"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life." From your lips to God's ears. And those who say God put Trump in the White House, I'm praying for you. You are soooooooo misguided!
14
A fringe, so don't worry? Organized crime is a fringe. John Brown was a fringe There are lots of fringes to worry about. Our
institutions? Trump is in the White House. SCOTUS is on the way to becoming a joke. The states? Are you kidding? I live in Florida.
8
Just wait until we have catastrophic fires every month in the west, and super-hurricanes in the southeast, and 100 million Americans flee.
Then will come the National Guard, and the Trump-fascists, and the 360 million guns.
Democracy is more fragile that you might think.
4
...sorry Mr. Kristof, the end of days isn't here - or anywhere in the future.
Tens of millions of Americans are following the man you're portraying as a demon.
You're a sensationalist, a demagogue that likes to overdramatize.....the man who said..."You're fired!"
Mr. Trump is an actor on a stage - unfortunately, it's in the White House.
But Americans, a lot of them, elected him...and will probably vote for him again.
So stop with the Nazi takeover of Germany -stop scaring readers with your demagoguery.
He's not who I want to lead my Country, but he's there and for all of his faults, he hasn't blown up the place, and I have no worries he will.
So, chill out. We have 2 more years to go....let's plan how to get back to legislating what's important for America...instead of spewing hate from the right and the left.
6
Why on earth would any sane person believe our democracy has survived? In just the past two years we've seen a hostile foreign nation work with the Republican candidate to rig the election by an avalanche of lies about Mrs. Clinton, by rigging votes, or a combination of both.
We have seen this "president" tell us that the KKK and neo-Nazis are very fine people, as he cozies up to dictators. We have seen this "president" singlehandedly destroy all of our international alliances, alliances that took this nation decades to create. We have seen this "president" kowtow before his master, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki, thus putting to rest the slightest doubt that not only is Trump a foreign agent, but also that he is causing damage to our nation at Putin's order.
We have seen this "president" order Hispanic infants and children be put into cages, continuing to lie about a national emergency that exists only in his head. And we have a Republican Supreme Court which has shown, with their Muslim ban ruling, that they will kowtow to this tyrant under any circumstances.
And finally, we have seen some forty percent of our citizens continue in lockstep with a "president" who tells them that as white Christians, they are the only "real" Americans and that the rest of us must accept the scraps of second-class citizenship. This nation is no longer a democracy. It is a dictatorship that Trump voters love. The question is - when will the rest of us rise up and take our country back?
16
Sorry to be less optimistic than Kristof — but I’ve read “How Democracies Die,” by Levitsky & Ziblatt, “Democracy in America?” by Page & Gilens, “It’s Wose Than You Think” by Johnston, “It’s Worse That It Looks” by Mann & Ornstein, but also, “America: The Farewell Tour” by Hedges, “National Security and Double Government” by Glennon, “Dark Ages America, The Final Phase of Empire” by Berman, and pretty much everything written that bears on coming to an accurate diagnosis of this new 21st century and first Disguised Global Capitalist Empire, which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly promising and sometimes progressive country (PKA) America.
Yes, Socrates, there are some positive threads of the life jacket left to hold onto, such as “The Post’s” brave mast-head banner on each day’s front page, “Democracy Dies In Darkness”, but without naming the disease of Republics and democracies that our founders knew to be one thing EMPIRE.
And while Bernie ran a hopeful campaign in 2016 on a two-word sound-bite slogan “Political Revolution” (Against what, Bernie?), he never added the essential ‘object’ to make it a full, short, ‘action sentence’: Political “Revolution Against Empire” [du Rivage]
So, as the song goes, “We’ve got trouble right here in River City, and that start with ‘T’, and that rhymes with ‘E’, and that stands for EMPIRE.
This DGCEmpire hides behind a dual-party Vichy facade of faux-democracy fueled by crooked capitalism.
1
I don't agree. The author has too much faith in "good" than in history.
Everything Trump does chips away at our Constitution, at the balance of power within our government, a free media, and the rule of law.
Anyone remember Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Hussein, Amin, Kim, Duterte, Erdogan, Putin...?
Trump is learning from others (because he's too stupid to do this on his own) just how to go about flipping the world order so that he, too, can be a dictatorial king.
We're in serious trouble. Serious trouble.
10
Someone should inform Mr. diGenova that if he is espousing a civil war, he will be on the losing end. There are plenty of “liberals” and “lefties” who also vote and buy guns, but they do a third thing - they’re willing to use them to defend us from right wing nutcases like him.
4
I clicked on this article thinking (from the title) that it was going to be about Climate Change/Catastrophe. But no, its about politics, i.e. rearranging the deck chairs as the ship sinks. Sigh...
3
Trump will do *anything* to get reelected because it's the only way he and his family avoid multiple indictments (and likely found guilty) of numerous federal and state crimes. Republicans won't vote to impeach him (the GOP is itself a massive stain on Democracy), so Trump will be the 2020 nominee unless something miraculous happens, such as Republicans defending the Constitution (as they all swore on a bible to do).
Trump's entire, cowardly life is a complete lie, fueled by layers of illegality. He should be in federal prison.
12
May your predictions be accurate, Mister Kristof. Trump not only pushes norms, he bulldozes them. And his followers the light in his bombast and lies. Make no mistake; Mr. Trump will probably not be able to overturn our democracy, but he will certainly try.
5
Democracy isn't destroyed in a bomb-like fashion, it is nibbled away at over a long period of time and lack of attention to needed change. That is what we're looking at. Our unwillingness to make change that will support democracy and Americans. Overturn Citizens United. Corporations are not people, they don't vote. Get corporate money under control in our elections. Superdelegates, the electoral college, gerrymandering...need I say more?? Trump is a symptom of an already sick institution.
7
The media did a good job demonizing Trump from day one. The hysteria over "authoritarian" tendencies, nods to villains, was largely manufactured.
I'm so glad Mr. Kristof isn't as worried now as he used to be. (I'd hope he's a little embarrassed.) It's just a shame that he and too many others didn't (couldn't) contain their own hysteria over Donald Trump. None of Trump's supporters were asking Trump to be a dictator. They just wanted the laws on the books enforced, and some deference given to the fact that the US is a real country, not just some abstract concept where laws and borders don't really matter except in theory.
