority votes for one party become minority representation in the state legislatures. And race--let's not get started. Today no government activity is considered legitimate. There is a background to the forces that are subverting democratic norms.
Trump fits in with these trends like a hand in a glove.
6
Donald Trump various appointees to head agencies actually oppose the mission of the agency, starting with EPA. What more needs to be said? He has sold out the American people, both those who elected him and the majority who voted against him. He makes big promises but lacks the intellect, skill, knowledge, and ability to bring any promise of substance to fruition. He clearly either outright lies to the public about, or does not understand the pending tax bill, which he claims will not benefit him. He pledged to work for the public good, but he in fact actively is working against the public good with respect to tax, environment, education, interior, diplomatic relations (continuing to malign Muslims, for example). People should truly be frightened of the future under Trump and beyond (judicial appointments).
4
How will I answer my children when they read this piece? I'm sorry? I don't know how this happened? We're just in a 'moment'? We are better than this?
I doubt there is anything to be said that can settle their fears, or ours.
1
The Republican Party is letting America down. I always thought they stood on the side of freedom and free speech. Many of us up here are worried for our friend to the south; worried about what kind of "government" we will be living next to.
3
I find it sadly ironic that so many of those who argue for Second Amendment rights as being necessary to protect against tyranny applaud the tyranny when it arrives.
26
Funny how that works, isn't it?
Trump's assault on American society will get added force and do much more harm through the giant Republican tax scam to increase inequality and the burden on the poor and middle-class while gutting healthcare. This is a crucial moment in American history while the media focus on the racy sexual misbehavior of politicians and figures from the TV and entertainment world or Trump's latest Twitter-generated controversies (anti-Islamic fake videos, attacks on Theresa May, etc.).
6
A very subtle piece and, of course, the analysis of what Trump has wrought is excellent. The ignoramus is a destructive buffoon.
Also the passage : "to blame Putin for the mess we are in today would be ridiculous. We Americans created this mess” should be a wake up call to the Times and many of its readers.
The mess started long ago and was made worse by George W Bush who made the US very un popular the world over. Now with China looming over the horizon it seems as if the US and its many costly wars is bent on committing suicide. Trump will preside over the fall but all the war mongers and mad tax cutters before him are complicit. China the autocratic country is building bridges & roads while the US is emptying its treasury with permanent but unnecessary wars. Afghanistan will once again be the graveyard of another empire.
4
We are going to have to go through the same fire as did modern Germany. The worst Germanic strands of our culture are showing through in all their appalling cruelty. In the 1930s a whole culture was destroyed overnight. As to them, so to us. Who will be our US and save us?
9
China is currently on a accelerated rise much like the US was after WW2. They are investing and expanding their influence in every area: alliances, infrastructure, energy, patents, science and technology, higher education—you name it, they are covering all the bases, and doing so within the context of a multi-tiered strategy that includes one year, five year, and fifty year plans. And nobody there is fat. The population there can feel it; they have that spring in their step that we in America used to have. They're hungry for this and they've waited a long time. Meanwhile we, creators of the Marshall Plan, walk around in a state of self righteous anger or quiet malaise.
Of course they also live under a repressive Communist government. But that's the point: we could do better. Not just better than we're doing now, but better than China. We have a democracy that many gave their lives to protect. Instead of honoring that sacrifice, we're allowing our leadership in the world to be given away.
Even Russia, with a GDP that's less than Canada's, is eating our lunch. I always found it hard to understand how Rome fell from within, but I'd have been happy to read a book about it as opposed to living through an actual example.
12
Our republic failed on November 8, 2016.
Was it fatal? Time will tell, but clearly and unfortunately, it is obvious that there is a substantial part of the population that is not capable of engaging in rational behavior or of governing itself.
I can offer no real solutions here, I am deeply pessimistic about the future of this country and what it holds for my children. All that I can do is continue, along with others of good conscience, to keep up the fight for basic human dignity and the universality of human rights.
I remain inspired by pictures and stories of the century long struggle for civil rights.
The one bright spot I see is that every time there is a funeral for a mean, grumpy, old white guy (the republican base) the future looks a little brighter.
9
Reason is the opiate of Academia.
You believe reason, understanding, may change our future choices. In spite of a stunning lack of evidence to support that hypothesis.
History - does give us a rough idea of what has happened before; if not why. Empires - always crumble. We create as many reasons why as there are historians; but the fact - empires do - always - self destruct.
Age- means eventual death; no matter 'why" - but always. In fact if you look at the average age most empires have reached when they self-digested - we are due. It may be more just plain biology than a failure to communicate.
4
Many English teachers have the experience of the struggling student who tries to explain a bad test answer by saying, "It's clear in my head; I just can't express it." The mistaken notion is that thought (somehow) precedes language.
I see an analog in the current hand wringing. What if the current president isn't an aberration who has unfairly captured the Oval Office but rather the natural culmination of years of cultural and economic practices and habits? Decades of both growing economic stagnation and cultural flabbiness have produced this state of affairs, not a single man and a single election. How many people sat home during the Obama mid-term elections? How many again last year? This president is an effect, not a cause.
3
This opinion piece covers the disaster and danger trump presents after only ten months very well. After four years, does anyone truly believe trump will give up office should he lose convincingly in 2020? Together with his Co conspirators in the GOP, they will trample on our democracy and Constitution to stay in power. They will have all the money by then anyhow and the politicians will expect a healthy kickback from all the tax cuts they got for their wealthy patrons.
6
Edsel rightly asks if there is a legal remedy. From my Dutch perspective it is hard to understand why and for how long republicans in the House and Senate will let Trump continue. I can’t imagine they support Bannon’s anarchist agenda and their legislative benefits have been minimal so far. What am I missing?
3
Tax cuts. After they're passed maybe they'll get busy.
Edsall quotes, two Harvard guys saying, "American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections." Sorry, not all American politicians do this. This is entirely the province of the Republican Party. Let's be honest here. And until the press and academics stop this false equivocation, we're going to sink further into the abyss. And right now, I fear there is no way out, save separating the country into Union and Confederate states and letting each go its own way.
8
All we need to put Trump in check is a functioning congress. The only way to achieve a functioning congress is for democrats to gain control in 2018. So vote people! Like your freedom depends on it.
7
I don't really get this piece. I don't like Trump either and do believe that he has contributed substantially to the degradation of public life, as slumlord, a reality tv star a candidate and a president. But the argument here focusses on American foreign policy, an enterprise historically carried out by the military and the intelligence agencies that seem to have taken pride in contravening democratic norms, e.g. killing democratically elected leaders, and lying systematically to the American public, e.g. about surveillance. Trump has nothing to do with this. As to democracy, didn't the republicans set out to sabotage democracy and race bait right after Obama was elected? Didn't they abandon any allegiance to procedures that have been in place for years by refusing to confer Obama's Supreme Court nominee and elevating a Koch brother sponsored conservative to the supremes? Trump is a septum of the ruins of our democracy, not a cause. That being said, the longer he stays in power, the worse it gets.
6
The only guaranteed check on Trump will be voting him out of office in 2020. There is really nothing else.
jsf,
That assumes he'll leave office if he is voted out. Remember, he has tens of millions of racist, heavily armed whites who will hit the streets at his merest tweet. Guarantee? With the state of our country now, there are no guarantees.
1
For anyone dedicated to the survival of civilized self-governance, this column should be terrifying. When democracy gets throttled in its own cradle, it dies everywhere. Do we really want to be the tour guides for a new dark age?
The column rightly points out that we have created our own dysfunction. Russian meddling may have influenced the edges but it is hardly the major source of our slide toward political infantilism. Only we can reverse the slide but it's doubtful that we retain the collective spine to do it..
2
The current occupant is not destroying the USA, he is educating the citizens about the reality of false advertising, blind trust, lies and exploitation. We all see the wheat has been separated from the chaff, and the goats from the lambs. We know the majority is loosing so the minority can gain. A democracy is of the people, for the people, for the common welfare of ourselves, and our posterity. This too shall pass as a dark moment in our national history, as those who voted GOP will loose their health care, watch their jobs stay overseas (as corporate tax breaks favor imports) yet keep their guns. Our children deserve better. So sad. Who can look themselves n the mirror and be proud knowing their taxes were reduced while their neighbors wanted for food and healthcare.
1
It's very important to understand that this 'self destruction' began long before Trump, when we lost any semblance of 'representativeness' in Congress. Our imperfect Framers bequeathed us with a constitutional republic of a democratic bent that allows us to have an elected member of Congress for every 30,000 constituents -- instead, we have one for every 710,000-plus constituents, and our representatives have an army of unelected staffers. There is no possibility to have a government of, by and for the people under such miserable circumstances. A Princeton study shows our elected officials are utterly heedless of the will of the people, except for those in the top 5 percent of the income bracket. Rather than point the finger at the election of Trump (Hillary also would have been a disaster in her way), each of us must see this as a predictable outcome, that we'd eventually elect a consummately boorish and ignorantly ultra-narcissistic snakeoil salesman; and we must further point a finger at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves how it's possible we allowed to disappear the last remnants of any sort of democratic element to our constitutional republic on our watch.
1
As Eeyore is so fond of saying " it'll never work, we're not gonna make it"
A heads-up from a life-long New Yorker who has been watching Trump for forty years: he doesn't need your love.
Take a look at Trump's family: there are no visible signs that he loves his trophy wife or any of his children, although he has repeatedly expressed lust for Ivanka. They fear him, and that is written plainly on their faces for all to see.
Trump is a publicity exhibitionist and always was. For decades he has gotten a thrill out of scandalizing polite society, and to send millions of citizens into a tailspin. There is nothing he will not do to shock the world.
Trump does not need your love, but he demands you be shocked, and fearful of his next move. And, yes, he's nuts. That is why we NYC residents voted against him 9 to 1.
6
Lets face it, Trump's Mentality is way off any normalcy, and its causing ALL of us to question our intelligent motives and deeds. He needs an extreme makeover, like a mental health counselor at his side ALL of the time. Can never put trust in anything he says, "believe me".
Someday republican congressmen may have to face their children when they are asked why they acted as cowards in the face of obvious disaster. It may, in fact, be too late to heal our diminished standing in the world and the ever-widening divisions now besetting the nation. I suggest that we start sending white feathers to representatives in Washington, in state houses, and in governor's offices.
2
[M]embers of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. …
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past 40 years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. … All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
“This world economy will soon be owned by a cosmopolitan upper class which has no more sense of community with any workers anywhere than the great American capitalists of the year 1900.”
Both quotes are from Richard Rorty's book "Achieving our Country"written in 1998.
1
American Presidents have been assassinated.
American Presidents have been impeached.
American Presidents have to win their party’s nomination to stand for a second term.
American Presidents have been vetoed by voters.
When all else fails, there is the two term limit.
2
Richard Mitchell-Lowe,
And you believe Trump will voluntarily leave in 2024? Or that he won't "install" one of his children as our next "dear leader"? He has tens of millions of rabid supporters, all heavily armed, that will do anything he says -- including spilling the blood of their fellow Americans. Term limits indeed....
1
Liberal democracy is founded upon mutual trust and mutual interests about which all citizens agree, they more or less agree on the what but often contend regarding the how. When one political faction uses electoral victory to deprive opponents of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness then the basic trust upon which this form of government depends has been lost.
The current tax plans of the Republicans are deliberately arranged to deprive those most likely to vote for Democrats of their money to pay for these tax cuts, and these plans will make those in the lower middle class income range poor to enrich the superrich. I'd say our democracy is in the process of going away to be replaced by oligarchy, oligarchy dominated by plutocrats and religious zealots.
The irony is that these Republicans who are doing this are going to find themselves disenfranchised and dependent upon much more wealthy people and leaders of some big religious groups to even be able to vote in government but without any personal conscience allowed. The rest of us will have to find patrons just to live decent lives.
Equality before law and one person one vote are on the way out. This country was created at the end of 1700's and it has gone on longer than the founders expected. It will be remembered as a golden time in human history but it is rapidly coming to an end.
111
Classical “Liberal Democracy” has absolutely nothing to do with agreement or “mutual interests” except for the agreement that there should be as much latitude as possible for people to pursue their own life, liberty and happiness. There will never be a government run on the basis of agreement and mutual interests because you will never have everyone agree on what these mutual interests are. The result will always be a government run by and for the majority who agree, and force their “mutual interests” on the rest.
In order to have Liberal Democracy, there needs to be respect for Law and institutions of said government, and such Law must make government as unobtrusive as possible in people’s lives.
The problem we have today is that our government now tries to be as intrusive in our lives, and is being driven by today’s so-called liberals (who are actually socialists or communists), funded by one-world advocates like George Soros, and force people to live their lives in accordance with political correctness and collectivism.
Republicans and Democrats are equally responsible for the transformation of the Classical, Liberal, Representative Republic established by the Founding Fathers into a Big Brother, oppressive socialist beheamoth that strips citizens’ liberties at every turn
If you truly want real Liberal Democracy, what you want is to get Government off our backs and out of our lives.
Equality before the law has never really existed in this or any other country. There are far more innocent poor people in our jails and prisons than guilty rich ones. Thank God for the Innocence Project or the numbers would be even worse.
I ask my friends in this forum, how will you answer your children or grandchildren, growing up in poverty under a fascist dictatorship, when they ask you, "What did you do to save democracy?"
Will your answer be, "Well, I posted some angry comments in The New York Times"?
Fortunately millions of your fellow progressives don’t have the time for angry comments. They're already out ringing doorbells, talking to neighbors, passing out literature, recruiting volunteers, and compiling get-out the-vote lists for Election Day.
I'm an old man, and will die soon. But most of you will have to live under fascism, if your party doesn't take back the House in 2018. And that is by no means assured.
Blue congressional districts, those that voted Democratic in 2016, will likely do so again. Election experts differ, but my reading is that some purple or swing districts will be needed, as well, to win the House in 2018.
That means Trump voters. It is a mistake to write off all Trump voters. They are not all racists. Some 7-9 million of them voted for Obama before turning to Trump. That suggests a motivation that is more economic than racial. They feared for the economic future of their families and communities. http://tinyurl.com/yd78yz79
Polls and focus groups show erosion of support for Trump among these swing voters. It wouldn’t take many in some swing districts to give the margin of victory to the Democrat. And thus control of the House to the Democrats. http://tinyurl.com/y7hvo8fy
14
The remarkable thing about this column is that the Republican Party is mentioned only once. Trump is the natural result of decades of Republican activism. He is the natural successor to decades of the likes of the Moral Majority, Newt Gingrich, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Sarah Palin. The Republican Party is Trump. They've been trying to run our country over a cliff for decades. The Democrats have not been. The self-destruction of American democracy is not a bipartisan endeavor with lots of blame to go around. The attempted destruction of American democracy is an ongoing act of war by the Republican Party. Full stop. That that doesn't even merit a mention from Mr. Edsall speaks volumes about constitutes socially-acceptable reporting.
8
We get what we vote for or don't show up to vote against. In the majority of states, the majority of people of people voted for Trump which is how our electoral system works. The states also voted in a majority of the GOP senators and Representatives. In the majority of states, Governors and legislative houses, Americans voted for GOP leadership. And now Republicans are doing (trying to do) everything they said they would do. its called Democracy. If the progressives and the idiotLeft ever learn that voting in every election for every post is important, this might change, but I am not holding my breath on that one.
7
Amen. I have never read our predicament described so succinctly ...