Watching Democrats and the media (and not just a few Republicans) attempt to destroy the man has been disheartening, because it hasn't been normal. As we speak, Democrats are opening yet more investigations based not on known crimes (according to Jerrold Nadler), but in hope they'll find something, somewhere.
Investigations into Trump, his family, acquaintances, employees, associates, businesses (going back years....), - sound familiar? This isn't just simple "oversight." It's what anyone who isn't gripped by hysteria would indeed call a witch hunt. The country has been gripped by this nonsense for three years now! THREE YEARS!
Remember when the NYTimes published the view that Trump was just too frightening, that normal objective reporting would/must be suspended?
I do, and I remember thinking, "These people have gone mad."
6
once we win in 2020 here's what must be done FAST:
The new Senate comes in an abolishes the legislative filibuster. Its already disgusting that 51 senate votes are controlled by 18 % of the population. then to make sure reactionaries control the national agenda, we allow them to need 10 votes LESS than a majority to prevent anything.
Then in quick succession:
admit PR and Washington DC as new States. Needs only a simple majority and a signature. This instantly adds 4 new Liberal seats to the Senate.
add 4 seats to the Supreme Court, to be filled at once. Simple majority, totally legal, the size of the SC is not defined in the constitution and has varied throughout history.
national voting rights act. prohibit gerrymandering require all redistricting to be done by citizen committees as already done in California and Arizona. Automatic voter registration. make voter roll purges illegal. back this all with legal teeth.
repeal of the corrupt trump/republican tax cut.
national wealth tax passed.
add three upper brackets to the income tax, at 60%, 75%, and 90%. No loopholes.
a tax on securities transactions. a small tax will raise trillions and put a damper on speculation and robo transactions.
restore the usury laws that we had up til the 1970s. Max interest you can charge should be inflation plus 3 or 5 %.
free tuition at PUBLIC universities.
and finally of course...
National Health Insurance.
These are not radical ideas. Democracy now.
10
The threat to a peaceful transfer of power does not come from Trump, it comes from his most ardent supporters.
8
Nicholas,
Appreciate the reassurance; however, unless you have a crystal ball or have time traveled into the future, we cannot know for certain if our republic can survive in its present form a president with dictatorial ambitions i.e. Donald Trump
2
This is your country. This is our country. Never forget it and never stop fighting for our democratic republic. Trump will be ousted and so will every treasonous republican nationwide who protected an authoritarian crook to lead this nation. Everyone must get on board and vote like our country depends upon it; because it literally does. The midterms gave the democrats 40 (41?) seats and allowed them to take the House in order to put checks on his abuse of power. Now lets get the senate and the presidency in the next election, unless we can impeach or indict him earlier, which I hope we do. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Indicting him this year being he has been proven to be a felon in a court of law, is appropriate.
7
"Still, Levitsky and Ziblatt caution that underlying polarization and erosion of norms made Trump’s election possible, and they persist."
Seems that among advanced countries with a long tradition of democracy and citizen protections, the USA has gone further to the Right with a deplorable percentage of loyal voters supporting an authoritarian.
Other democracies didn't go that way. In 2017 elections, France, UK, and Netherlands didn’t vote their right wing candidate/party into power. (Le Pen or Farage, etc) even if they got more votes than prior elections. Their more moderate leaders won, and are now working through all their many problems.
The US, with its famous Constitution and Bill of Rights, put into power Tsar Trump the Terrible and his courtiers. They're being investigated and shown as criminal, as the money trail is pursued.
Trump seems to believe Nixon’s idea that—if the president does it, it’s not illegal.
Countries like Turkey, Austria and Hungary which did go more authoritarian, did not have long traditions of democracy and human rights, and had been under rule by dictators in the 20th Century, within living memory.
2
@Meredith: The US has a very schizoid theocratic twist on "democracy". It is in a class with Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, lots of places where democracy is precarious at best. Nobody is responsible in countries people believe to be run by God.
3
It not for people to "stand up to Trump".
Its for people to recognize that WE elected him, according to our laws. We want him to get done what he promised to do.
As to coups ... its the anti-Trump people suggesting coups.
Our democracy is working exactly as it is supposed to,
except for the deranged Left. For example, they tried the most vile of stunts, with highly negative evidence and credibility, to stop the appointment to the Supreme Court of a person, Brett Kavanaugh, who clear and strongly said he would support our Constitution as it really is, not as the Left want it to mean the opposite of what it says (e.g. the 10th Amendment.)
2
@Doug McDonald: Your rant is a tautology of self-justification. Acceptance of the 2016 election when Trump didn't even win a plurality is tantamount to re-ratifying slavery.
Trump was well know to New Yorkers. You should check the reputation of people in their home towns before voting for them.
4
@Doug McDonald- You seem to be missing the point. If Trump refuses to step down if defeated in the 2020 election will YOU support that? If so, your "support" of our constitution is suspect indeed.
4
What a sad state of affairs when the closing line is that Trump (and I would include his close family members and many of his top advisers and aides) is more likely to end up a felon than president for life.
These are indeed cynical and seemingly desperate times for our democracy as Trump tries to work his will on our most hallowed institutions.
3
@Observer: All too hallowed, I think. "Hallows" were "ghosts" to the founders.
Recipe for frustration: The candidate the majority of voters voted for isn't winning in American politics, due to the electoral college and gerrymandering. We'd see a lot less so-called polarization if the candidates, from president on down to the House, that the majority voted for, actually won. Let's get rid of gerrymandering AND the electoral college!
6
@debra: Other than the states themselves constituting a permanent gerrymander, gerrymandering does not affect the election for president.
3
This isn't very reassuring: "Trump’s efforts to block meaningful investigations into his conduct have backfired, leading to the Robert Mueller inquiry," i.e. the razor's edge of one person with integrity between Trump and his wanna-be, quasi dictatorship? And Trump's continuing war to isolate and discredit Mueller?
4
Le Monde publishes an article about the Mercer family ( father and daughter ) ,at the origin of Breibart, financing in Europe a campaign of misinformation through the press, social networks, advertising, etc... American lies and forfaiture at work in Europe.
The billionaire family was the biggest funding source of Trump political campaign.
5
@JPH: Robert Mercer is a very sophisticated mathematician who probably did the calculations to exploit the loopholes in the Electoral College logic that produced this fluke outcome.
2
@Steve Bolger Dishonest propaganda is no mathematics nor logic . And if there is a logic to the Electoral College, historians know it as slavery and land owners. Everything for Americans is to do with a mystique of mystery. There was no mystery in the elections . Just redistribution. Towards the land owners and more slavery.