8
Russian meddling is the key component. Without their influence the election would have been won by Hillary who would have been exactly what she has been all along - among the most compromised democrats but still a voice of reason and compromise. The Russian influence was designed to make everyone hate, a relatively easy task but since the margin of victory was so small very effective. Many who didn’t vote, voted third party or voted Trump were made to feel deep hatred for Hillary. Trump is the candidate of hate.
8
The Russians played a role but putting it all on them is simplistic. There are a lot of unhappy voters out there looking for something. Trump filled that void.
Trump is merely a chapter in the book of American decline. It will get worse for the many. Many who comment on these pages will claim that only if the other side had taken charge. Which is absolutely false. Both sides have turned us into a plutocracy where oligarchs feed money to the plutocrats who do their bidding. This had been going on for years. If our democracy and economy are severely damaged, the oligarchs, whatever their opinion about race, gender equality, and immigration will be fine in their gated communities, limos and private jets. The rest will suffer from economic stagnation poor health and education services and despair brought on by these conditions.
96
This piece is suggesting that Trump and the people who voted for him hold the real possibility of ruining the America we know in their hands. I think they might go through with it. America has always been more of the idea of America than
the actuality of what the idea points to. Progress has been made over time, but
depending on which group you belong to, progress has been an uphill battle.
If we look back at killing of the natives, burning witches, slavery, civil rights etc...
even voting rights, gerrymandering and so on, Trump might just be defining
America from the angle of what it actually seems to be and not from what it could be.
3
We never once burned witches in the United States. They did that in Europe. Here we hung them, and crushed one by stones. But we never burned them at the steak.
Ladies and Gentlemen, behold: The New American Dictatorship!
Who can stop Trump? Congress.
Will they? No.
Why? The billionaires who make or break their campaigns have sided with Trump.
So enabled by the forces that control Congress, Trump is now free to demand loyalty by members of the congressional majority. These are the men and women who approve all of Trump’s picks for all the departments and agencies, who will gradually bend to Trump’s wishes on foreign and domestic policy. These are the men and women who will write the laws that legalize Trump’s vision for America. You’re seeing it right this moment with the cruel tax plan that is about to be passed.
While we gossip about Russia and Twitter, Trump installs new judges to federal courts to ensure that he won’t have any future problems with getting executive orders passed (such as travel bans on Muslims). He puts people in charge of agencies that will soon be undone by their new directors’ contempt for their very existence. He queues up executive orders that legalize toxic substances in agriculture, or prevent transgendered people from serving in our military.
When our media reports on these atrocities, he laughs and dismisses everything as a lie. Lots of people, it seems, believe him.
We are outraged by his endlessly offensive comments, but what about his base? Are they? Check the polls.
As long as he keeps that 35% support and can win elections in the same manner he did in 2016, we’re in trouble.
4
You haven't exactly said how democracy is being undermined. Did you object to Obama's massive number of executive orders? Did you object to the Clinton campaign colluding with Russia to put out a fake dossier? Have you been able to point out ANY success by Clinton or Kerry in foreign affairs?
2
john, Obama signed fewer executive orders than any of his post-WWII predecessors. So your first point is either ignorant or deliberately untruthful. The Clinton campaign did not collude with Russia. It hired the same firm that Marco Rubio had hired to do op-research on Trump. Contrary to working with Russia, this firm received a dossier from a British MI-6 agent who had learned intelligence about Russia's attempts to blackmail Trump. To call that collusion with Russia is either the epitome of stupidity or the paragon of fake news. As for Clinton and Kerry, they worked consecutively on the Iran nuclear deal, a complete success on its own terms which non-political Israeli intelligence and military officials all say turned out to help Israel as well as the Paris climate change accords which does more to combat the biggest problem facing the planet than any previous undertaking. Most of the credit there goes to Kerry.
3
Obama had to use executive orders because the republicans blocked everything he tried to do, even things that would be good for the country.
Whataboutism much? Do you not understand what the words undermine and democracy mean?
Yes, fine. But left unsaid is enough people were unhappy with the existing order, including it's norms and customs that they voted to blow it all up in November of 2016. Trump did not run as a centrist technocrat only to turn into himself today. People knew exactly what they were voting for and are now getting it. That to me is American democracy working perfectly.
2
But DRS, less people voted for him so people did not want the system blown up and why would you think "blowing up the system" is good.
1
The republican senate and congress will not impeach Trump, they are as useless as slugs.
We as voters in the 2018 election need to vote in representatives that will actually represent their constituents. Then and only then will we have a chance of righting our country.
Do not be complacent, speak with friends, family and colleagues. Make sure they vote. Volunteer, mobilize, get involved.
The very future of our country is dependent on it.
7
Trump has paid off the Republicans in the legislature with his promise to sign the tax bill written explicitly for the Trump and Koch families and their friends. It's difficult to identify a real American who is also a Republican. They sold us out.
4
"Partisan polarization, which helped give rise to Trump in the first place, is getting worse as discord intensifies with every slur and insult Trump hurls."
At what point does #45's abuse of the first amendment become illegal? Is not telling people that 'a fire in your theater is imminent' enough times--particularly when it isn't--by an authority figure no less a clear and present danger than the more common example?
3
Western democracies are based on free and fair elections. American democracy has degenerated by means of the electoral process. Trapped in an evenly balanced two-party straightjacket, operating within a federal system of checks and balances, bipartisan cooperation is essential to make government function well and the Republicans destroyed it under Obama.
To regenerate American democracy, the GOP must be resoundingly defeated in 2018 and 2020. Yes, there are important issues of fairness that need to be addressed -- the Electoral College, gerrymandered congressional districts, and voter suppression. But the larger problem is that far too many Americans refuse to vote for Democrats no matter who is running for Republicans, and millions of others are so cynical they don't bother to vote at all.
Trump's triumph is the failure of the Democratic Party. That party's regeneration is central to defeating the Republicans so decisively that they split, and the white nationalist wing under Trump -- perhaps 20-25% of the electorate -- becomes isolated and electorally impotent. Genuine conservatives can then return the GOP to its respectable roots and bipartisan cooperation can become possible once again. The NYT would benefit its readers by paying much closer attention to the Democratic Party; the ways and means of its recovery.
3
1. The Russians and Trump have already succeeded in delegitimizing the American electoral process. Gerrymandering has set the stage for this, and the drama that is American politics plays to an electorate that is easily manipulated.
2. Trump (and the RepugniKlans) have succeeded in degrading the public's faith in our free press. True Republicans continue to sit on their hands.
3. Both major parties have splintered to the point that we now would be better served by a Parliamentary system.
4. The President exhibits, on a daily basis, characteristics which most of us would agree are those of a nightmarish boss: he is impulsive, erratic, belligerent, and vengeful.
3
Wealthy Americans are greedily taking us into the abyss.
3
55% Voter Turnout. Tantamount to a social tsunami.
4
The Philippines surprised me, thank you for the research!
the proof of "How Democracies Die" was written about & explained very well in 1513 by Nicolo Machiavelli in "The Prince" published in 1532. He outlined the effects "partisan conflict" when used in the hands of "il Principe." most people look at "The Prince" as being a 'how-to' for power. when, in fact, it was meant as a warning for people to be careful of losing their freedoms: "He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation."
4
Our Country is in trouble. I watch daily as Trump and the GOP Congress are allowed by we the citizens to degrade the institutions that made us strong and to allow bad behavior to become the norm. And everyone’s asking, what are we to do?
2
When a government is run exclusively by and for the rich we call it an oligarchy. Welcome to the Oligarchical States of America.
6
Not a day goes by that President Trump doesn't do or say something that makes me cringe. I'm sure that most of the rest of the world, thinks the same way.
6
This is what happens when, as now, Trump and his partisan minions are distilling American values into" mere greed and selfishness." The danger this presents is even greater because the Republican party has completely abdicated its responsibility to stand in opposition to Trump's outlaw behavior, the brutalizing or decivilization process. This is the gravest danger we have faced since World War Two. Democracy is hanging in the balance while Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and their GOP brethren act only on their donors' behalf, while ignoring the many issues facing the rest of us in this country. I fear they do not have the courage or morality to prevent further erosion of our democratic values and institutions.
2
The downward spiral Mr. Edsall describes will only escalate. Within the span of one year, we have rolled back five decades of social justice progress. Civil rights and equality for ethnic minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community are being stripped away from us. The Justice Department is literally hunting down protesters for prosecution -- where their only "crime" is exercising their Constitutionally protected right to protest.
This is exactly the America Trump voters want to live in - one in which those of us who are minorities or "uppity" women must live as second-class citizens. One in which those of us who speak out will pay a price. One in which those of us who are brown-skinned will once again live in fear. Trump voters do not consider us equal citizens in an America they view as theirs alone.
We will never change their views. That they still rabidly support a deranged tyrant in the White House is evidence enough of this.
It is no longer possible for the rest of us to co-exist with Trump supporters and be treated as equal citizens in this country. We are now faced with two very bad options: either leave our country, or continue to live as targets in an America in which we are no longer seen as equals. There are no other options.
10
Yes there is -- the leading Blue states must resist. Withhold Federal tax money, refuse to enforce discriminatory or ecologically foolish policies (as we are already doing in Sanctuary Cities and by pledging to adhere to the Paris Accords as a state). The time for rebellion has come. Remember, the coastal Blue states are the prosperous, productive ones. California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington State. Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey -- these are the states that pay more in Federal tax than they receive. Time to call the Republican Red staters' bluff.
We will see whether in this self-indulgent age the American people deserve to keep their republic. Or whether people who care not to be informed, to reject "alternative facts," to engage in reasoned debate, to compromise, to participate, to vote, will prefer bread and circuses to liberty. After 500 years of a tumultuous republic (on which our Framers consciously patterned our republic), the Roman people could no longer live up to it, and after civil war and upheaval surrendered to the peace and stability of dictatorship. (Of course, they then went on to their greatest achievements in engineering, architecture, government, art. . .in spite of a few mad and bloody emperors. . .so who knows what our future may hold?) The words of the lawyer, diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maistre are apt: "Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite." "Every nation has the government it deserves."
2
Can we print this up and drop it from airplanes over all the counties that voted for Trump? It's brilliant, but it's not doing much good right here!
1
A good idea. However there is one major shortfall. Do you expect that those people are capable of or willing to read?
1
Trump has a modus operandi which can be generally described as desecration; it is a kind of disrespect that exceeds all boundaries of civility and good faith, it includes a combination of gaslighting, grandiose claims, denials, and repetition.
For ex., his recent anti-tribute to the Navajo Code Talkers in the Oval Office where he espoused admiration for the "special" Indian people while at the same time he disparagingly used the name of Pocohantas, (a bona fide Native American Princess who saved the Jamestown colony) to hurl a juvenile insult at Senator Warren. With Trump's Pocohantas taunt he insulted all Native Americans, women, and veterans, especially in the context from which he spoke-- standing underneath a portrait of the infamous Indian killer Andrew Jackson (who Trump proclaims to be his idol). This all occurred when Trump was supposed to be honoring the heroic Navajo Code Talkers, credited with helping the US to gain victory in the Pacific against Japan, an accomplishment that came at great cost to the Code Talkers.
Be warned, invite Trump to speak and one should expect that he will desecrate the setting with his words and presence and then he will use the confusion he generates to attack one of his many enemies, which include the values upon which our country stands. Trump's countenance is foul and abominable, his toxicity would quench the spirit of our nation if we were to give him the customary respect that his position as President would otherwise deserve.
5
The 800 lb. elephant in the room, that seeming can not be mentioned, is 35+ years of unmitigated right-wing propaganda being injected into our national discourse. I don't listen to it much, because it's always the same, but it's the primary reason that our politics has become so toxic over the last 35 years.
From Limbaugh all the way to the local AM hacks, it's all about how "the left hates America, wants to destroy America, and despises you and your faith." Mix in lots of dog whistle racism and overt xenophobia and voila, here we are.
My only question: why are we in this hand basket and where are we headed?
1
I can't shout loud enough, where are the sane congressmen and women. Why are they quiet????
7
Sorry Amy/Brooklyn, you've got that backwards....it's the DNC that chose Hillary Clinton thereby locking out Bernie and his supporters. However. even with that utter disappointment no sane voter should chosen Trump over Clinton.
2
Sad but, even sadder that it's true.......
1
Beautifully said, Mr. Edsall. Now where on the scale of alarm are the leaders of our great academic institutions, of our globalized corporations and financial institutions, of our houses of worship, of our state and local governments, of our scientific and technological crucibles, of our armed forces, of our judicial system? It's way past the time when we can expect our elected representatives in Washington to do anything about the morally repugnant, neo-fascistic charlatan who is so wantonly dismantling our democracy piece by piece. We can't expect him to be stopped by brilliant, urgent editorials in such great media institutions as the New York Times. The outcry also has to come from all sectors of our society, regardless of political party. And it has to come from the the eloquent, decent, and immensely popular man whom Donald Trump replaced. Where, oh where is Barack Obama on this scale of alarm?
2
At least Donald Trump has solved sexual assault for all victims of it: get another job (as he told his daughter!). Truly he knows nothing about anything other than gaming the system and conning people.
1
Absolutely outstanding commentary! Will Trump read it? Will the likes of Kevin Dowd read it? Enablers like Paul Ryan? Mitch McConnell? Any of the stooges in Trump's cabinet? Will they cringe? Will they care? Will they gloat?
2
Well, how can we forget Russia when President Tumor was mutated into office by Putin?
1
And why aren’t FB, Twitter and Google facing charges of treason for taking money from a foreign entity Russia, to influence our election?
2
Some commentators seem to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the onslaught of destructive legislation being debated and passed by the GOP Congress, GOP State and GOP City governments. This tactic is centuries old. Corrupt leaders have always used this military tactic of continued bombardment so that one is so busy fighting one piece of legislation one does not see the real scams. Guns is a gimme, taxes is a gimme anything to do with anti-liberal policies are gimmes. This is what the Pretend King Trump supporters want to hear and laugh at when they see the liberals crying foul.
What is at the heart of these attacks is more dangerous. Czar Putin wanted instability so that he can do whatever he likes in Europe. What he did not understand is that Europe can do without us. China wants instability in the U.S. because of trade exports. They want India and most of Asia has their special trading partners and by showing the U.S. as unstable Asian governments would turn to them. What they did not foresee is that these Asian countries had their own tyrants and see China as just another U.S. an "imperialist dog".
We cannot undo Nov 2016 election results unless they were illegal in some manner. But we can turn the tables. We have many organizations that can combat these small fights all at once as well but this means digging in our pockets. If we don't we have the biggest tax scam to deal with. The founding fathers gave us the tools now we must use them.
73
"We cannot undo Nov 2016 election results unless they were illegal in some manner."
Why not impeachment?
1
My G-d, that graphic is a punch in the gut. How far we have fallen in the eyes of the world, from Ghana to Germany, from Japan to Mexico, in just one year, is staggering. And damage like that is not swiftly undone. Once confidence is lost and former partners find new partners to work with instead, the former order does not come back. 2020 will be too late.
149
i seem to remember country's doing a 180 after Bush was replaced by Obama, let's hope that happens again. I was surprised at how quickly they changed their opinion of us. But if we are to pull that off again we need an excellent politician, who will be well liked abroad.
I shudder to think about the next few years. No one will recognize this country by the time Trump and the Republicans get through with it.
Your loss of 2016 elections was severe to acknowledge, your candidate crooked Hillary was a horrible person, please get over your losses...
All so a treasonous Republican Party could get tax cuts for the Koch Brothers. Shame on them and the folks who vote for them. Years of stoking hate against other Americans so they could advance their agenda with little care about those who disagree with them. What is more sad than the destruction of our great Democracy is that Americans did it to their own deluded selfs.
10
The uninvited criminal and traitor Trump is the most dangerous element to attack the United States and everything this country was built on. Although it is not certain that democracy will prevail, if it does, I look forward to the slaughter of the traitors in the GOP , his family , sycophants , and elsewhere.
4
To quote D & D Trump is chaotic evil. The Republican Congress lawful evil, which translates them into making evil laws in their own image
4
Random thoughts as I read Mr. Edsall' Op-Ed: (1) Wave goodbye to the US of A. (Not hyperbole.) (2) Operative word in the Op-Ed's title? SELF. That American democracy is being destroyed, HAS been destroyed for some time is not up for debate. (3) If Mr. Edsall's analysis is sound, then the ineluctable fact is that those mean old Rooskies didn’t kill American democracy, our oligarchic corporatocracy and their paid for stooges in BOTH major US political parties did. (Indeed, corporatocracies and democracies are, by definition, mutually exclusive. In America, we made this choice long ago, around 1980 if memory serves.) (4) Finally, to my self-described "liberal" friends, as you're watching your country go down the drain, please, please, PLEASE don’t delude yourself with the comforting lie that “It was the evil Republicans alone wot did this to us!!” No, you fools. The destruction of America's democracy was done with the complicity and approval of the “Democratic” Party. Ironic, no?
5
The parties have become irrelevant. They are both owned by the same masters. Dems and Republicans both rush to kneel before their masters when called. With mouths gaping and trembling with anticipation, they accept whatever blessings they can get.
The only thing that will stop this is a catastrophe of our own making of such magnitude that is wakes up the people, but of course that catastrophe, on top of the Iraq war, will totally bankrupt the country. Is is also likely that that catastrophe will irreparably damage our biosphere.
1
Lincoln also saw the possible end of the USA. "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809-1865)
Way to go non-voting citizens of America. Your non-participation in this republic has allowed you yo top yourselves this time. Thank you so much for not caring. A country can only have so much success and evidently you reached your limit. or as John Houston said at the end of an hours-long brawl in the film "Cannery Row", "Sometimes, you can only have so much fun."
3
God, this is depressing.
11
All this horror began with Trump. Let's Impeach Him and then we can begin to clean up and get our Democracy back in order. Yes We Can.
Al Gore said on CNN Fareed Zakaria show, “ Our democracy has been hacked by big money long before Putin hacked our democracy.”
Richard Painter, Bush ethics lawyer said in a NYT op ed “Our politics is a protection racket run by big money who simply threaten candidates who don’t play ball--they'll run somebody against them who will.”
The most destructive US “Collusion” is domestic and legal---it's forced, by American corporations financing our campaigns, collaborating (colluding) on the lawmakers we elect to represent us. We can't compete, so they can't represent the people who elect them. This is the real “meddling” in our democracy, affecting all our lives.
American’s three branches & most states are dominated by right-wing radicals masquerading as apostles of moral superiority. They operate their own party media megaphone across the land -- Fox News radio/TV monopoly. Their admitted voter suppression and gerrymandering mocks democracy.
American political corruption has been redefined and legalized as Free Speech by the Supreme Court. This underlying cause of the poison in our politics is hardly discussed by the media. The media profits hugely from high fees for the campaign ads that manipulate voters, paid for by billionaire donors.
Public financing, which would give the citizen majority more of a voice in our lawmaking, is not even discussed in our media.
6
Perhaps you might consider linking the decline in American stature from the time Barack Obama said "We tortured some folks" and did not look for accountability?
1
The decline you refer to would include Reagan's secretly selling arms to Iran and illegally using the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, or at least would include George W. Bush's actual authorization of torture(!) and lying the U.S. into war in Iraq, bankrupting the country, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and running out of money to adequately care for U.S. soldiers injured in that war (not to mention those living in Iraq and Afghanistan) (not to mention GWBush administration failing to understand, acknowledge or act on warnings from its own intelligence agencies pre-9/11).
1
It's already over and no one is looking up from their dumb phone or reality show.
Amazing....
8
The Republican congress is gutless. Their glutenous race toward the money changers is astounding and we can only hope that their actions will be thwarted in 2018. In trhe meantime, they cower in their offices hoping against hope that the contributions will continue to flow from the American oligarchs who control them. What a sham!!!
4
Where are the mass protests against this administration, against the monstrous tax bill? Why do we only see a Women's March, Black Lives Matter, and other identity-based protests, when the whole social fabric of the United States is being shredded, our values vandalized, and our standing in the world destroyed? Everything about Trump, from "Make America Great Again" to his jutting chin, seems modeled on Mussolini.
5
There were some Jews who left Germany before their denouement began. They could see and, more importantly, feel what was coming. They didn't let their mind overrule their gut. They cut their losses, packed up and left. Most came to America, the land of the free, where the rule of law and the Bill of Rights kept the anti-Semites and other haters in check.
My wife and I recently returned from vacation in the farthest west of Europe, where our hosts invited us to stay as long as we liked, but we sadly departed our safe idyll and re-entered an America full of racist apoplexy fueled by authoritarian lust for absolute power.
Every day I wonder if we made the right decision to return.
12
Mr. Edsall,
When you trot out graphs and numbers you are peerless, but when you (or others) start dealing in words like "international stature" or "honor" or "confidence" or "unprecedented" or "fundamental political values" or "democratic crisis" or "authoritarianism" or "fascism" or "code of behavior" or "norms" or "chaotic" or "decivilization" you dwell in the subjective and you leave the solid ground of the measurable for the emotional clouds of opinion.
Most readers of the NYT loathe the pink puffer fish Dotard President for many and good reasons, but neither you, nor I nor anyone I can see, except perhaps the cartoonist, Pia Guerra, have figured out a way to pierce the force field which surrounds him. He is nothing new in history--Mussolini, Hitler, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Rush Limbaugh are members of the same species, birds of a feather in a dismal flock.
But the special challenge for all of us, for the forces of light is to figure out how to effectively answer this oil slick of a President.
So far, nobody, not the NYT, not the New Yorker, has figured out how to out market this marketer.
The best we can do, for now, is to hope that 62 million will tire of him.
For now he is fooling some of the people all of the time.
It's not Trump taking us there, it's American media. It wasn't Trump that threw over the League of Women Voters as arbiter for issues-oriented televised debates during elections. It wasn't Trump that started not covering foreign events and news anymore. It wasn't Trump that came up with the new format for TV news where you have 1 sentence of "breaking news" and then call in the same old "experts" to discuss it and say the same things regardless of the topic. It wasn't Trump who elevated statistics phonies like Nate Silver to god-like status. It wasn't Trump who decided to cover all tweets all the time. It wasn't Trump who decided to cover the latest shooting by pronouncing the shooter a madman immediately based on the fact that he had no Facebook page (who would do that!!!!!) and play directly into the hands of the NRA. It wasn't Trump who decided that the sex lives of the ultra rich media stars was a continuous coverage 3 week breaking news event. It wasn't Trump who banned vocabulary words, denigrated "old white men" or any of the other emotional triggers that set off the Right.
It was the media. We're all going to pay for your shallow millenial bastardization of the news. So stop trying to explain it to us in a great-man-theory version that looks good in print. You could have kept us informed and probably headed all this off. You chose not to.
4
"So if Putin backed him, and if he did it to damage the United States, then he dropped one extremely smart bomb in the middle of Washington."
Dirty Don might be smart compared to a bomb, but very dumb compared to the average human.
1
MAGA is the biggest lie told by Trump since he is doing everything possible to destroy the country. From appointing the very worst people to run the departments that they want to destroy to letting his family be in charge of too many things.SAD!
1
We lost our bearings after 9/11. Unlike our "Greatest Generation" we did not step up and stand strong. We are afraid of Muslims, Central American CHILDREN fleeing oppression, any immigrants "stealing" our jobs, Ebola, Black Lives Matter........Nice package of racism, hate and utter cowardice.
Along comes a man who feeds that, stokes those fires of anger and he gets elected. Baits and goads another foreign leader to "play" war games with our lives......No consequences since he has a Congress that rolls over for doggie treats and as much corruption as they can fit into any bills that get passed.
I hope my Grandkids live long enough to study how morally bankrupt and fetid we became.....
We earned this....When you embrace the fear and anger ahead of the courage it takes to be strong, resolute and protect what other generations have built, you need to quit pointing fingers....The giant villain is inside us and all Russia had to do was nurture it a bit. We did the rest for them.
11
Best analysis of this sad time: we have done this to ourselves. And even sadder for our country: not only have we elected Trump, we have elected a craven crew of Republican congressmen and senators who are willing to follow their mentally deranged leader like a bunch of lemmings heading off the cliff. They really hate the actual United States and the ideals it used to stand for. It now stands for nothing but greed and ignorance.
2
Trump should have to register as a foreign agent, just like some of his cronies must.
The march to a quasi dictatorship under Trump supported by the GOP interested in re-election by enriching the donor class. Trump has attacked the free press and is trying to find ways to shut it down and if Bannon gets his far right flunkies elected he may succeed. Bannon seeks to rule thru Trump as a Rasputin whispering in the boy king's ear creating his world view of a white Christian empire allied with Putin oppressing brown folks and non -Christians except Israel. Putin will be in power for life and Trump may be also setting the world on fire with hate and a huge military unleashed on dissenters.
2
American democracy, so called, was always just a veneer. The Electoral College, which ultimately did us in, is--as intended--profoundly undemocratic. It's a wonder we lasted this long....
2
You could NOT design a more perfect " person" to destroy our Country and probably the Planet. PERIOD.
4
Excellent article, but it will cause your blood to run cold and send a shudder up your spine. The election of a bi-racial President (demographic change) and the fourth industrial revolution (rapid automation of the "Joe" jobs) has produced a desire for the false "security" of fascism (a return to the "glorious" past). Logic, rational thought and compassion are no match for the primal scream of "Blood and Soil."
2
So the usual parade of pundits--from Pew, Brookings, and Harvard--think our democracy is in flames. Why? Because the president is a loudmouth and a boor, and you don't like his policies. We still have elections, and he can easily be voted out.
Also, when you play the "anti-immigrant" card--once again equating illegal immigration with legal immigration and equating enforcement with racism--you lose me. It's agenda journalism like that, not Trump's tweets, that undermine confidence in the press.
This is a sound Mea Culpa on behalf of the U.S.A..
Edsall correctly explains how the U.S. blames everyone but itself for its ills: Putin for the U.S. election result, Islam for all terrorism, foreigners for the trade gap, jealousy of America's "way of life" for the global aversion to the U.S. socio-economic model, and so on.
The U.S. really needs a lengthy and profound bout of introspection to understand how and where its decline began, but such introspection is beyond the mental capacities of all but a few East Coast - West Coast and NYT intellectuals. The very idea that the U.S. is self-destructing, and of its own causes, is anathema to most.
3
The destruction of American democracy took a big step forward with the 2009 inauguration night conspiracy. The destruction continued when craven political hack Mitch McConnell and his band of GOP thieves in the United States Senate stole a Supreme Court seat.
We the People watched and rewarded the conspirators and thieves with re-election. Then we elected an ignorant lying sexual predator birther to the presidency of the United States. The only good news is that he is a minority president.
We the People ought to give control of Congress to the Democrats in 2018.
Send Trump home in 2020.
We get the government we deserve.
1
I blame Trump, Russia and Dirty Tricks more than myself.
2
He has, at the very least, moderate dementia. No, this is not a medical diagnosis, but it is obvious to even a layperson. What will it take, GOP???
Just what is the bright shining line, after which you will take action???
How many Deaths?? And where?? What's the limit, what's acceptable???
Think. Then think harder. We are waiting.
1
Witnessing the pathetic and rapid downward spiral of Donald Trump is like watching the HAL9000 computer in 2001 as its logic boards are pulled and it descends into childlike dementia. Except Trump isn't pleading for himself now, he is taking us all down with him. And for us, there is no one out there willing to do the job to end this horror. That is a terrifying scenario for America -- and for the world.
2
Every comment today should be backed up by phone calls to Senators McCain, Collins, Murkowski, Johnson and Corker that the "tax" bill threatens this country's future and that their reportedly deeply held concerns (massive deficits; pushing 13 million people off of health insurance) are exactly what are going to materialize and will NOT in any way shape or form be solved in the future by the Con in the White House. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121
2
Undermining democracy? Hardly.
When someone as decisive as Obama tries for 8 years to turn the US into a populist, socialist state, undermines our educational system, ignores the Constitution, sells our uranium to Russia, adds $7 Trillion to the national debt, wrecks our healthcare system, ignores lawbreakers, runs guns to drug cartels, presses our schools to teach Islam while obstructing Christians, lies to the American people, uses the IRS to go after political opponents, forces Obamacare down America’s throat without giving anyone time to read it, gave billions to Iran while also giving Iran a path to nuclear weapons, disrespecting our ally Israel while funding a group to defeat a candidate for Israeli Prime Minister, you want to talk to me about Trump’s tweets.
The Times supported all of Obama’s
destructive efforts to “fundamentally remake America.” While Trump may be crass and rough around the edges, he speaks truth to power. Want to stop terrorist violence? Then call it what it is. And if May wants to make excuses and use her Politically Correct rose colored glasses to gloss over the stated threats and goals of radical Islam, then she needs to be ready to hear truth when it’s spoken.
As a country we need to identify such threats, do what is necessary to eliminate them, control our borders and deport illegals, not out of hatred, but out of loyalty to our Constitution and our laws. After 25 years of ignoring these, there is finally a President who does not.
We are all in the swamp now, presided over by a crocodile predator and his supporters.
OMG! Our way of life is crashing down around us because of this deranged, mentality ill, uncivilized brute of a liar who wants to "undermine the US-led liberal democratic order!"
Really, the hysterics coming out of the NYT these days is unreal, and Trumps low popularity ratings undoubtedly have more to do with these daily hysterical reports in the media than with anything he's actually done. There is nothing objective about these reports. All they are is hysteria from the establishment because Trump is rocking the boat, as he said he would. As Edsal says, their "order" is being upset. So, as above, Trump is called every name in the book. The establishment, in this case represented by Edsal, is coming unglued, fish out of water. Trump has upset their predictable universe of gridlock and evenly split government between Democrats and Republicans run by Wall Street money.
Yup. Trump has thrown a wrench into their works, and in his own messy way, has created a sort of third political party, which folks around here currently recognize as "Trumpism." i.e., neither Republican or Democrat - and he has establishment Republicans and Democrats united in their opposition to this newcomer, this interloper on the block. So appalled by this, they call names and flail away at him as if a bear had burst into their orderly little room! My, how "uncivilized" he is!
1
I am curious how Trump is going to try to handle Russia's client states (Syria & Iran) vis a vis ours (Israel).
you didn't write the ultimate horror. there will be blood in the streets.
2
Mr. Edsall , thank you.
5
We are heading toward fascism and the republicans are enabling it ! Our country was a beacon to the world and now, it’s an embarrassment and a danger with an unfit man in the Oval Office. The republicans greed with their tax bill is going to undermine our democracy and they don’t care ! VOTE THEM OUT...VOTE THEM OUT COME 2018 !