1
Mr. Kristof, in the interest of unifying the American people, which of your beliefs will you compromise?
2
Thanks to some excellent investigative reporting by NYT, Washington Post, New Yorker Magazine and other outlets, there is plenty of evidence in the public domain that shows that Trump has long been a felon, a tax cheat and a scammer.
7
Wait! -- you wrote that:
"Almost a quarter of Republicans said in a poll last year that 'President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.'”
But here is the actual text, which refers to a PLURALITY of Republicans (at 43%!):
"Some of the limits of public support for freedom of the press are made stark with a quarter of Americans (26%) saying they agree 'the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior,' including a plurality of Republicans (43%)."
The "quarter" refers to Americans as a whole, not the Republicans.
5
@joshua: Trump did not even win a plurality of the 2016 vote.
I do not like people who presume too much.
2
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I think Democrats should treat the US federal government as THE corporation all citizens own with one share each, where elections are proxy battles to determine who sits on the board of directors (Congress and Senate), and who is CEO (President).
The Government is the one corporation that has coercive powers to make and enforce the rules for all other corporations, pursuant to our common objective, which the founders declared to be the pursuit of happiness under enforced minimum standards of public conduct.
Mr. Kristof, I respectfully disagree with you. Trump and his GOP enablers are slowly and systematically destroying our republic. This is their goal, and they're achieving it. Trump has sown doubt about our institutions, including but not limited to our courts, our press, our educational system, our intelligence community. He has attacked our voting/election system, calling it rigged if he doesn't win. He trashes everything and everyone who dares to disagree with him. The GOP is silent, and oftentimes they publicly back him because they want to be re-elected, so even when they know he's wrong, they support him because his base those important states back Trump.
I invite you to come to my campus and take one of my history courses, or to take some history courses at a local college. I strongly recommend that you take one on ancient Rome, particularly covering the time period when Rome ceased being a republic and opted to be ruled by emperors. If you're not familiar with Caligula and Nero, the NY Public Library will have books about them. Tiberius and others were no better, only slightly less crazy, and fully enabled by the Senate. I also recommend a history course on Germany during the early part of the 20th century, with emphasis on the Weimar Republic and Hitler's rise to power. Republics, including those democratically elected, don't die suddenly but slowly by a thousand smaller cuts that people don't notice until it is too late. This is where we are now.
7
So right you are !
1
I can’t help but think much may depend on 2020. If Dems can’t find a meaningful, working consensus within their Party, and soon, it may very well portend four more years of The Nightmare—and may very well give more credence to a possible coup.
Conversely, if Democrats are somehow able to pull off the near-impossible and win control of the Senate—and thereby control both houses of Congress—the prospect of extracting Trump from office becomes fait accompli. Impeachment becomes all but certain. As does the reasonable, reaping-what-you-sow notion of Trump-as-lifelong-felon.
Though winning control of the Senate is a long shot, finding consensus should not—indeed, can not—be a roll-of-the-dice affair. The stakes are just too damn costly.
For if Democrats lose sight of their penultimate purpose—displacing Trump—then we would lose. We would all lose. We would lose to a Destroyer of both Law and Liberty. And we would lose as a country and as a citizenry, as a society and as a community, as a Democracy and as individuals imbued with personal rights, in ways that perhaps only later historians will understand. And those are frightening, potential losses that should shake Dems to their core—and help unite them for all things 2020.
4
the main reason the republicans and trump have not turned the country in to a fascist state is because the constitution is difficult to amend. if the US constitution was as easy to change as in Hungary, Venezuela, or Turkey then you can bet we would be well on our way to authoritarian dictatorship.
3
Dear Mr. Kristof,
Which democracy, exactly, is the one that will survive? This kleptocracy comprised of know-nothings who've outsourced a functioning republic to the highest bidder? Moreover, survive what, exactly? A duly elected president Hillary the mastermind couldn't defeat (just as she couldn't defeat a nearly unknown one-term senator from Illinois the time before?) who's attempting in admittedly the most obnoxious manner possible to enact the platform on which he ran?
There is no democracy here worth saving, and there is no electorate here worth defending. We are a confederacy of dunces (thanks, J.K. Toole) being pillaged by plutocrats and drowning in moral and cultural sewage. All deadly sins and no cardinal virtues, held up, fortunately or not, by unlimited avarice and shamelessness, just like our simian-in-chief.
So enough with the paeans to democracies long since dead.
Cordially,
S.A. Traina
5
What I find most worrisome is the increasing wealth and income inequality I see. This trend is bigger than the Trump presidency in that has continued/accelerated through multiple administrations under control of both parties. In other words, regardless of political party in power, and despite the vaunted institutions and norms that we are so darn proud of, wealth and power continue to become more concentrated. This is a threat to our democracy and I just don't see either party reversing this trend.
5
Almost a quarter of Republicans said in a poll last year that “President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.”
Since self identified republicans account for 25% of Americans, that means that about 7% of *all* Americans favor it. That's in lunatic fringe territory.
2
How sad that we are hoping for survival when other countries are making real progress.
5
Wrong and certainly premature, this feel goodism plays to American notions of exceptionalism. Democracy is fragile and
Trump is not the sole problem. An increasingly powerful and traitorous CIA is also a plague on our democracy. As reported inThe Atlantic, the CIA has the power to murder alleged terrorists with drones and never report the innocent lives they take. The CIA and NSA have extensive powers of surveillance, which have already been abused. And the CIA is complicit with the Russian mafia in defrauding the American people.
In fear for themselves, Congress has long ago abandoned its oversight responsibility of the CIA and the president is willing to expand their powers to conduct war (only objecting when the CIA criticizes dictators.)
So we have a trifecta here, a corrupt executive branch with roots in the Obama administration that yielded the rotten fruit of the Trump White House.
An unbridled intelligence community that operates like a mafia, and conducts itself like a rogue nation state and a Congress of survivalists, riven by partisan warfare and willing to do anything for power.
Sadly, the hope of democracy is in the hands of Special Counsel Mueller and Attorney General Barr to sanitize our government of corrupt influences, both foreign and home grown.
1
The US radically over-reacted to the 9/11 attack.