1
It's not that the United States is dying - it is already dead. Time to move on.
#calexit
2
It is now abundantly clear that Trump managed to get the electoral college vote by appealing to the conservative white religious trash who make up about 35% of the voting electorate and probably the same percentage within Congress. He continues to stoke the fires of intolerance by appealing to this deplorable base by now tweeting videos from far right supremacists. I think that it is Trump aide Stephen Miller that is responsible for the content of these latest tweets since I do not think grumpy Trumpy knows how to use the web since he and his supporters only watch the fake news outlet known as Fox News.
2
The slur at the visit with the code talkers was predictable. Trump is as mean as a snake. He's just a nasty, vicious human being, a true sadist.
2
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." - Abraham Lincoln, (R-Illinios)
2
Random thoughts as I read Mr. Edsall' Op-Ed:
(1) Wave goodbye to the US of A. (Not hyperbole.)
(2) Operative word in the Op-Ed's title? SELF. That American democracy is being destroyed, HAS been destroyed for some time is not up for debate.
(3) If Mr. Edsall's analysis is sound, then the ineluctable fact is that those mean old Rooskies didn’t kill American democracy, our oligarchic corporatocracy and their paid for stooges in BOTH major US political parties did. (Indeed, corporatocracies and democracies are, by definition, mutually exclusive. In America, we made this choice long ago, around 1980 if memory serves.)
(4) Finally, to my self-described "liberal" friends, as you're watching your country go down the drain, please, please, PLEASE don’t delude yourself with the comforting lie that “It was the evil Republicans alone wot did this to us!!” No, you fools. The destruction of America's democracy was done with the complicity and approval of the “Democratic” Party. Ironic, no?
1
Let's not forget Ivana Trump's observation that he had Hitler's speeches on his bedside table, and Tina Brown's recollection about one of her reporters spotting Hitler's book in his office and writing about it, to Trump's fury. Then there's his tutor, Roy Cohn. Trump's a truly dangerous man, even more so than he appeared during the election. Much more so. He is sending America into decline, a process the Republicans in Congress, bought and paid for, are accelerating.
2
It's time for mass demonstration. What I mean is the opposite of riots. Think more akin to Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who".
The most frustrating aspect of every statement Mr. Edsall has assembled here, more frightening than a Sthephen King movie, is the never ending slow motion carnage reported not just daily but hourly on a tsunami scale. One pinches oneself from time to time horrified to find that this is no nightmare. We ARE awake and it's NOT a horror flick.
When the tax bill is passed causing massive destruction not just to most people's finances but destroying the safety net and prohibiting basic healthcare to millions (disclosure: I am one of those who will lose access) we must all take to the streets. Good people doing nothing has gone on far too long. There is little that any regular person can do right now. Still, there is one singular and massively effective thing EVERYONE can do:
Go out and demonstrate publicaly. Peacefully. There is a reason why trump lied about the number of people at his inauguration. Confronted with massive numbers of people physically, it questions self deception and denial even within the rotted recesses of his perverted, plundering mind.
Demonstration is the only measure left to say to a congress and it's leadership that their lies and dismissals of our letters and phone calls are not just riff raff to be managed.
It's vital that leadership but also each of us knows: "We are Here!"
4
Yes, Donald is a brave fellow. He is the living American hero of the films and comics from his youth. And his adolescent fascination with the imperial features of Nero and Mussolini has been physically fixed in that beautiful Germanic-Celtic head. Gives him a good feeling in the mirror. His hanging belly raises a few questions, because the Vietcong would be scared a bit about the corset he wears. Explosives or white fat only?
As Emperor, he "guides" your enormous country to a situation that has similarities with Germany from the early 1930s. Opportunistic parties that ultimately could not resist the power of an individual.
Perhaps this is too dramatic, but the proud American confidence in the resilience of their institutions and system should now finally have European proportions with Donald in the lead.
Donald has made the USA an average country. The Americans must be grateful to him. Perhaps they now understand their hidden disregard for Europe better.
1
But how free is the American press, really? Sure it's free compared to those in dictatorships. We're proud it's protected by the 1st amendment from explicit govt censorship. But what about other pressures----that of big money and the rw that dominates our 3 branches and most states?
There is the pressure of conformity to what is seen as centrist in US politics. Don't veer too far from it, or get called left wing, or too liberal. Thus, in health care for example we get little info on how dozens of nations pay for their better, universal systems. Or how they pay for their elections with more public money, limits on private money, free media time, and bans on privately paid ads.
What's defining the center of our politics is the big money corporate megadonors. Our candidates can't get too far out of line from what these donors decree for their 'investment'.
That's why the US is the only modern nation still without health care for all at affordable cost. The highest priority to be satisfied is insurance and drug co profits.
Even as they criticize and lament our political culture now, still the underlying cause/effect of campaign finance is ignored by our columnists and TV commentators. Why? I'm waiting for 1 NYT column on this by somebody.
2
Too much credit given to Don Trump here. Look, the Republican Party has been taking lying to new heights long before the man-child took over the party. Look at Orrin Hatch and his faux rage that his tax scheme won't mightily benefit the wealthiest Americans. What a pathetic lie but one that every Republican seems to be willing to tolerate and even reward. Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz? Give me a break. These guys are just as pathological as Don Trump. Unless the voting population wakes up from its stupor and votes for Democrats in huge numbers then there will be no change in the present course. IF Democrats can return to control they must take immediate steps to strengthen our democratic institutions in a non-partisan fashion. Wishful thinking but who knows...
1
So, enforcing our immigration laws, reversing executive orders and giving power back to congress, puling back in our misadventures in foreign entanglements, not yielding to a mad man who threatens us with nuclear weapons, and protecting our interest in trade negotiations are all now undermining democracy? 30 years ago we would call that person a Democrat. Non defensible and childless tweets aside the author is confusing policy disagreements with the downfall of civilization. All of this doomsday talk sounds just like the mentally challenged nuts in the tea party a few years ago.
The previous administration enforced immigration laws, used executive orders when Congress refused to act and maintained our leadership stature in the world. The current administration is also using executive orders while dismantling the institutions (State Department, EPA, Department of Agriculture) that keep us safe. Meanwhile, the Congress is pushing through a gift to the very wealthy in tax cuts. It might be doomsday talk to some, but the real job being done on the American people is not just talk.
The fallacy of your argument is that all of what you say HE is responsible for was already in progress long before he ran for president. He has not pulled back from foreign intervention. He has not done anything to stop the mad man, that has not been done before. China is the only power who can stop NK and they don't want to. He has basically sideline the US from trade talks, while other countries are getting on with it. Reversing EOs that benefited all Americans as opposed to the upper echelon of society, and you think you are better off? How twisted has Trump deformed common sense is absolutely DESTROYING DEMOCRACY!!! Who needs Putin and China? We have Trump!!!
I refer you all to the bestseller: "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". Written by professionals it details the deeply psychologically damaged man who rules our fair nation. Good luck trying to sleep.
1
Mr. Putin may have been more successful using our own tools to defeat our democratic political systems in the Western world than we may have expected/imagined: Touche!
(Italy and Brazil may be next!)
We are witness to the plunder
Our country torn asunder
Dismantled by the madness of a clown
Now we face our darkest hour
The vandals have the power
And everything we’ve built they’re tearing down
1
I cried as I read this.
Even if we survive this mess - and that is by no means sure - we will never eradicate this blot on our democracy. I was born after McCarthyism shook our nation to its core. Frighteningly, that dark episode pales in comparison to what is going on now. There is not a moment to lose: the cancer that is DJT and his enablers - I'm looking at you, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you self proclaimed Christian - must be removed right now.
2
Make America KANSAS, again. And, it's NOT going well.
1
It is too soon not to blame Putin. The destruction of our State Department serves no one but Putin. It is clear that trump, his family and many in his "administration" are owned by the Russian mob, which includes Putin. They serve his interests not ours. They are traitors and need to be dealt with as traitors. Impeachment and removal from office will not be enough. All of trump's appointments need to be rolled back and what executive orders he signed need to be nullified and rolled back as well. Without these steps, I believe our country is doomed. It might even split apart, although the red states might think twice when they realize they are all welfare recipients of blue states' largess. Maybe it should split apart so they can enjoy their lives with unpayable medical bills, many few hospitals and doctors (I mean, immigrants!!) and no jobs. Oh, maybe coal mines will come back or Carrier will rehire. You never know. (But I do know.)
This all started with Bush beating Gore. The Dems would not accept the defeat and took aim at hobbling his presidency. Payback came around during the Obama years and the GOP felt what is fair is fair. And so it was on.
The humiliation of the defeat of the "most qualified ever" to a man with no experience and (rightfully so) holding the highest negatives in history was too much for the Dems to let go.
Now you have the "resistance" - resistance to what? To the will of the voters, to the, to the electoral collage, or to the concept of democracy itself?
Like it or not, Trump is proving to be the man he was before he was elected - there are no surprises here.
Remember, his 30 some-odd percent base is still with him. In 2016 he added to that base in spite of Access Hollywood and numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. in 2020 he will still have his base but he will also have a record to lure independents, such as the economy.
If the economy continues in its current direction, and the Dems continue to insist that all Trump supporters are Russians or Nazis, then 2020 will be a difficult task for Dems.
I suggest Dems change their course and develop an easy to explain platform that appeals to all Americans and select a fresh new face to champion it. Mueller will not hand Dems the white house, you will have to earn it.
I agree that the failure of our leadership to do its job caused both staid, traditional parties to be rejected by the voters and this is central to the fiasco. It has been obvious for the last decade that both parties, but particularly the Democrats, need fresh faces and articulate leaders with engaging ideas. When Hillary the Dems candidate and Biden the "fresh face" I was not surprised at the election results.
1
Perhaps democracy, or at least the American version of it, needs to die; after all, it was the democratic process that gave us Trump. I would argue that American democracy was compromised long before Trump came to power. The stranglehold that powerful lobbying organization, like the NRA, have on politicians is nothing short of legalized corruption. It is a sad commentary on American democracy that the NRA can bully politicians into not voting their conscious but to vote for what the NRA wants. Trump is not the problem, he is a symptom of a systemic problem we have in the US.
Both political parties are thoughtless, arrogant, and disdainful of the high principles of citizenship. The Democrat party is moribund and corrupt. The Republicans angry, mean,
hypocritical and determined to auction off the American experiment to the highest bidder. Our highest court in the land affirms that a corporation is a person. And our President is looney. Our press and media are tabloid. We have met the enemy and he is us.
1
Not accurate. The Democrats are not responsible for the misguided plans of the Republicans which are about to defund the most consequential programs supporting our democracy enacted over the last century. The Republicans are even willing to make life a lot harder for most of the people who elected them, because they know that their electorate vote as marketing campaigns dictate not as consideration of how their interests have been served by their representatives - the donors enable them to win, the electorate just votes as they are conditioned by the mass media ads.
This essay by Thomas Edsall is largely on target. The problem is it is also highly partisan, placing the blame on Trump, when liberals including Obama have also weakened democratic institutions.
Part of the problem is that the "free press" is not exactly free. It is subject to economic pressure, that is, the pressure to provide news which appeals to readers, and readers, often poorly educated, choose lurid tales of sex instead of informative reporting on the causes of Syria's civil war for example. Americans who cannot locate Zimbabwe on a map know every detail of the sexual exploits of Harvey Weinstein.
This is coupled with censorship of ideas that conflict with simplistic notions on race, for example. During the period 1980-2010, the US population grew by 82 million, or 36%. This has had a profound effect on congestion in US cities like LA, for example. LA has run out of water and sits under a permanent sea of smog.
Yet liberals declare that LA is a "sanctuary city" and maintain that it is "racist" to prevent it from growing yet further.
They declare that some of the federal laws shouldn't apply to LA because those laws are "racist."
Congress never discusses important issues, such as providing universal health care. Instead liberal politicians tell blacks to tear down statues of Robert E Lee! This does not create jobs, it just incites hatred.
And feminism has destroyed due process. A mere accusation causes a man to lose his job.
Sadly, Trump is better....
We are in the midst of a coup d'etat -- not by the military but by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. They have shattered the elegant system of checks and balances that the founders designed to prevent this very thing. What we have now is an unhinged would-be despot, a complicit Congress and a decapitated judiciary.
1
America has always been too forgiving of its "enemies within". From the wholesale forgiveness of treason following the civil war, which enabled the jim crow era, to the failure to prosecute anyone in the Bush-Cheney administration for the high-level deceptions that took us into the disastrous war in Iraq or for the war crimes committed there in our names, we have been loathe to hold to account fellow Americans who have debased and perverted our democratic institutions. We must not make the same mistake again! However this all ends, Trump and his vile, corrupt enablers must not be allowed to slink off into the night with their ill-gotten gains. They must be held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This isn't about revenge or retribution. It's about reclaiming the tarnished name of our country and about serving notice to others who would loot and pillage our nation's treasures that their criminal actions will not be tolerated. Being too tolerant has gotten us into this mess, and it's time to put an end to it. Lock them up!
1
A disheartening read, Mr. Edsall, but I was taken by this sentence:
"American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections."
Let me correct it for you: "REPUBLICAN politicians now treat their rivals..." It started with the Southern Strategy and really gained traction with the aptly named Newt Gingrich in the 90s, the vile Karl Rove in the 00s and the nihilistic Tea Party & slobbering Ayn Randians in the 10s.
Democrats, for their part, have failed to fight strongly and forcefully against the tide. They're the villagers who've confronted the marauding hoarde with nothing by a soup spoon.
If there is a God, which I truly doubt, may he or she have mercy on us. We have, as a society, I fear, become too stupid to survive.
3
Well, Tom, they say great minds think alike (of course, middling minds do too, but we won't go there). I'm working on my next book and I'd just written the headline, "SELF-DEMOLISHED DEMOCRACY" yesterday. I'm reading your column with an eye toward using some of your data to corroborate what we've both observed. (With proper attribution of course.)
http://www.BrandingHumans.com
Of course the Founders never wanted a real democracy. They set up a republic for wealthy whites (all the high-minded rhetoric to the contrary).
Job #1 now is the further transfer of wealth to the already obscenely rich. If the baby is tossed out with the bathwater, so be it. There is no logical excuse for allowing an arch-vulgarian like Trump to manage the affairs of anything bigger than a taco stand.
2
With Trump’s history of sex scandals, accusations of sexual assault, bankruptcies, frauds, failed businesses, and vulgar racist campaigns against Obama, Black,Hispanic, Muslim Americans, and women he was elected and politicians are quick to point that out as if it forgives all. They say it is what the American people want. In the same breath we are told that condemning Trump and his ardent supporters is not “productive” astounds even the most rational analysis.
Edsall’s Column has provided a narrative that should compel the most unabashed categorical confrontation of the Trump GOP possible. We do not have a minute to waste. Democrats must recognize that they do not want or need Trump supporters. They are Deplorable, beyond redemption as Arendt described. Advocates of moderation regarding Trump must answer: when is racism acceptable? When is xenophobia acceptable? When is misogyny and disenfranchisement of women in favor of her fetus acceptable? When is lying and baiting, and destroying alliances, and crushing our budget acceptable? When is aiding and abetting a foreign power acceptable?
Clinton made a number of mistakes in her campaign. Calling Trump supporters deplorable was NOT a mistake. Obama made mistakes during the campaign. Not publicizing the FBI investigation of Trump is one. Democrats have gone along with claims that Russia did not change votes when we know that 140 Million FB members got targeted messages/ads from Russia.
Condemn Trump now.
1
More of the false equivalency bias. I would love for the authors Levitsky and Ziblatt to name any Democrat who "intimidate(s) the free press, and threaten(s) to reject the results of elections. They (Who) try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices." This false equivalency is damaging to our democracy. The political divide started with Obama having the audacity to run for president. It started with the vicious attacks by that right wing darling palin, with her sneering dismissal of Obama, her denigrating his education and eloquence, her contempt for his concern for community, her vicious accusations of him being a Muslim playing to a racist base. It was furthered by the election of Obama and mcconnell's vow to obstruct so the president would be an utter failure. The blame lies at the feet of the GOP. They own the destruction we are seeing with the election of trump. They are all complicit sycophants, willing to destroy our country rather than having the courage to come forward and condemn this dangerous president and his dangerous "policies". NPR spoke to 100 senators on the latest trump delusional and dangerous tweets on the fabricated Muslim attack videos. Only 3 GOP senators had the courage to condemn the president. The other 49 are SILENT. He insults Navajo WWII heroes with a racial slur and not ONE republican comes forward to condemn him. One side owns the destruction of this country. The GOP.
8
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears not a traitor - He speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation -- he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city -- he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared."
- Cicero, 42 BC
9
It's a fools errand to blame Trump for the demise of democracy. Indeed, he is the result of an epidemic and not the cause. That is not to say he isn't making matters worse, though! But he represents millions and millions of people who share his mental peculiarities.
Ironically, the child in the white House could turn out to be the savior of democracy if our political parties come to grips with their serious shortcomings. It appears that one party is ruled by evangelical conservatives while the other is dominated by politically correct social dictators.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of citizens can only shake their heads and, unfortunately, most choose to not vote since the above choices are too often the only unacceptable choices available. The days of choosing between the lesser of two evils is over I'm afraid.
Can we see the tress for the forest before it is too late?
I weep for my children's future.
2
If you want to share one article with any remaining right-leaning friends, this is as good as any in showing the very real threat that this nation is facing.
1
The Republican Congressional members, save perhaps one or two, are designedly evil; they are enacting policy that serves an affluent obligarchy in return for campaign re-election money. They will be expected to continue serving the interests of the few at the cost of eroding the freedoms of the many.
This is fascism; this is the end of a purported American Dream: the United States is a country; America is a myth.
1
Trump is perhaps the unintended side-effect of the decades-long efforts of libertarian billionaires to undermine and take over our democracy. Systematic lying, about tobacco and global warming for example, precedes that Trump by many years. The ruthless dishonesty in politics, the vicious attack ads, the new extremes of gerrymandering, the stacking of the Supreme Court with right wing puppets, the corruption of the Republican Party, all precede Trump. The disparities of wealth and power have turned us into a Banana Republic, and Trump is just a symptom of that.
2
Trump is not destroying American democracy. The American people are. Nearly half the population is more concerned about kneeling football players and the "right" to eat at Cracker Barrel with an A15 on their laps rather than such issues decent affordable health care for all, affordable college education and economic fairness. Meanwhile the moneyed class buys Congress lock, stock and barrel and laughs all the way to the bank. This MO is as old as the Roman Empire. Bread and Circuses, anyone?
2
Interesting that the British and the Dutch are quite willing to stand up to Trump...
Republicans: Where are you?
2
The die was cast at the moment Sean Spicer emerged the day after the inauguration and began screaming like an unhinged maniac about how the crowd for the inauguration was the biggest ever witnessed, despite that being a provably false statement.
Anybody retaining even the smallest speck of hope for our "Democracy" after that moment has been whistling past the graveyard for the past year.
This isn't going to get better before it gets worse, it's going to keep getting worse unless the Democrats can figure out a way to wrest control of this government back.
1
"American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections. They try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices" No! They! Don't!
Republican politicians do that. It has been a one sided assault on decency in our political arena since Reagan. Liberals as unAmerican, as the enemy was the meme of republicans since Nixon.
And it has succeeded because the 4th Estate has kept up it's "both sides, both parties are equally to blame" meme all this time.
The republican party is the anti American/ pro fascist party and it now has all the levers of power.
It is time for reporters to remember: In a fascist state reporters are generally out of work and in prison. Or dead.
1
As I wrote earlier, remember 1954 when an honest American asked "have you no decency?" Why is no one in power asking Donald Trump this question?
1
I completely agreed with this ed-op. It's time for American Revolution 2.0. It's time to take back our country. Yet the Republicans apparently have no plans to do so for the sake of self-preservation. How can they call themselves Americans. How can they stand behind a lunatic like Trump. It shows me what the Republicans are really made of. Trump is destroying our democracy and the Republicans are aiding and abetting. Everyone in the Senate should have the guts to emulate Senator Corker. Like Senator McCain has stated the Senate doesn't work for the President.
1
I recall a phrase from my youth: If is walk like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.
The hypothetical letter that forms in my mind each morning:
Dear America,
You are being played for a fool. Foreign interference has implanted a tool for the destruction of America. A virus, injected from abroad to eat away the insides of your Country. From Twitter Chaos to isolationism, vacant foreign American service posts to stacked judgeships. America, you are being taken on a ride to the cleaners and upon return you’ll find nothing left.
Imagine that Trump was “implanted” by a foreign source. All his actions thus far have benefitted not the “forgotten Americans”, but foreign adversaries looking to advance upon America’s absence and retreat from global affairs. Private industry chomping at the bit use their foreign held, tax evaded funds to buy up more and more property within the shores of the USA to drive up home and rent prices. Potential Nuclear catastrophe, a mere distraction for the Russian assault on Ukraine and the Baltics. And of course American reputation abroad, once the “shining city on the hill” to the rest of the world, now merely another competitor seen by other nations as a declining, feeble, lost and weary olden. Within our shores, public tax theft, movement toward the oligarchy at a speed which none have seen in history.
Let the truth be heard, America, time to wake up from this nightmare.
1
The only appropriate action for the government of the Netherlands to take in response to Mr. Trump's promulgation of a false video purporting to show a Muslim assaulting a man on crutches in their country is to recall their ambassador for consultations. Ditto for the United Kingdom.
Mr. Trump must be exposed for his bald-faced and relentless lying to the citizens of America and the world at large.
If that were insufficient to get Trump's attention, perhaps their oil company (Royal Dutch Shell) could suspend oil imports here or their national airline, KLM, could suspend flights here as well.
The House of Orange-Nassau must help us with our "Head of Orange".
1
Which is why it is up to us as Americans to begin to put together our badly diminished democracy as we can't depend on calls for Impeachment, his Cabinet rebelling, or his ever getting a mental health evaluation. Hey, he might even win re-election.
This is a major reason I wrote an 8-part series: "Should Trump Loathers Talk to Trump Voters?" Talk to those who differ from us, stop the disrespect even though it may feel good, and then learn together how to build on those new relationships. Some precedents are starting to appear.
Here's Part 8: https://medium.com/@innovator3/the-speaking-to-the-trump-voter-series-un....
Redefine "talking politics" so that it is civil and constructive, and we can practice it at the next Thanksgiving.
The Trump administration has begun a systematic destruction of federal power at all levels: the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Education Department, the Interior Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It takes aim at the right to vote. It encourages racial hostility against African Americans, Latinos, and religious hostility against those of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. It has systematically tried to undermine the Affordable Care Act. All this, without yet having passed a single major piece of legislation. Almost monthly mass murders with automatic weapons go unaddressed.
We are slouching toward Bethlehem.
Depressing but true. It seems to me that the world is heading for a blood letting.
Will stick with my predictions.(u can check'm out, I say them frequently in my responses)GOP will increase its majority in both the senate and house in 18, and Trump is re-elected in 20. The States? Forget about it. California may be the only country, oops, I mean state left standing. The rubes now rule. Ignorance is wisdom. The cult of personality does not die easily.(witness Jonestown, Waco and the like) When will it end? Maybe 2032 or so..
True, Trump is a weapon of mass destruction and he is destroying the country. Meanwhile, the GOP is too happy following him. Incredibly sad future for the country.
Sadly, we are on the brink of a different kind of nuclear threat proposed by North Korea: namely that an upper atmosphere explosion will knock our electromagnetic field out so that all computorized communication will be ended for months or even up to a year.
This would catapult N. Korea onto the world stage regardless of how many die on the peninsula and in Japan.
The world as we know it would end and a new age of terror and cyberwarfare would ensue.
This article clearly explains our present state of diminished world support that would exonerate N. Korea in a sense and validate their actions on the world stage.
Truthfully, we are in an extremely precarious situation.
Largely because there are no emegency procedures available to quickly dethrone our tyrant and the traitor-in-chief.
May God save the USA from this cruel self-inflicted fate.
Trump is goading you. Every tweet or utterance that is not universally condemned sets a new watermark. He is like a child pulling the wings off flies to see what will happen next. And what is happening next? Nothing. Ink is spilled by the bucket denouncing the intolerable - but it is so much handwringing. Trump is destroying your country. For those of us who care about America’s place as a beacon of democracy and freedom, the complete absence of cogent political opposition to this destruction is criminal. Wake up America! Where is your courage? Where are your leaders? What do you care about? We hope more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
2
In the fall of 1996, I had the honor to become Peace Corps Country Director in Moldova. The country had less than 5 years earlier been part of the Soviet Union.
One World War II veteran, a cooper and wheelwright in a small village asked, "Are you really from America?"
"Yes," I replied, and I gave him my barnyard pitch on Peace Corps.
"We've been waiting 50 years for you people. Where have you been?" was his response. He actually had tears above his smile. He wanted a photo with us and to give us some wine.
Would we get a similar response with the government we have today?
Alas, Hannah Arendt could have been describing the behavior of American mainstream media, and it's effect on the body politic. in making the public ready for the likes of Trump.
Lie for too long -- Iraq, free-trade, tax cuts, America's selfless virtue, home of opportunity? -- and nothing will be believed. The very claim of veracity will be deemed laughable, such that Trump is actively celebrated for lying outrageously, thereby sticking it to the man.
Is the Times really blameless in this devolution?
Trump is the rogue asteroid speeding towards our institutions, and the GOP is ignoring the inevitable impact he will have and has had on our democracy.
The republicans are the problem, their hatred of Obama brought us to this point, a president who is the anti Obama.
We have to come to terms with what this means as a (civil) society, and there are no signs of soul searching among the GOP.
If you consider that Fox (Faux) News is probably the only “news” source for at least half of Americans, the situation in which we find outselves is not surprising. (Watch the documentary “The Brainwashing of my Dad” where the film-maker documents how her father metamorphoses from a mild-mannered, intelligent individual into a raging, hateful right-wing conspiracy theorist.) The fact that forms of mental illness are contagious helps to explain how nearly half of American voters (who bothered to vote) put Trump in the White House.
1
Perhaps we need self implosion so we can do a do over and start afresh? There has got to be a reason for the Universe to participate in a Trump presidency, it cannot be wasteful, it has to have a purpose towards a goal. For too long Americans have forgotten their top standing on the world platform, as scientists innovators entrepreneurs and beacon of light and hope for millions of refugees and immigrants who helped form the country from the bottom up. But somewhere along the line, America has surrendered its democracy to powerful rich and wealthy folks. Our so called law makers are no longer answerable to us, they are answerable to their board of directors aka financiers and corporate funders of their elections. If Americans can still not see through this, then they are truly blind ignorant and certified fools. Hint: Hillary was NOT the answer.
1
"For the moment, let’s put aside the conclusion of “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections,” the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. joint report that was released in January, which said that:..."
Little known is the covert subtitle to that assessment: "Choosing a Scapegoat"
Half the Country recognizes that American democracy is under dire threat, diminishing daily.
For the "rulers" of the other half the only way to spell constitution is "capitalism", unfettered, and they use every weapon at their disposal to keep the civil war simmering. Greedy, power-hungry, undemocratic.
How do the States remain united when republicans are only too happy, too unconcerned, too ignorant to recognize that trump is pounding away at the final nail in democracy's coffin that republicans began constructing at least since the time of Gingrich and his ilk. I despair.
You don't have to like Trump (I don't) to see how overwrought Mr. Edsall's piece is. Has Trump done anything like the executive orders Obama issued that violated the law and the Constitution? (and were luckily struck down by the courts.)
The fact of the matter is that liberals don't like democracy. They want the government to be run by a liberal elite that knows what is good for the ignorant masses. As H. L. Mencken put it: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
There is only one way to stop all this nonsense and that is to elect Democrats. They are a long way from perfect, but anyone who still claims that both parties are the same is blind. Forget third parties on the left and vote, vote, vote.
Trump and Putin have a shared goal, the destruction of American Democracy.
Trump is the catalyst for this destruction, but his effectiveness would be limited if the GOP Congress took its duties seriously. They do not, and the reason they do not is clear: the GOP Congress is the creature of a few demented billionaires like the Koch bros and the Mercers. Ryan/McConnell et alia do what they are told, not out of conviction (no-one can believe their witless explanations, including themselves) but because these “politicians” depend upon these money-bags to finance Congressional campaigns and their lifestyles.
These billionaire puppet masters are not just out to line their pockets. They have ideological ambitions to dismantle government and install instead their own narrow-minded version of a “Christian” Theocracy.
With patriots like GOP who needs enemies! However, they will face their due: first on November 6, 2018 and then in November 2019. REMEMBER NOVEMBER!
On reading the paragraph beginning, “Add to Trump’s list of lies,” I wondered how much overlap there is between that litany of “shocking” things and the behavior of national politicians in recent years...
Civil war seems like a justified response to Trump.
This has happened before (McCarthy springs to mind, as well as the assassinations of the 60s). But we trusted the impartiality of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. If we fall and a historian looks back at the tribal impulses that brought us down, it will be because truth itself took a hit. In A Face in the Crowd, an open microphone brought down Lonesome Rhodes, but in real world 2017, he's on television and he winks when he says it and we are to take him seriously (he who is so NOT serious, except in the devastation he wreaks) but not literally. And anyway, abortion!
1
I wish I hadn’t read this at y:30 AM. My day is already ruined.
2
I remember the presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the fall of 1960. They were civil, cordial and respectful. Kennedy and Nixon disliked each other personally but their public sparring was always about policies and the direction they wanted to take America, especially during the Cold War, where Russia was always a menace. Kennedy and Nixon stayed behind their podiums during there debates, with no menacing pacing or scowling or threatening body language by either man. Politics was then, business, not personal.
The president's supporters admire his defiance and his bellicose attitude, a grand departure from the "feckless" black president who was turning America into an Islamic state. In spite of his failures thus far, the president is hailed as a savior by his base because his outrages and lack of decorum has given voice to their bases instincts. "He is our voice", they scream, as he champions white nationalists, demonizes Muslims and pardons the pedophilia of a senatorial candidate only because he's a Democrat.
This president has already destroyed America, it's foundations of democracy, civility and decency. His support base doesn't know it yet because they don't care. They have their Utopia today, now and forever.
It may be time to think about Calexit, and BlueStateExist. Maybe the Blue states, Canada, and Mexico can form a new union. Leave the Red States to themselves. (Think of it as Atlas Shrugged for good people.) The United States appears to be done. RIP.
One danger is that, with the Repubs refusing to act, a new precedent has been set and accepted.