3
I'm very skeptical about this view that democratic institutuions are strong and resilient. when the Trump cult will blindly follow and defend this most unfit president, no matter what. This 35%-40% of the voting population of ignorant nihilists, a large majority with guns, will stop at nothing. The anachronistic Electoral College will give Trump another victory and this country will continue to descend into chaos. Shame on the GOP for continuing to defend and protect Trump instead of doing their job of providing oversight and ensuring that "echecks and balances" are observed.
5
One should not neglect another aspect of his tendencies
namely he feels entitled to nominate the president of Venezuela. What country is next ?
3
Our nation survived the Civil War, McCarthyism, and Watergate, to cite a few of the crises we have weathered. Let's remember that Mr. Trump did not win the popular vote. Although I am very concerned about how he and Mr. McConnell are stacking the courts, I too remain hopeful that saner minds will prevail in 2020.
1
If they want a fight, I say bring it on! You know that NY and CA will crush them literally and figuratively. So put 'em up!
2
Trump, if he’s still in office next summer, won’t make it to the debates. His carefully crafted reputation is falling apart now, by next summer it will be so damaged that only the most rabid supporters will remain. All the centrist will have moved on.
If we fall into another recession, the game is over for Trump. Either way he will make a simple calculation, if he knows he won’t win, I predict he’ll start to take down others in the Republican Party out of spite.
It’s just a waiting game for us to see how it will play out.
3
I hope we will survive, but Trump's put his fingers in so many pots of government and business I'm not truly sure.
At this point I've started to ignore some Trump stories. I'm just tired of him. So I think he has me right where he wants me. I just don't care. That's a very bad sign. He's burring us in multiple crisis.
I'm so glad I didn't follow the Kim encounter. It produced nothing. I just keep hoping the the House, Senate and SDNY do their jobs to protect our country. I'll keep voting though. Just hope the Dems come up with a good candidate. I think beating Trump is a top priority.
2
It is correct that Trump felt the election results would only be valid if he won. After all, Hillary had 'rigged' the election. It has since been confirmed that there WAS some rigging: Vlad helped Trump to some unknown extent. Regardless of what per cent of the population believes it, every voting American should be disgusted that another country can invalidate his or her vote. If I were Trump or Putin or Kim Jong Un I would double my security and hire a food taster because their days won't last forever.
2
You still believe in polls after 2016 and after what M. Cohen said about fixing a poll?
Finally, I just have to say this. No one in our country should demonize another country for its human rights record without first acknowledging our own dismal record, that continues to this day I might add!
2
"Surviving" seems a rather low bar. Seems that we used to aim a little higher.
2
The only other time in my life that I experienced a feeling of complete disconnection from my fellow citizens was when the OJ Simpson “not guilty” verdict was handed down. Watching his fans hug, dance and scream in joy made me think, “ I will not ever understand where these people are coming from.”
I feel it now. Through what lens do Trump supporters view the world that they can support this evil little conman? What do they see and experience when they watch him at CPAC, rambling on for over two hours in a manic, disoriented state? This is who they entrust with the leadership of our country? I have really tried to understand but I have concluded that I cannot.
I wish I could be optimistic like Mr. Kristof. I keep thinking of the Justices and judges we are now inflicted with and the many Trump devotees that will remain after Trump is gone. What further damage will they do to keep Trump’s hideous legacy alive? I shudder to imagine it.
10
Trump is a symptom not a cause. He's a sign that democracy in the USA has been in trouble for much longer than he has been in office. I completely understand why, but Americans are not sufficiently reckoning with the fact that a several-times bankrupt, corrupt and amoral businessman, and former reality-tv star, has managed to become its head of state and government. It's not a figment of your imagination and it's not a good look.
Of course Americans are not genetically or congenitally less fit to build and sustain a rational and reasonable political culture and democracy than any other people. It is just that contingent undesirable and unfortunate history and ideology have left their mark on the contemporary American psyche and polity. But what has been done can be undone. It really is imperative than soon genuine progressives win power in your country such that soon enough afterwards REPUBLICANS begin to start to wonder "Am I moderate or centrist enough?".
There's far too much irrational nervousness about this. Industries won't be nationalised. The S&P 500 won't plummet. Free and fair elections won't be suspended. American commerce and democracy would certainly survive a two-term Warren presidency. Actually the latter would be significantly strengthened, and regarding the former, there might be loss but there would be gain too. A transition to universal health care would actually save most American individuals money - and many American businesses too, for instance.
4
With threats and concerns of a coup on both sides, it's a really good job that Americans have the right to have guns and as many as they want isn't it.
As a non-gun-toting foreigner, I really do hope that the country does not descend into a coup. Whichever side decides to carry it out, the results will be very nasty.
1
“Trump . . . seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life.”
He is already a felon. The question is whether he will end up a *convicted* felon.
4
Let's focus on FOX news for a moment. The likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, all under the mentoring off of Roger Ailes, are fearlessly permitted by our Constitution to spew lies, insults and fear, but a little nipple-slip by Janet Jackson drew fines and license threats by the F.C.C. Yes folks, our values are at stake, but by "conservative" phonies and hatemongers.
4
“The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to stand silent and do nothing”
4
The thing about Trump not going quietly if he's defeated in 2020: hogwash. Do not expect to see a reenactment of the end of Scarface.
This a man who cowers when he suspects any kind of impending harm or physical threat. See the clip of him at his desk facing a the lurching eagle, or the clip of him flinching on the podium when at a man rushed a stage at one of his campaign rallies.
At the sight of first security detail, law officer, or rent-a-cop that crosses the White House gates, he'll be hightailing it to his getaway limo.
2
Seeing all the pro trump types rabidly claiming the left is taking over the country, that DJT isn't a thread to Democracy, I think shows that this article hit home, that they themselves believe "Their Donny" will try and stay in power if he loses, otherwise why all the rants?
It isn't that I think that Democracy is threatened per se, but what is affected is effective Democracy. Our government has never been totally Democratic, and it doesn't take someone with a Phd in history to know that for example, the wealthy and powerful have often bought elections, or that the media hasn't always been neutral or fair, in the time of the founding of the country through the early 20th century, newspapers were not expected to be neutral or fair, none of them were, and people didn't expect it, for that matter. More importantly, our system that gives power to states with low population always has been inherently undemocratic, it has led to an America where rural, ultra conservative voices have more power than a large majority (Trump's 40% approval rating has not gone above that, and he lost the election by 3 million votes), and where for example the courts are moving far right of where most of the population sits. The real danger isn't Trump pulling a coup, it is a country where like in South Africa, a minority of 30% or under de facto controls the country, and we are heading that way.