Future liars, for example, can point to Trump and the refusal to address his lies, as meaning that lying is just fine and even useful.
Trump is in the early stages of dementia and has always been an immoral con. It's the Repubs' acceptance of the outrageous, immoral, foolish, and destructive that's angering me more and more.
They have made it clear that there are no limits for them, short of nuclear war.
Here the oligarchy rules. And the ruling ideas are the ideas of the rulers. New idea : Put a monkey wrench in the machinery of the oligarchy.
1
This article is preaching the truth. The U.S. is on a decline. It began before Trump as the world economy grew rapidly due to technological advancements, but Trump is accelerating the process by possible 100 years with his incompetent and reckless leadership. The U.S. has no actual positions of merit any more. Every rational person knows that Trump constantly changes his positions and rarely listens to intel. He is only concerned with appearances, but does not realize that the majority of people in the U.S. and the world think he is an incompetent, senile and dangerous clown. We need to fight if we want to save our country by any means possible.
I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination and Watergate. But. I never thought I would live to see what is currently happening to this country. This IS how democracies die. God help America....
Don’t blame the Russians. Don’t blame Citizens United. Don’t blame gerrymandering. Look in the mirror instead. Trump is supported by a sizable minority of American citizens who love him not because they believe his lies but because they sense the truth underlying his daily fibs. The truth is that he articulates a narrative which corresponds to what they feel but don’t know how to say. He gives a voice to their hatred; shape to their fears; target to their paranoia. Arendt’s analysis of totalitarianism is flawed, as many historians pointed out, because she underestimated the positive role of ideology. In her description of Eichmann, for example, she painted him as a dumb bureaucrat, even though we know now, from his diaries, that he was a committed and self-aware ideologue who truly believed that Jews were not human beings. Trump voters are not dupes of a conspiracy. They are believers. They won’t be shaken by any number of statistical studies because faith always trumps reason. And their number grows daily while liberals are engaged in chasing phantom sexual predators, wringing their hands over each new tweet, and hoping that Mueller will deliver them from this nightmare. The only thing that can destroy a narrative is a better narrative, and Democrats have none to offer.
Jack,
Your child of the first bed addressing you at this time of year, as we go into the Ides of December. Times are moving much faster because we are in the midst of The Technological Revolution, and there is an attempt to dismantle America, Democracy and establish a 'New Order'.
Our President appears to be under the thumb of The Russian Bear; China is on a shopping expedition for more space, the Economy is booming, while our attention is distracted by a reversal of taxes, health care programs, the ugly head of Racism is well and alive, anti-Semitic propaganda is on the rise, the so-called 'Undesirables' are being expelled, violence is rampant and The North and South have never been so divided since the Civil War.
The Republican Party crashed when America navigated The Great Recession. There is now the possibility of a nuclear war; one that makes the Cuban Missile Crisis look like French fries.
With reason, our Allies no longer trust our Nation, and Europe is now fragmenting. We got sloppy and laid-back in our thinking. A ban is being attempted to put a freeze on reputable Press.
To sum it up, We stupidly voted for a second-rate gambler at the cost of our Country, while a Fox Channel, 'Big Bro', keeps the exhausted, the Poor, the hard-working class of all creeds, color and character in line with cheap entertainment, brainwashed on a diet of political candy.
Men and women are now at war. Education took a great fall. But no Time to weep, Time to go forward.
The rise of American totalitarianism is personified by Trump and his white working class voters and shielded, so far, by a complicit Republican congress. We can hopefully push the Republicans back in the '18 midterms. But what to do about the worst voting cohort in the nation - democratically illiterate, simplistic, easily distracted, authoritarian, white working class voters? Our so-called constitutional checks & balances are working to support tyranny, not protect us. Its not tyranny by the majority either, but tyranny of economic oligarchs unwittingly (sometimes complicitly) supported by these bigoted dimwits.
Very well put, thank you.
If democracy fails in the US, Western civilization as a whole will not be far behind. Great while it lasted, eh?
I agree with everything that Edsall says about Trump and the damage he is doing. I don't believe Trump is demented. He's a very deliberate demagogue and he himself is no longer the real problem. The real problem now is that he still has a 36% approval rating and no one in his party or his Cabinet is really standing up to him in any long-term meaningful way. Until there is some kind of block opposition to him from within the GOP or the resignation of a major Cabinet member, he will just keep doing what he is doing. I'm not comparing Trump to Hitler but back in the thirties in Germany those who could have stopped him just stood by.
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln, 1838
Trump and the Russians are aided and abetted by our complicit congress and traitorous cabinet.
Every cabinet position is held by someone unqualified or committed to dismantling the agency they lead. Every single one
Why is congress so quiet? It is clear they do not work for the Americans people. #takeoffyourpin
1
After realizing, as excepted, that maybe they’ve gone too far in portraying the despicable but limited Russian penetration of the presidential election as the rape of American democracy, the liberal media and illustrious academicians are proposing the “Russian-Chinese global threat” as replacement specter to haunt the American future.
So, on one side we have an unbalanced, bordering on deranged, president, who while posing a clear and present danger to the foundations of American democracy is clearly not intended on being more geopolitically and strategically hawkish towards Russia and China than the Obama administration was, and it was; and the alternative, a liberal-democratic bi-polar world order vision in which the Western alliance (a.k.a. U.S. and, partially, Europe) confronts the Russian-Chinese axis’ world domination machinations.
What a choice, between the liberals turned neo-cons Hydra and the essential-Trump Charybdis -- A plague on both your houses.
EDSALL Wrongly attributes to political polarization, the rise of the monstrously destructive Trump. Clearly that is an incorrect attribution. How often writers, especially the GOP-oriented ones, overlook the fact that Hillary WON the popular vote by over 2.8 million! What gave rise to Trump's power were the 70+ electors who refused to hear the voice of the people and perverted, in the most literal sense of turning aside, the political system by crowning the Mad Prince of Trumplandia. I keep on wondering how much of the US and its population will be glowing in the dark after Trump starts a NOO KYUH LER war with North Korea, simply because he can. Emphasis on simple, as in simpleton. Fear for our future generations are far more immediate than we might wish to acknowledge, as Trump may well provoke a special "gift" from the Northern Korea dictator. As an aside, I think the White House spokesperson Farah Suckabee Fanders desparately needs a fashion makeover in the style of the North Korean TV announcer. Just imagine our lady Farah seated in lotus position on a satin pillow, wearing a kimono (or whatever it's called in Korean), accompanied by a legally sanction hair style. Of course, there is absolutely no reason not to call in the Fashion Police to drag Farah Suckabee Fanders away from the podium to forcibly give her a makeover. On Ssaturday Nnight Llive, of course. Better watch out, Farah. The fashion police are stalking YOU!
1
Eerie...
Not only is this spot on - beyond over-blaming Trump for the current state of things...
A simple experiment confirms this, in spades...
Just looked at enough of the NYT home page at 0930 hours, to see the lead-ins and headlines for the topmost twenty stories...
Except for an ancillary sprinkling of high technology (e.g. a reference to Facebook - vs scrawlings on a forum wall...) - this is what things may have looked like in ancient Rome, close to the end...
Apparently, when a civilization slow-liquidates itself - much like Sears and other retailers are doing...
> The rich give up any sense of societal stewardship or social responsibility - and party...Yes - they gift their money to charity...By setting up foundations that they run as if they were still running their businesses...And hold galas with several percent of the proceeds going to alms...
> The politicians no longer even make a pretense of not accepting gifts or bribes - or pretend to represent their constituents in any that sustainably keeps the operations or budget of government going...
> The banks connive the system to borrow for free - and to make small loans at ruinous rates...
> Beyond that, the bankers create money of their own - based purely on speculation...
So - perhaps the only thing left to do is...
Party like it's 0475...
Perhpas 0476 will be a better year...
Ever since Reagan we've been doing this incredible dance between white nationalism and liberal democracy. Crazy billionaires have financed an endless stream of white nationalist agitprop which has finally generated adequate racial fear among all economic groups in white society. Couple that with the socio/economic changed caused by the collapse of the industrial economic model and you have a perfect formula for the rise of fascism.
It is not just happening here but also in all of Europe.
What makes this all so confusing is that the driving political force is an unholy alliance between white identity fascists and plutocrats. The tax bill is the pay off for the plutocrats as is the Gorsuch appointment. At present the last semblance of democracy is one seat in the Supreme Court.
I could enumerate what is going to happen but this is too long already.
1
Well maybe Mr.Edsall should say something about the lies of predecessors like Mr.Obama,Mr.Bush ll and Mr.Clinton which obviously led to the current state of affairs. Few in the "red states" believe the media is unbiased in their reporting and every bit as much venality is present in the "left's" imposition of values upon them with legislative and Executive "Dear Colleague" letters as Mr.Trump and his merry band of thugs.
"President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign could." Trump is the worst enemy of America, worse than any foreign enemies including ISIS, NK, Russia, Iran, ...
The only slim glimmer of a thin silver lining is that enough people will become galvanized to the reality that democracy (in MANY, but not all ways) is very shallowly rooted in the extremely rocky and infertile soil of human civilization as we know it.
“One could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” — Hannah Arendt
No, blaming Putin for this disaster called the Trump administration is perfectly fine, for he is at the top of the list of causes.
Just like Ukraine found itself with a Putin stooge as its President, Yanukovych, Americans woke to see Trump strut about the White House destroying what he can, disabling our American democracy, and blowing on the embers of hate.
Capitalism, our American cutthroat version, is second on the list of causes, as it is deliberately murdering the American spirit so that its global international conspiracy of super rich jerks runs things.
Sickening times, no doubt about it. I don't think capitalism and democracy work well together. One or the other has to die.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
Politics is ultimately driven by economics. For decades, both political parties undermined the middle class through trade deals that eroded our manufacturing base. Factory automation may be the larger factor, but it was not the only factor. People will accept technological change. They will not accept the systematic willful destruction of their livelihoods. And they will not accept being written off by politicians with obvious disdain for their culture, values, religion and lifestyle. Recall Obama's remarks about the clinging of the people to their guns and their religion because trade policies championed by his party destroyed their communities and their jobs are not coming back.
Add our electoral system, the Democratic party's leadership during the 2016 primaries, and a presidential candidate who gave million dollar speeches to Wall Street bankers after stating her explicit intent to use politics to make as much money as possible after leaving the White House.
That is how we got to this place.
38
Actually economics are driven by politics. For example, China's economic situation changed after the revolution; Denmark's policies create a different flavor of Capitalism than we experience in the US (they have healthcare, and daycare, etc.). Politics in turn is driven by our culture, which is shaped in large measure by the information and beliefs we are exposed to and what and what is deemed important. On FOX news, money, male power and exploiting (or creating) a sense of victimhood lead to a culture that gave us this insane presidency.
RM doesn't know what he's talking about. You've been programmed by Fox Fake News and, being incapable of independent thought, can only parrot their bilge.
Neither trade policies nor imports hollowed-out the manufacturing base - in fact the effect of global competition is less than 1%. Closer to 1% of 1%.
The manufacturing base has declined entirely due to domestic reasons: 1) We are spending much more on services (healthcare, travel, entertainment, legal services, fast food) now, not manufactured goods, and 2) Workers have been replaced by technology and the savings has been pocketed by investors and corporations.
You can cling to your simplistic understanding that Obama "willfully" destroyed the manufacturing base with Democratic policies, but that does not make it correct.
Much more correct is that Republican policies and Republican corporate management consciously made anti-worker decisions to increase profit by offshoring. Republican politicians then cut-out the safety net that would have helped the workers they set adrift.
That's how we got to this place.
Hope it gives you comfort to try to blame this on the Democrats. In case you haven't noticed, that party has been neutered, in large part because of the people you champion and by the corrupt and manipulative GOP that has cheated its way to the dominant position.
"President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy"
We have a much bigger problem than that. Trump is the tip of that iceberg, bad as he is.
Republicans made a concerted effort to defy the election outcome for Obama. Trump played a small but disgusting role in that, Mitch McConnell leading that.
Now Democrats have settled in to defy the election outcome, from Day One determined to remove the President because the voters were "stupid" and worse.
Our real problem is that we've become an oligarchy, with huge money of a wealthy few owning our politicians and politics. It has gotten so bad that for two Administrations now they don't care what the voters did, they just go for power anyway.
And with Obama they got some, as witness the Supreme Court appointment they stole. Now their scorched earth strategy is ensuring failure of an already unlikely President, tipping the country into chaos.
We got that unlikely candidate because the big money offered a really bad alternative, who would have done many of the same awful warlike and economic things. It was lose/lose and we can't even lose without having that disrespected.
If Hillary had won, the same things would have happened of course, the treatment of Obama on steroids, and she'd probably already have been impeached.
We lost our government to big money some time back, and now Trump is just rubbing our noses in it.
6
I believe a portion of Americans would prefer a Trump dictatorship to democracy. In a way, they've gotten their wish because their idol knows he can do whatever he wants with impunity. We no longer have checks because Republicans have abandoned that responsibility.
6
I agree the followers have alarmed me more than Trump. When he started acting more like Mussolini or an African dictator than a regular candidate and the crowds ate it up. The jeering at the press, the pettiness and the nastiness. They can't wait to bend the knee the Great Leader and worship Big Brother and indulge in their two minutes of hate.
2
The republic is failing. Trump's election, and Republican policies that enable him and allow his cabinet to destroy our environment, wreak havoc on our education system, and destroy our position in the world have all accelerated the failure. For me, this has now become personal. My politistress (anxiety brought on by government and elections) is rising. I feel helpless. What can I do?
My action plan is to get involved. I'm trying to advocate for change. I'm proposing a Federal Accountability Amendment (see FB / Google) to restore the operation of a national democracy.
Sadly, I believe I need a contingency plan, which is to be positioned for the republic's failure. At some point, I will need to live in a well-governed state that cares for its citizens, so that as the Federal government decays, I'm safe. Failing that, it's time to emigrate to Canada. My parents, members of the greatest generation who lived through the Great Depression and fought a World War to preserve democracy on this planet and in this country, would be ashamed.
3
Trump is just the culmination of an American democracy that when money and free speech legally were allowed to become intertwined, started to collapse in the late 1970s. "Trickle down" economics of the Reagan era has ultimately created the largest amount of inequality in the western world. Bill Clinton got into the act by giving Republicans exactly what they wanted with the removal of FDRs Glass-Steagal act and the implementation of the "telecommunications act" that allowed unfettered buyouts within the communication industry where nowadays SIX large conglomerates control over 90% of the media. All of this topped off by Citizens United that allowed legal bribery of politicians.
If any American looks at their countries history, with few exceptions, Republicans have never changed the way they envision America so in reality, their actions now should come as no surprise. Once FDR became President and in order to turn around a country around that was crippled by a depression and implement his new deal for the people, he, STILL had to fight Republicans every step of the way, yet, he had the guts and political will to do it.
While Americans wring their hands in frustration, when one looks around, does anyone honestly see someone like that today who is unencumbered by the influence of their corporate benefactors and whom they are willing to get behind, dispense with the excuses why not to do it, and give their full support? I didn't think so.
3
It seems as if the Internet trolls, those who strip a topic of all nuance to polarize the discussion, or those who thrive off 'griefing' to use a gaming term, which means to act with the intention of irritating and angering people, have won the top political spots in the United States and will continue to do so. The idea that no one ever got ahead by playing nice and by the rules is no more manifest than it is now.