5
One institution not mentioned is the military. Would the military back Trump if he refused to turn over power once defeated at the ballot box or impeached? That is the 64 million dollar question.
6
Wonderful column and I hope you're right. So many norms have fallen by the wayside and I keep assuming democracy will prevail. Question: if you're wrong, how will we know?
3
F P Obama early on cautioned against acting as though Mr Trump's becoming PT marked the end of the world, and against so acting thereafter until it was in fact the end.
Mr Kristof's undertaken to assess two plus years in, whether the end is nigh and not unreasonably concludes it's not. At least, not yet.
This observer - there not being much else he can do - can go along with more "watchful waiting" and urge poll watching.
That is the kind done by fivethirtyeight.org and any other watcher comparably comprehensive. It shows that PT has had the approval of forty-plus percent of the country now and most of the time since inauguration to at least the sixty-four million persons who voted for PT in 2016 and probably more.
That's about twenty percent of the country's entire population and, fwiw, way too big imho for anything remotely resembling sanguinity as to the continued existence of American democracy as we have known it.
2
you are deluding yourselves.
The US does not have a democracy. It is a plutocracy. Two reasons behind the relatively easy takeover of the political system by the 0.1%'ers and their corporations: the Senate which grants equal representation to the likes of Wyoming, Idaho, Dakotas, etc. and California or New York, which are 40-50-60 times as populous, and, the electoral college, which allows someone to be president without winning the public vote. Things like gerrymandering are of secondary importance.
Koch brothers + Adelson + Mercers, etc. and numerous anonymous PACs blitz the rust belt with outrageous amounts of money, put up puppet candidates and cultivate their at least one senate seat, more often 2, per backward state every time.
6
In my view, Mr. Kristof greatly overestimates the strength of our system and its institutions. One of the most serious problems with the Republicans -- the "let's shake things up" folks -- is that they don't seem to recognize there is nothing inevitable about this country. Nowhere is it written that there has to be a United States of America. In fact, this country is still relatively young in the grand scheme of things. (Rome, even Great Britain, the U.S. is not.) Too many more attacks on our institutions and we won't have any institutions left.
1
Although the majority of the people in the rank and file enforcing the law at the federal level lean republican I believe that they are dedicated to enforcing the law. I have no doubt that if trump attempts to remain in the White House he will be forcefully ejected by the very people protecting him at the moment. Robert Mueller is a prime example of this type, country and it’s laws trump political party. No pun intended.
1
The idea that Trump could plan, organize and execute a coup is absurd, of course. He hasn't the capacity.
He can't organize a coherent sentence.
What he can do is on a whim, simply dig in his heels say he won't leave thinking that will stand.
Of course he will be led out.
5
He is absolutely the worst president. He gave a billion dollars to his family with the tax break for the rich. The middle class has to pay more to support the 1%. He ran on the promise to help the middle class. Americans are not happy with what is going on in Washington. He has created a great divide which never existed previously ever! He disagrees with the Scientists that say time is running out to do something about Global Warming. He thinks he knows more than all the findings of the Intelligence Community and ignores their results.....I could go on and on and on. I just hope this investigation proves that he is unfit to be President. And please sooner than later. Great damage is being done!
3
I thought when Trump won that he had usurped the planned fascist overthrow of the government that the GOP was on track to implement. He saw their base, or at least felt them through the campaign and stole them from the dog whistle GOP. The based loved the new openness of hate. But he jumped the gun and went full on fascist (or at least has been attempting to) before the GOP had enough fact free cult members. Thus Trump did us a favor in that he exposed the core of the GOP and helped to expose their methods to more people, who were unaware of the calloused and hateful reality of the GOP.
The GOP weren't ready for the coup yet. They were trying to get there, and have been trying since after WWII. Reagan was a big step toward it, Gingrich, the Bushes contributed, FOX news, but they weren't ready and Trump interrupted and them and exposed the cult of hate that is the GOP. Now they are stuck defending the baby-brained man whose best skill is his tantrums. He and they would be dangerous except for their ineptitude which probably stems from a deluded understanding of reality. How can one espouse policy based on a magic man in the sky or for and from only the wealthy and expect to have policies that are appropriate for a given issue? It is an impossibility and the reason that fascists always fail, because their beliefs are simply delusion. Unfortunately, sometimes they take their nation down significantly before a correction can be made.
5
If a quarter of Republicans are willing to shut down anti-Trump news outlets, how many are willing to start killing their liberal neighbors or even family members?
6
Buddy, Trump is the least of your problems when it comes to trying to salvage democracy in this country right now
4
President Trump is an immature, egocentric person. He refuses to interact with those who’re more experienced and yet, retracts himself from his wrong actions. He lives in a world of his own; a corrupted individual whose life has been filled with a thirst for money, illusions and lies. Inasmuch as money is the root of all evil, Republicans refuse to divulge he’s mentally unstable.
America is no longer the land of Lincoln nor do we hold the power to elect our representatives because the Republicans are the “abettors” of President Trump and the 3 branches of government.
Should President Trump be removed from power before the end of his term or not be elected in 2020, expect a violent reaction from his base as well as the Republicans since they have profoundly broken our Democratic system of government with their gerrymandering and dog whistle.
4
Always in my mind is the specter of the fascist state in Germany. Our country has been taking all the steps necessary since 2016. Read your history. And we have the media savvy unavailable then.
2
Comedian John Mulaney equates these times to a horse loose in a hospital. One day you hear the horse is in the elevator and you think 'Is the horse intelligent? Why hasn't the horse catcher caught the horse?' The next day you hear the horse has fired the horse catcher. You think things will probably be ok but you're not quite sure.
3
The American system has a lot of inertia. Short-term insults, scandals, and outrages have minimal effect. Self-governance is resistant to those.
But only if the assault is brief compared to the age of our union.
If attempts at modification from outside the process continue for a long time - I will say "long time" means longer than one executive administration - then public opinion will eventually turn the ship.
This is the peril we face that the new electronic communication channel has created. News and propaganda are now conflated in nearly every voter's minds.
We who have been reading newspapers since we learned to do so in High School still, inherently, genetically - trust - the brick and mortar news outlets. But the younger people, and many Americans, working long hours with little down time - do not.