Maybe after the Republicans get their precious tax cuts for their mega-donors...maybe then????
Hopefully, the damage he inflicts will fall most heavily on the party he leads.
A common thread when discussing World War Two is "Didn't the Germans see what was happening? Why didn't the do something."
Well, here we are.
Are we going to be smarter than the Germans in the 30's, or do we sit back and watch the incompetent and the thuggish destroy our democracy and world peace?
6
Edsall, as usual is correct, and disturbing at the same time. Leonhardt quoted Klein today: "or a genuine crisis in American democracy..." The crisis is already here. The anti-American GOP in the Senate refused to consider President Obama's choice for the Supreme Court in order to pack the court with a religious conservative or two. This was constitutionally incorrect. Now, they are, with full knowledge, passing a tax bill that will eviscerate the Middle Class, the American majority, and create a level of poverty never seen at least since the Great Depression (you can read the predictions here and everyplace else but Fox News). After the federal debt from these tax cuts to the rich become astronomical, they will eliminate Social Security and Medicare, which we have all paid into for decades, and tens of millions of Americans like me that have been good citizens, saved for retirement including Social Security and Medicare could very likely be out on the street begging and dying in the gutters. Is that a result of democracy, or simple cruelty and greed on the part of the GOP?
192
I like your point "the crisis is already here." Feels similar to climate change--at what point do we stop thinking "if current trends continue this will get irreparably bad" and instead acknowledge that time has come?
2
This is proof that "burning down your house" is a reality in America today, is this not a 10 alarm fire?
Where is the brain trust in the Senate and Congress to stop this most egregious assault on our democratic process?
3
The destruction of democracy came with a price tag, and that price tag was the cost of buying govt. All the branches have a price as there are individuals who sold out happily.
You know who these people are and while they are mostly republican they are aren't all republicans. Still the republicans are doing what they told to do by corporations and the Kochs for a lot less than others would have.
We will fall if we don't get money out of politics. It won't matter how many nuclear missiles we have since we are rotten on the inside.
The extreme Ideological Positions behind certain forms ofTalk Radio, and most of all, Fox News, led us here. They have methodically, deliberately misled more than one generations of Americans, with a non stop force feeding of Mistrust, Rage, Hate, Unimaginable Levels of Distortion, Hype, and Outright Lies! Look at the results: the miseducation, and disaffection of millions of voters by these institutions has done more damage than a dozen terrorist bombings.
Is Fox News "Media," or"Entertainment?" It does not really matter, as what they have done to the country's citizens, and the level and quality of our Public Discourse, is nothing short of Treason!
It certainly isn't the "Press" as we once knew the word. If Fox News is ultimately the Press, then the Institution that was meant by our Founders to be the "Last Bastion of Liberty," led the charge to Liberty's Destruction.
3
" We feel dread, as do so many other Americans, even as we try to reassure ourselves that things can’t really be that bad here." This from two political scientists at Harvard.
I'm not reassuring myself that things can't really be that bad. They're that bad and worse. Going all the way back to 1968, when Nixon treasonously interfered with LBJ's peace talks with the Vietnamese, the right wing of our political spectrum has systematically subverted our democracy for its own ends. The list of violations is staggering: Reagan's Iran Hostage deal in 1980, also treasonous; Iran-Contra; the stolen election of 2000 (Florida); the stolen election of 2004 (Ohio); 9/11, about which we have never been told the truth; the illegal invasion of Iraq; and now Russian interference in our 2016 election, with the possible collusion of elements of the Trump campaign.
All of these events since 1996 have been aided and cheered by that right-wing propaganda machine known as Fox News. An Australian billionaire has enthusiastically helped destroy what was once the greatest country in the world.
All of this happened because we as a country didn't care enough to fight for what we were - as long as our side won, we believed we were fine. We weren't. Does anyone think the plutocracy that has just openly grabbed our government is going to go down peacefully?
3
Edsall and all the responses to his column are exemplary in their, frankly disgust, at our country's present dilemma. I agree w/so many who credit the disease with not addressing the symptoms more aggressively much earlier on. It is hard to see where the wound first occurred--which war pierced the heart first? Vietnam and LBJ? Iraq? The GOP began their war against the other side, the Democratic Party, with Atwater, Rove and others until the present time with the tax bill being presented for a vote with no hearings, debate: nada. Shocking. What is a democracy? That is not the will of the people, by any stretch of the imagination of what representative democracy purports to be. The star atop the tree is the president, who is a lout: acts like a petulant child, mocks disabled people, women, those from other backgrounds, religions, places as he crashes about the world taking down treaties and insulting allies of long standing. As one writer noted, the alliance between Russia and China has been strengthened by this. And yes, no tax returns for this president so we not naught about his own finances and the mystery of why POTUS is so in thrall to the Russians. Mueller stands alone as a symbol of those of us who are saddened, outraged and fearful of the future: for us, individually, and for the country.
2
The ADDICTIONS to power and greed, seen rampant in Congress through the cold absence of term limits and the writing of laws by the rich and corporate elites who consciously purchase and destroy the basic humanness of those elected to serve the 'people'.
There is no greater destructive addiction than that to power. Most of our elected U.S. representatives are nothing more than common junkies, spiritually deaf and caught in the withdraws of their inimical drama dragging US all down.
1
Much of the blame for the current state of affairs can be traced back to Reagan, who was the first national politician to successfully run on a campaign of denigrating government itself. Prior to that, the idea that government was an inherently bad thing was a fringe notion of barber shop wisdom, but Reagan embraced it and gave it legitimacy. Newt Gingrich came along and pushed the idea further and the untrustworthiness of government and public servants became GOP orthodoxy. How can people believe in their public institutions if the very representatives of those institutions denounce their legitimacy? If government is corrupt, why not elect a crook?
1
I think essentially it's boredom. People get tired of living in a good democracy and want to add evil ingredients. Peace is so boring and war is so much more interesting - that's just another iteration.
2
This morning I read the NYT and Edsall's piece. Then I took my dog for a walk. She hates beagles so we avoid beagles and she is afraid of manhole covers so we walk around those. It is easy to keep her happy. She has a lovely new red collar so as I lead her around town, she looks good. What a dog's life.
4
Bill Walsh, the Niner's old coach, once said famously, "the other side gets paid to make a play". The Democratic party is the political check on the five decade erosion of the Republican Party.
The GOP has been relegated to a cult. In this cult, they are force-fed propaganda via the right wing media. That has been going on for multiple generations now. As a result, they are fed nativist, racial anger in order to get them to vote against their own economic interests. Truth died a long time ago in the GOP.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party appears incapable of making a play. Yes, people need to vote, but the Dem's need to make the case so that people get in the streets to vote. It should not take a dangerously deranged, albeit incompetent authoritarian-wannabe to get the Dem's to make a case. The Dem's need to make a play or, like the Whigs a long time ago, they need to go away, replaced by another political party. Use it or lose it.
1
I agree with Acemoglu's and Lupia's comments, highlighted by Mr. Edsall. Do not think nuclear war is out of the question.
John Adams had a few things to say about the subject of a viable, functional democracy: http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/quotes/
“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
We have lasted longer than Adams thought we might. He has not yet been proven correct; many of us think we will get through this time. But our convictions wobble more day by day due to the current guy in the White House and those legislators so focused on small elements of political theology they refuse to acknowledge the wider view.
Please, please, please! Stop discussing Donald Trump. It's time to just say, LOUDLY, that it is way past time to end this farce and return to a functioning Democracy! The debate is over!
1
Recently, the British publication, The Guardian, wrote: 'John Le Carre expressed alarm about the “toxic” parallels between the rise of President Trump and hard right regimes in Poland and Hungary and the rise of fascism in the 1930s..." Le Carre gives voice to the unthinkable that America's dirty and 'not-so-little' secret is that it is a deeply divided nation. That a noxious and toxic individual like Trump could rise to power in “the land of the free and the home of the brave” is only possible because he has sizable support within the rank and file of US voters...not a majority, for sure, but big enough to destabilize the foundation of US democracy. There is not an institution Trump hasn't damaged or disparaged since assuming office and it makes no difference to his support base. Constitutional defiance, disparaging US war heroes, placing incompetents in positions of power, his undisclosed reliance on Russian money to fund his businesses, his readiness to provoke allies, and to goad rogue nations into warlike actions, or his support of despots and murderers have no influence on his supporters. The rise of Nazism was fueled by the onerous reparations placed on Germany after WW1...unhappy Germans looked for a leader who promised financial remedy and they found it in you-know-who. Le Carre is dead right in making the comparisons - and the USA should listen - really listen, because Donald J Trump is a greater threat to American values than any external source.
1
Three of Mr. Edsall's sources, MIT, The University of Michigan, and Harvard University, are extremely well-endowed universities, which are slated to have those endowments taxed under the proposed new tax "reform." While at the same time, the administration is looking seriously at advocating for repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which will allow non-profits to endorse candidates, a change sought for years by the evangelical uber-conservative, GOP-leaning wing of the Church.
This is not coincidence. Empower our friends and disable our enemies. Sounds like Mr. Putin, doesn't it? No wonder Mr. Trump admires him.
2
The problem is not Trump. The problem is the American people. They don't know enough to realise there is a problem at the heart of their democracy and they don't care enough to do anything about it.
2
so much I would want to say - but most importantly:
congratulations on a truly excellent article
I long ago concluded that Trump needs to be impeached. At the end of his first year, his incompetence has become so apparent that only the self-serving or morally blind could continue to support him.
If we do not act as one to express sufficient outrage to capture the full attention of the GOP congress, the hurdle to doing what must be done, then we indeed are getting the government we deserve.
1
In my humble opinion, it is even worse than this essay describes. The reason I say this is because as we all blithely agree with every point made, we continue to pretend that it is only the Republicans that are guilty. Cynicism and hypocrisy abound on the Democratic side as well. If I reread this essay and replace the words 'Trump' and 'Republicans' with 'political class' the article becomes even more ominous. Does anyone really believe that the media has not become biased? If you are willing to honestly answer that, then you can see that the destruction of faith in a free press is not all Trump's fault. If we cannot get the facts objectively then it is subjective and that is the antithesis of truth. I think, of all the facets of our eroding democracy, the corruption of the free press is the most portentous. I know you do not want to hear that but I believe it to be true.
Respect for the United States will continue to go down. Unfortunately, too many Americans don't care. They think of it as a popularity contest and have no understanding of the real implications. We will continue to be ruled by the Republican Party and their rich employers for a long time, since the moribund Democratic Party does nothing but sit on their hands. I know they are the minority, but can't they do something? If Trump runs again in 2020, and the DNC pushes forth another dreary candidate like Hillary Clinton, that will be the end at any pretense at democracy. I know she won the popular vote, but like me, many Americans only voted for her out of fear that Trump would win. We can only hope that we don't have to think in the next presidential election, do I vote for Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee?
1
Mr. Edsall ... HILLARY ... CLINTON ... *LOST.*
She didn't lose because of "Russian meddling." She lost because she didn't have a ghost of a chance of winning. Specifically, she lost because a majority of the States voted against her. This wasn't a crime – this was an election result.
For at least the last sixty years or so, the USA has been embarked upon a steady downward spiral of its own making, even as it maintained its cherished hubris on the international stage. President after President after President ruled over this process, along with Members of Congress who sometimes have held office continuously for more than 30 years. And, "Washington, DC liked it that way."
But, last November, the people spoke in a way that they'd never spoken before, and elected a Chief Executive unlike any that they had ever elected – if only because this was the very first time that they had been given the opportunity. But it wasn't "supposed to be" that way, according to some. Hillary was "supposed to win, of course," and then she would for the next eight (of course) years continue the same old downward course, muttering the usual platitudes as she dutifully did what she was "supposed to" do.
Don't say that America's democracy is "self-destructing" when it chooses to do exactly what the Founders of our country foresaw. They never were "proper Englishmen," either.
Hilary Clinton won the popular vote and lost the electoral college due to 70,000 votes in 3 states - states where well over 100,000 legitimate voters were taken off the voting rolls for specious reasons.
To repeat, rephrasing, regarding the popular vote: DONALD... TRUMP..."LOST."
2
Congress will ignore Trump's many gaffes until they manage to pass their abortion of a tax bill/health care abolition. Then they will begin to either censure or impeach him so they can end up with Mike Pence, the President they wanted all along. With him at the helm, the country will continue on the path to becoming a theocratic plutocracy.
Once the tax bill is signed into law, trump is going to feel more empowered than ever before. You aint seen nothing yet.
The Republican Congress had put our government on the road to "crazy town" by be coming the party of "no", the party of do absolutely nothing for 6 years except sabotage governance and rail against public healthcare. Trump is the short cut to "crazy town" and the Republican Party has provided wheels to get us there.
As much as I would like to disagree with Mr. Edsall, if for no reason other than to maintain some measure of optimism, I am unable. The past 10 months prove the truth and accuracy of what I would have characterized as pure hyperbole just 18 months ago: BLOTUS is destroying American democracy by ignoring or eradicating the very rules and ideals upon which the United States was founded and by which for the most part over the past 200-plus years conducted itself. In doing so, he is destroying our civilization and profoundly altering the world order.
He is most assuredly the most flawed of any person who ever occupied the White House. Unlike any of his 43 predecessors, he is at the same time ignorant, prejudiced, self-serving, self-absorbed, amoral, intellectually lazy, inarticulate, thin-skinned, duplicitous, shallow, inconsistent, and a pathological liar. Even worse, BLOTUS is being aided and abetted by members of the republican party have themselves have many flaws, not the least of which is the inability or unwillingness to exert some moral courage and place the good of the greater majority of their constituents and the country ahead of the party and the moneyed interests who keep them in office.
Each day that BLOTUS remains in office, we as a country slide deeper into the abyss from which there will be no return. I genuinely fear that we are witnesses to the beginning of the end of our democracy. It is the most helpless I have ever felt.
The Russians threw a couple of logs on the fire. The fire was built by Rush, Newt, Sarah, the Tea Party, and Mitch. Then Trump and his fans danced around the flames. Trump may not be here forever, but as long as the hyper-partisanship endures, there will always be someone willing to light a match!
The GOP has been steering the country in the direction of Mr. Trump for the last 35 years or so. Mr. Trump only got them to where they wanted to go a little earlier than planned. Nearly everything listed in this column was clearly evident during the 2016 campaign and yet Americans went to the polls and voted for it.
Perhaps the problem was a lack of choice - the Democrats response to the rage at declining standards of living and diminished prospects for the future was to wag their fingers at Donald the unfit misogynist, inappropriate sports team mascots, Confederate flags and statues and to lobby for the vagaries of equal pay for equal work and transgender potties.
The GOP will turn Trump out as soon as Pence has a shot at 10 years-2/2019. In the meantime, 12/15/2017 is the 226th birthday of the Bill of Rights. Let's celebrate our freedoms before it's too late.
"...other senior Russian leaders..."you quote from our agencies. Appears to me Putin has eliminated all possible competitors or intelectual equals. Most clearly he established himself safe from wealth gathering business people. His civil and military managers perhaps similarly: who are they, what do they say or write? I guess our agencies know. Is there open evidence of competent capable people around Putin? Our leadership is loaded with high I.Q., accomplished, willful, educated, experienced figures. Hope that helps - it should, really. In his heroic pictures Putin is always alone. Hmm.