An American voter, worn out from twelve hour days and six day work weeks have to endure the endless barrage from cable news and conversations with friends over beers about bigfoot, UFOs, and how the other political side are satanic morons hell bent on our collective destruction - have a psyche so assaulted and degraded that they vote just to relieve the pain.
And thus, the ship of America changes course.
What was once outrageous is now the center.
By the way - is this something new? Wouldn't we say the same looking back at history?
America morphs. That's the beauty of things. And it always seems difficult and terrible to some.
And glorious to others.
I hope that you are correct, but you never mention that one of the two major US political parties resembles contemporary Hungary and Turkey in its words, deeds, and votes. And the courts are being very highly politicized. So the danger is far from over.
I hate to say it, but what if Trump refuses to acknowledge an election defeat and refuses to leave office. And what if a modified SCOTUS backs him up (not impossible if we should lose one of the current 5 who are not in his camp). What then, Nick?
1
Trump was elected with 27% of the potential electorate. Clinton got close to 28%. Bush and Obama got around 30%. In Germany's last free election, the Nazi's got 27% of the total electorate. If you let 1/3 or less of the country elect the president, eventually our democracy will be destroyed. Someone smarter than Trump, but with his morals, could ruin it.
That's the core problem. Yet 80% of registered voters vote. The problem isn't getting out the voters. It's getting people registered. The U.S. has lower registration rates than almost any developed country.
As long as this continues, we are playing with fire.
7
There is so much confusion in American politics and American minds . One can only attribute that confusion to lack of conceptual ability and bad education . And that kind of opinion ideology tied to a wrong idea of Liberty . An individualistic conception of freedom .
If you have a French statue of Liberty in NY .It does not represent that . But few probably understand it.
I don’t see the “United” States as a viable long-term proposition. Ten or twelve states constitute about 50% of the population; about 50% or more of GDP, and have a comparatively young, well-educated, culturally diverse, growing progressive population. These states are churning ahead to confront the issues of the 21st century.
The remainder of the country is in retreat, building real and imaginary walls in a futile effort to hold back the dawn, living in the 20th century and trying to march back to the 19th. They’re literally blowing their own brains out, committing quick suicide by gun at an alarming rate; and slow suicide by opioid pain medications at an even more alarming rate.
Our current system allows the bible-thumping, xenophobic, aging, dysfunctional white ‘remainder’ states to control our national government. They dictate how the tax dollars generated by the more populous, progressive states are spent; and they demand control over public policy. While they call themselves ‘small government conservatives,’ in fact they are hellbent on government intervention in our personal lives, cramming phony ‘family values’ and benighted religion down our throats.
No. If things remain as they are and continue trending in this direction, a divorce is imminent. Seriously, How much longer do you suppose people in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, et alia are going to let idiots and knaves like Steve King, Louis Gohmert, Jim Jordan and such run their lives?
15
@chambolle Good points, if made a little fiercely in my view.
But isn’t this always the case? Aren’t we necessarily torn between those that hold on tightly to what they know, and those interested in exploring new possibilities.
We are always torn in these ways, personally and politically.
The trick is to discover that it is in our interest as a nation to advance in a way that does not unsettle too many on either side
1
Anybody who is frightened by the authoritarian, if not fascistic, developments under Trump and his family and sycophants should read the “How Democracies Die” book. It is fantastic, and not in my view at all overdone in its analysis of what could happen here.
People who do not heed the warnings will have only themselves to blame when the state or the police come for them.
And there will be no Yankees, now, to help the Brits, etc., stop the Nazis.
2
Promises made, promises never kept.
Pick your favorite...
The Wall...never built!
The immigration skyrocketed!
Border disorder or "Border Hustle"
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/07/private-prisons-smugglers-and-cartels-cash-migrants/
US trade deficit $892 billions.
NK has leverage over US due to incompetence.
Countries around the world lost any respect for us.
Many former republicans converted to independent or democrats.
How are you doing trump supporters, is that a time to admit a mistake, or copy your "strong" leader and never, never, never admit to one.
Your choice.
4
Trump is a cancerous mole on our democracy whose ill-effects has been detected sufficiently early to be properly remedied by its checks and balances. He will be expeditiously removed by 2020 without any metastasis or long term negative effects. So will some of the fatally compromised surrounding tissue who are his enablers in the Republican party. Until then, we Americans will have to deal with this prominently visible, unsightly growth on the last, best hope for earth - a hope bought and paid for over and over again by the noble sacrifices of our citizenry, our military and their loved ones. This is the true meaning of MAGA.
3
Mr Kristoff and other Americans have been brainwashed since birth to believe, hand on heart, that the American democracy is the greatest in the world and can resist all attacks. But it’s not democratic when PACS can buy a politician’s seat by weight of unlimited spending and it certainly isn’t democracy when Trump’s Friends who own the National Enquirer and Fox produce wall to wall exaggerations literally every day full of lies designed to keep Trump in office. And now we have Fox staff like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, unelected raging bigots, dictating policy, and former Fox staff even working in the White House! So we have a country where a major “news” company is a state organ. This only happens in autocratic regimes because they know that whoever controls the media controls the country. So Mr. Kristoff America has changed. In the 2020 election, Fox will go all out, the super PACS owned by the 1% will go all out, and an immoral lying illiterate oaf with ties to Russia will be re elected. And thumping your chest and proclaiming that the US democracy will survive won’t help you one little bit.
1
The worst effect of President American Carnage is the time wasted in our existential fight to reduce emissions into our atmosphere. Wasting time, wasting resources, wasting opportunities.
Get rid of these Republicans in power. They are killing us. They are killing the future of our progeny for a few dollars today.
5
All the focus on spanky hides the damage behind the scenes at interior, epa, education, energy and others. Investigate and write about their activities destroying the country.
3
I think we will get through any transition in the Trump disposal process. It may termporally hit the fan while we grapple our way to fixing all that went wrong with this moronic man and his minions. Insofar as foreign policy is concered, both our allys and enemies know what Trump has done to our country. With the right leadership and a steady policy hand these fences can be mended as well as a reassertion to our enemies, that the new sherriff will not be a pushover like Trump. I have faith in our country and Trump is a big stain that can be expunged.
4
Donald Trump is a megalomaniac, but I have faith in common sense and common decency. It is remarkable and sad that thirty-something percent of voters still willfully follow this charlatan, but that is still a distinct minority.