It's too late to turn back. Too many Americans are incapable of assessing simple facts, much less history and science. We are already an oligarchy here, made up of the typical avaricious, selfish and short-sighted. When a population can no longer decide on what is even true, there is no basis for conversation much less compromise or consensus.
We have given over to what I think of as a much more religious view of politics, meaning that revealed truth from the party is paramount. All else are lies or fake news. Science, empirical data, facts and figures don't matter to most, and this has reached critical mass proportions.
Edsell nails it again. Trump is the symptom, not the cause of the demise of our democracy. Government of the people, by the people, for the people requires an engaged voting public, and 45% do not, allowing minority rule by despots. The American people have let this happen. An insufficient number of us are outraged, the majority having been lulled into complacency with consumption and celebrities, or lost in desperation and addiction. The great many injuries itemized by Edsall and other respondents here are individually inadequate to awaken the people to the accumulating peril. The American people awaken, unfortunately, only after catastrophe strikes (see Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, Great Depression) and not before. Only then will our injured nation rights its course, and in that I have complete faith. We've endured worse, and can again. But bad times have arrived and the good people need a Lincoln or Roosevelt. Instead we've got a clown.
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It is not rocket science that Trump is taking down the foundations of our democracy brick but brick. Most of it is planned and deliberate deconstruction brick by brick; and some just by his aberrational, anti intellectual behavior. He's no different than authoritarian rulers of the past. 1984 is his playbook. But it his not just him. Republicans and the alt right are his enablers. What they are aiming for is a plutocracy where the super rich get more money and the middle class and poor suffer. Trump is their ad hoc leader whose family will pay less in taxes. He's already destroying the state department, cabinet positions that serve the public, and rescinding checks on Wall Street's greed. Trump is engaged in the selling of the presidency and country. It's now up to the electorate to defeat the Republicans in 2018 and as a result reduce his power. And lastly, it is exigent that Mueller and his team bring this crook to trial. His impeacgment cannot come too soon.
Is the system rigged? How is it that a demagogue ended up having an incompetent -- an incompetent who has previously demonstrated her electoral incompetence in spades -- for an opponent? Hillary Clinton was an incredibly bad candidate, with a well-established track record of being someone (more her husband) who "we can work with," yet all the polls published before the vote showed her way up, which drove down participation of key Democratic voters. HRC exemplified EVERYTHING people hate about liberals: an air of superiority, the "we know better than you" attitude, her isolation and disregard for people who don't agree with her, her further disregard for being truthful in stressed circumstances. And then she got a big payday for messing up with a book advance and probably a whole lot of other stuff we will never know about.
What if the whole thing was scripted by some heretofore unnamed cabal? What if the system is rigged, and this is just the beginning of something that is really, really bad and destructive? It just all seems to fit too neatly.
"It can't happen here," right?
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If Trump is "sometimes incapable of discerning real life from fiction," it is fitting: so are the willing citizens who elected him.
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Trump was only made possible by 20 years of Fox News.
Only Fox has the power (and incentive) to propagate lies on the scale necessary to cause this fracture in American society.
I note that as of today, Fox News online has spent the past 8 days headlining *anything* except the tax bill: North Korea, "Hillary", and implications of sex scandals by democrats fill their site. Possibly the most important legislation in past 4 decades is being debated in the senate, and no one who gets their news from Fox will have heard about its details until after it is voted on. Awful.
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My ire—no, that word isn’t strong enough. My fury is with the small but vocal a Trump supporters, including the so-called educated few who resent change for its assault on their privilege. They are the ones who insist, often gleefully, that the unprofessional, uninformed, or unhinged behavior of the present POTUS is “good for America.” Even if they hold their noses at the man’s boorish and cruel race-baiting, they thrill at discomforting the liberals they detest en masse, even more than they despise the “deplorable” uninformed with whom they pretend common cause. This group includes most of Congress. It is overwhelmingly white, male (with some women who feel “protected” by their men’s status ) and older. They will lose power; of that I have no doubt. I only hope they don’t take down the country in the process.
How does an honest American family, making $50,000 a year, compete with the GOP donor class?
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A Tweeting president, and foxes with unfettered authority over hen houses (education, Ross; environment, Pruitt; justice, Sessions) - I suspect we have turned the corner, and there is no going back. I lament not just our dystopian future, but also the realization that the center left created this.
It was indeed the toxic mix of liberal arts colleges, the beat generation, post modernists, the boomers, the 'free thinkers' who made it fashionable to abandon notions of "objective truths; objective reality."
The relativists, the post-modernists won the battle to destroy us, not Russia.
The dumbest among us are in charge of everything important. They won by beginning every argument with: "In my opinion, it all depends, on the one hand this. . . . all points of view, all outcomes . . . are equally meritorious." The kid who asks me: "can I round of pi to a 4" is applauded.
And in this relativist world we created, those that stuck to absolutism (okay, cafeteria absolutism, absolutism of convenience) such as the values voters, the gun wavers, the white supremacists - found a weak, equivocating country ready for plunder.
And plunder they have. We have collectively subverted democracy, we enabled this end, we worsened it by raising narcissistic, disengaged, apathetic Millennials. Not Putin, not Russians.
Now, as we equivocate, argue "one the one hand this, and on the other hand that," and kvetch, looks to me like this is indeed the beginning of the end.
Kalidan
Finally someone who has clearly pointed out the damage being done. More articles must be published like this everywhere until such time people wake up and realize the damage being done.
What worries me the most in the context of this article is that the easiest (i.e. most likely) way to beat Trump is to send up a Democratic version of him. Someone who will say anything to get elected, who can twist the media to his own ends, and who uses the levers of meme-ish popularity to win the necessary votes. If the resistance coalesces behind such a candidate because he or she is the most likely candidate to defeat Trump in 2020, then Trump's dismantling of our democracy will be complete.
The true test of American democracy will come in 2020, when we are faced with the choice: Stand up to what Trump stands for, or play his game in order to win.
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Give me a break. The strongest and most direct violation attack on American democracy in the last election cycle was from Hillary campaign that bought off the DNC during the primaries and thus shut down Bernie Sanders and his supporters.
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No one is going to give you a break. This is real, what is happening today, and we all need intelligence, hope and focus if we want a future.
"They ultimately have to be confronted by elected officials: co-partisans willing to exercise serious restraint, or if not, an opposition voted into office who will do so instead."
The opposition voted into office is the only hope to reverse the damage done. But it will have to be a very progressive opposition. We are up against the oligarchy here.
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I agree that we Americans do have ourselves to blame: severe voter apathy - especially in primary and off-year elections, indifference of most of the citizenry to informing themselves about current events in any measure of detail, even abysmal levels of knowledge about - or even interest in - the history of our country, much less that of the world in general.
However, our democracy is still hobbled by very un-democratic parts of our Constitutional foundation; necessary compromises that had to be made to bring all 13 colonies into the original union. These compromises mostly revolved around power and jurisdiction of the states vs. the federal government around a variety of issues, the largest of which was slavery. The slave states with lower white populations were given 3 advantages: unequal representation in the Senate, the electoral college for presidential elections, and they were allowed to count black slaves (who could not vote) as 3/5 of a person to allow for unequal representation in the House. Of course the last provision is gone, but the first two remain. As time goes on, and more Americans proportionally live in cities, these representational distortions will grow worse, as the last 6 presidential elections have shown us; especially in 2016.
THIS is the Constitutional crisis we are actually facing.
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Mikeweb, your assessment is excellent. However, part of this could have been repaired when Obama had a strong majority of both houses, and a SCOTUS still nominally interested in justice and democracy. Job one-- after measures taken to avert or minimize a GOP caused depression-- should have been to raise the faux ceiling on the house of representatives from 435 to a number in line with modern populations and the Constitutional insistence on the house as "representative." Modern, advanced, and urban states would have gained power by sheer numbers alone and we would not be dealing with the disaster we have in place. Agree-- a Constitutional crisis. Why aren't the Dems talking about this in the bold language that you and I are? All the huffing and puffing about tertiary matters while Rome burns is disturbing on a very high level.
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Once again I am confronted by the question "what is to be done to prevent the current and planned actions of this administration?".
The founders proposed and instituted a government with equal components expected to overcome overreach by any one of the three branches by the actions of the others. We now have seen that the members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the current government of the United States have united in overreach against the rights and responsibilities of all citizens of this country.
Is an anti-Trump politician the answer? Is an election's result that changes the makeup of at least two of the branches the answer? Is the opposition party lacking both the desire and ability to overcome the drift towards one-party rule? Can citizens ever regain the pride in this country when the decisions being made don't formalize class warfare but guarantee class victory. How many more allies and supporters of the United States will treat our country at arms length because of what is being said and done as America's priorities?
The founders assumed that an educated citizenry would be able to know how to preserve the rights and freedoms espoused in our founding documents and writings. Today that seems a fond hope.
The greatness of America was never the size of its economy, stock market, conservative or liberal economics but in the the beliefs that all citizens were the sources and recipients of greatness by all measurements.
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Hard to see how things can change without restructuring our electoral system so the individual vote takes precedent over where it is cast.
Given that's not going to happen, we still have a shot if we take back the House in 2018. Without that - without some checks and balance on Trump and the criminal oligarchy that runs the GOP - the USA will be well on its way to finishing off its ongoing collective suicide. As many here have written, I cannot believe this is happening in my lifetime.
But it is.
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Kudos to Pew Research for developing the data behind the graph in this article.
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Yes, Trump is a clear and present danger to the Republic. That's why, despite the risks, I support his Impeachment.
However, there has been much which has preceded Trump which has laid the groundwork for his rise. Wallace, Nixon and Reagan had the same electoral map strategy, and one can see signs of Trump's worst in Pat Buchanan and even in Ross Perot, the folksy billionaire businessman who would fix the troubles.
But as I see constantly before my eyes in Red State rural Western Maryland, there are virtually no competing strands of economic thought, despite a University, part of the U. of MD system. Neoliberal economics, which worships the entrepreneur, has centrist (Clinton-Dem) and far Right Republican and Libertarian supporters. All deplore New Deal type attempts to fill in what the private sector has failed to deliver to Red State Rural America: economic hope.
On talk radio, it is all far-right, all day, all night. There is no public discussion where one might hear left of center alternatives. The strongest economic alternative is "back to the land" from the Small is Beautiful greens.
Stripped of the tools of analysis, citizens were unable to see through the nonsense Trump put forth economically; tragically, Wall Street and the 1% will continue to get what they have always wanted: a tax-free, anti-regulatory and anti-egalitarian government, waging perma-war in places too numerous to count.
I credit Sheldon Wolin with anticipating much of this.
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Over Thanksgiving I visited my father in a small town in Montana. On Saturday we went to a local tavern to meet his beer drinking buddies, working men of various ages. Their love for Trump and what he stands for astounded and frightened me. Trump could do nothing wrong. Fake news prevented us they said from seeing what a great man he was and all that he has gotten done. I left the tavern frightened. There were now truly two America’s. I’d lived through the Vietnam War period but I never experienced the hatred and divisiveness I experienced in that bar in Montana. Yes, there are now two Americas just like during the Civil War. It is easy to imagine violent insurrections now occurring in our once great American Democracy.
PS: Mr. Edsall: I like the way you interject academic political scientists into your columns, which, obviously, gives credence to your views.
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It is as if Trump supporters are being brainwashed. There is no way to speak to the damage that Trump has done and have it register. Basic reasoning has gone out the window.
David, do you think it might be less "Civil War II," and more that a large part of our citizenry has been brainwashed by the constant stream of RW dangerous material spewing from TV, radio and now the internet for something like 30 years? Brainwashed people can be unleashed more easily than people who just believe in an idea (slavery and/or states rights) that others do not. In that regard, they (especially since many are armed so heavily) may be a powerful and over-whelming force to any real resistance-- say a removal of trump or massive strikes. Just musing. Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad my relatives are all in CA.
The great majority of the partisanship is the result of the Republican Party. If you examine each party’s platform over the years since Eisenhower, the Democratic platform has become slightly more conservative while the Republican platform has gone further right than the old John Birch Society. It appears that the only way that this will change is for reality to knock America’s teeth out. In what form the punch will take is anyone’s guess but America will never get its bite back.
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Like the author I am worried that we are reaching a point of no return for democracy in American. It is particularly worrisome that Trump seems to grow more confident, pushing his tax plan with outright lies (“it’s not good for me”) and denying the legitimacy of his taped comments about women.
It is important to emphasize that the authoritarian turn is not just about Trump. The Republicans’ scorched earth policy toward Obama, blocking all initiatives as a matter of principle and refusing to fill judicial vacancies, predated Trump. Also Trump did not need to tell the Republicans in the Senate that they should ram their tax bill through without public deliberations. Deep-seated Republican complicity makes the problem harder to solve.
By now we should be grown up enough to quit using the false equivalence of “gridlock”. The Republicans held the government hostage for six years so they could get the tax cuts for their wealthy donors that are now on the table. Democrats are no angels, but are not the threats to democracy in America.
For now the 2018 election seems like our only hope, and it’s a long shot.
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It's not just the current administration, but the entire government that is rapidly transforming America into what increasingly resembles a developing nation. There are over 30 million people living under the federal poverty level and 40 million on food stamps. This is on par with the top ten poorest nations in the world.
The corporations have been established by the power elites as the new electorate, so it is no wonder wages have been driven down drastically for millions over the past few decades. As the population becomes more impoverished, it becomes more and more dependent on government to the point where we will have a socialist state - ironically created by capitalists. The solution is to remove businesses from the process of electing OUR representatives, because the needs of corporations do not coincide with the needs of the people.
The power elites will do just about anything to prevent the people from regaining control of our republic, and must be viewed for what they are: enemies of state, and a mortal threat America's national interests and democracy in general. We are at war in America. The outcome of this civil cold war will be determined by actions taken by millions of ordinary people , not by political scientists, academics, or intellectuals, who merely write books about America's decline. They can help, but it is up to the American people to wake up and do what must be done. Let us thank Trump for providing us with this wake up call.
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We would be so lucky to be a developing nation. At least there would be some hope for a better future.
While I agree with most of this, we'll still have to keep in mind that whatever any of thought of HRC, there was no plan to so dramatically concentrate power in the hands of the rich and powerful as there is here and now Trump. Democrats may be guilty of abetting this "self-destruction" to a certain, but they are not the principle destroyers here.
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"The power elites..."
I don't think you can really blame "the power elites" for this one. Trump was feuding with a lot of them (although they certainly made up after the election.) According to Politifact, which had debunked a lot of Trump lies, Trump raised less money than Clinton. By percentage, Trump had more donors who gave $200 or less. More than Clinton, Obama in 2012, and even Sanders. A whole lot of Joe and Jane Sixpacks helped to make the Trump Presidency happen.
Every iota of this destruction to our country lies at the feet of the Republican party and its "leaders." This isn't American partisanship; it's Republican born, bred and nourished with poison.
I don't see a way forward before Trump unleashes nuclear war.
Unless....
New England and the West Coast secede in entirety and form a coalition of regional united states.
Cut the South loose. It's been a millstone around the country's neck. Let it sink; there's no salvaging it for the wreck that it is. The UN can place sanctions on it for it's many human rights violations. The interior states will have hard decisions to make: join the Constitutionally congruent coasts or go south, literally and figuratively.
Meanwhile, those of us who hold the Constitution dear can begin to right the two smaller, more nimble ships of state, correct the course headings and carefully, thoughtfully and Constitutionally move forward.
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