The majority of voters/citizens, who have higher standards of decency, need to remember these Trump years and hold firm in the next election. Keep your eyes on the bigger prize, and don't let ideological purity tests keep you from voting. Whoever prevails in the primaries, they are bound to be better than the current corrupt regime. Don't let the GOP and a master manipulator like Donald Trump divide and conquer us by creating schisms.
Enough with kleptocracy, enough with nepotism -- let's stay united and throw these bums out.
4
DeGenoa is right that we are in a civil war...but hold the guns, as it is a cultural one, ongoing since before the the hot one in 1860. Thanks to global immigration into this country (thank you, Ted Kennedy), the human family will eventually emerge victorious (relatively). Trumpers are a threatened species.
2
I agree. The fears of losing democracy in the US are overblown. Examples given where it has happened (Russia, Hungary) are places where Democracy is not the tradition, but where autocracy has been the tradition, and they are just reverting. Here things are much different. If Trump refused to step down after losing an election, he would be dragged out by the capital police. But there is much deeper check and balance here. Imagine the Women's March, but bigger, not just women, people in the streets in DC. They begin to march on the White House. The fence can't stop them. Guns can't stop them. It is too many. The supports of the autocrat are vastly, vastly out numbered. The autocrat's cause would be a Lost Cause, in short order.
2
Trump has exposed the cancer that is the GOP. For decades they have been this party of racism and hate. Always the party of no except for the rich elites in the party.
So much injustice hate has been unleashed on the American people. The black history month was an assault of white people on minorities for activities that white politicians had participated in during there youth.
We have several societies coexisting one for whites and one for everyone else, in the minority community you have an opportunity to get arrested and mysteriously die in police cusyody
3
It may be true that much of the US Government functions by ignoring Trump. This is, however, day to day activity by the "little people" who work for the Federal Government. The problem is that if Trump really does attempt a coup of some sort the "little people" won't be enough unless the "big people in the Senate" also stand up to him or the cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment. So far it isn't clear that they will do that. The effort to stop the wall between the US and Mexico is hopeful but it isn't clear that the Senate wand House will support an overturn a veto by Trump.
Spot on. Trump will indeed be a first president in history to sit behind bars. But that is NOT a good thing for our democracy. It makes a mockery of America. That's what I feel like: He is a buffoon and he has made fools of 25-40% of the population (the same Fox viewers who believe other news agencies should be shut down) . It is very hard to admit you have been conned. What will happen to these people? How do they rehabilitate their democratic ethic? They will have to or else become angry, miserable non-participants.
"Trump supporters to worry about a coup — by the “deep state” against Trump"
The NYT should send someone down there to report on the Deep State. I may go there myself, just to meet some people, look around.
3
Brave words. But Trump is right on one thing. The system is rigged. When so much of our financial capital goes to the gilded class, when wages are stagnant, when Congress appears to only care for those at the top, a large number of voters feel alienated. Trump is a crook and a thug. He will pass, but unless there are major reforms in our tax and economic policies the conditions that produced Trump will remain. We must change or these conditions will lie about like so much dry tinder waiting for the next demagogue who may not be as dumb as Trump.
7
Two seasoned authors warn us to not be complacent with this man in The White House_TWH: Madeleine Albright's Facism and The Dangerous Case report on this man by 27 psychiatrists. Both have the same bottom line: This man has thoroughly indoctrinated his true believers.
First, read Albright's chapter on a young man that emerged from normalcy to become Hitler's partner in Italy. Under circumstances stunningly similar to this country right now among the angry whites becoming a minority and dealt-out workers as our national color becomes more brown.
Then read the psychiatrists on how the man in TWH has identified and groomed his "believers" to never turn on him. To do exactly what he says without one iota of critical thinking left. I live among these believers. I am afraid that Cohen's warning at the end of his House testimony was both scary and likely to ensue when the man in TWH says "save me."
Opposing Mr. Kristof's "probably" survive with probably ugly obvious turmoil among the believers. Not unlike Macron in Venezuela, our generals and National Guard and police may have to face decisions about their responses. With opposing factions in our streets.
FL voter F/70
Remember SCOTUS Justice Jackson's words to the German people as he led the Nuremburg trials for their war makers and leaders: this trial is not taking place because Germany "lost the war," but "because Germany started the war." We may be facing that level of test for our democracy.
1
NOt sure if we will survive his assault on the judiciary. Vacancy after vacancy filled with people who literally think the bible is the rule of law.
3
What hyperbolic nonsense.
The appalling Donald Trump is not a threat to our democracy. (BTW, we’re a republic but I’m not up for a Civics lesson at the hur)
Democrats, the Democrat Media, and the — wait for it — ‘resistance,’ have done everything in their power to overturn an election. That is our greatest threat to liberty in this nation.
They used gossip from a foreign spook paid for by the Clinton campaign and falsely portrayed it before a FISA court for starters. And now that the entire bogus collusion narrative is shown to be false, Dems are moving on to other things. You know, as if the last two years of Russia 24/7 did not occur.
You don’t like Trump? Neither do I. Next time, put up a decent candidate instead of a venal and duplicitous has-been.
2
@EGD
it;s not an election when Mrs. Clinton won more votes.
She is neither venal nor duplicitous/
3
I agree that the American system of checks and balances has withstood Trump's assaults on democratic values with impressive resilience. I also believe that responsible journalism--Trump's bete noire, the Fake News--has performed heroically in the face of unprecedented hostility (hats off to the Times in particular for providing essential reporting, as well as vital commentary). But whenever anybody starts predicting the future, often with the preface of: "History will show..." I wonder where they bought their crystal balls. Trump does not need to succeed in order for democracy to fail. And he didn't come out of thin air, but emerged out of a fetid culture of deceit whose beating heart is at Fox News. America may survive Trump. But it may not survive the influences that made his political rise possible.
3
@Bob Chisholm
In general a very spot-on commentary about our current situation, even if it's rather amusing that someone in Britain is regaling us on the perils of a failing democracy.
Fear not! -- We are not all tethered to the beating heart of lies and deceit that is Fox News.
2
The fact that 25% of Americans would not object to the President closing down mainstream media outlets like CNN, The NY Times and Washington Post means that the US democracy is 25% dead and that is not good.
4
Trump lies like he breaths. His cabinet of the best people have either quit, been fired, been criminally indicted, or are being investigated right now. There are meetings with a foreign adversary to dig up dirt on his political opponent. There is the emolument issue. There is the security clearance issue. There are the constant attacks on the Constitutionally protected press. There is the obstruction issue; the cries of "fake news" and "witch hunt" on the one hand and the meddling with the investigation on the other. There is the fake border crisis after his political loss. This are the issues before his presidency like a fraudulent university, selling his house to a Russian oligarch to wash money, and taxes hidden from the American public. It just goes on and on and on.
Anyone who supports this man and buys into the notion that the media has created all of this is just lost.
3
I'm curious what Mr Kristof will say when Trump is reelected. I suspect I already know, and I suspect he already knows. But the real question is, how will the NY Times readers who have been reading story after story about how the Trump administration is imploding...explain it to themselves? When the shock of it subsides...of course it must be the dumb people in middle America that don't have the capacity to understand that the Republican party does not have their interest at heart. Or maybe, everyone is racist. If you do you'd be wrong on both points. If you can't see the one sided nature in these stories it would be very difficult to explain the world around you.
1
There is a large plurality of americans who are so fearful and cowardly that their single objective when voting is to hurt their "enemy."
This is the defining characteristic of the Trump voter--not that they are dumb, or rich/poor, or even white men: it is that they hate you and want to hurt you.
There will always be another lazy scam-artist selling hate and fear to those primed to buy it. The problem is not Trump, it's his voters. But knowing that doesn't make me want to hurt them, because I have great sympathy for their children and want them to grow up not as fearful, hateful people like their parents. Punishing their parents punishes them--not moral.
So we must not return hate with hate. Yes, defend those that Trump and his voters attack, but then create policies that help everyone--even the Trump voter. Ignore the noise. Stop tweeting. Stop face booking. Work on real things.
In considering the future of democracy under and after trump,
we must take into account the nature of the man. He
was schooled for many years by Roy Cohn to disregard the opinion of others, and looks down on politicians as inferior to businessmen such as himself, which accounts for how easily, even contemptuously, hr shuffles them about in his administration.
He will undoubtedly cry“foul” if he loses in ’20, as he warned he would in ’16, and will attempt to use legal, even military, means to overturn his loss in the election.
1
We are weaker for Trump and his goons in Congress and the cabinet. There is no truth to the saying "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
1
Think about it. Would Trump, Kushner, and daughter be capable of managing a Starbucks?
You can't navigate life on "probables," Nick, and you certainly can't win elections with them. You can't scare Trump out off the White House by piling on the Left's already mountain of imaginary fears. If this is the inertia of the Left's Nanny-State-Light, imagine the hand-wringing when we install the full Program, where none of us will leave the house without first asking permission, or open our mouths without first apologizing for possible offensive speech. This is what the world has come to. Remember, Father Darwin taught us that only the "fit" survive. The lion would starve on probables, and the gazelle could certainly outrun them. Candidate Mueller will likely disappoint.
1
Why are we losing democracy?
--------------------------------------
An idea I have is that the loss of democracy is a prelude to a new democratic wave, soon to come, with the fall of Trump.
(That is "The fall of the House of Trump".)
This reminds me of Leonard Cohen's song, "Democracy":
He sang: "Democracy is coming to the USA".
--------------------------------------------------------
That was in 1992, 27 years ago. It was prophetic for Leonard Cohen to suggest what another (Michael) Cohen is now concerned about. In fact, Leonard Cohen died, one day after Trump was elected, in 2016. How ironic!
Here is a Trump version of "Democracy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ythb4PSWBIA&t=236s
Would Nicholas Kristof comment on the "Democracy" song?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
I'm NOT the NRA and I VOTE.
2
To our representatives and senators: Slow down, contest, block every judicial appointee from this administration.
Humanity, for the most part, has survived many maniacal people who tried to take over the world. Not all humans survived, but humanity, so far. is still here. Global Warming might get us in the end but individuals have never been able destroy everybody.
1
The Republicans in the Senate need to rebel against the destructive leadership of Mitch McConnell that has been responsible for the downgrading of our democratic process in Congress.
Get a new Leader of the Majority - someone who is willing to at least give credence to a degree of bipartisanship, and who doesn't blindly serve Trump, and who refuses to even bring bills to a vote.
Better yet - impeach McConnell.
3
There are two more worries to come, other than Trump.
The first is the fact that members of the Republican Party did not stand up to Donald Trump, even as he cost them their elected positions, even as he eroded their own positions, even as he insulted them in public and called them liars on TV. Why was that?
Once a party embraces an extreme faction as a method of getting votes, they are essentially creating a deal with the devil. There is no long spoon. In Canada, we created a system to deliberately foil the desire to focus only on one or two special interest groups (although it was a bit unintentional). Maybe the United States needs to do the same. Or maybe both parties need to look at their moral standards and adhere to them. Extreme votes come with extreme prices.
Second, it's about who comes after Trump. They won't be cursing on camera or admiring Putin or publicly tweeting about starting a war. But they could still be doing the same work, quietly. Using the same paths that Trump has created, the next President can further erode democratic institutions like water in a stream forming a gorge. They could still dissolve treaties, over-enforce immigration laws, or refuse to enforce civil rights laws. They'll get away with it too, because they are "not as bad as Trump". Really, just not as vocal.
Trump isn't the end. Unless you are careful, he is the beginning.
1
A functional Democracy depends upon voters educating themselves on the issues. Voters who blindly vote the “party line” ( a throwback to the Cold War) or who get their news from one source are the bigger threat to democracy than what one person can do.
I have belatedly discovered the Showtime video series, "Shameless". It is an utterly uninhibited, often gross, portrayal of family and institutional dysfunction and marginal survival in South Chicago.
Its searing, relentless tour from hilarity to heartbreak is a disturbingly accurate satire of U.S. culture and an insight into the politics that result.
Most disturbing is the fundamental honesty in the title of the show; "Shameless" describes not only its content, but the defects in my character that are drawn to it to escape the sting of tragic truth by laughing at it.
It reminds me of Thomas Harris' popular novels of Hannibal Lecter's evil escapades. They silently pose an implicit question to the reader, "You're enjoying this aren't you? And doesn't that tell us so very much?"
The incredible thing here is that the author’s last sentence sounds reasonable and not completely paranoid:
“Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life.”
You’re setting the bar pretty low, America, if the possibility of a coup and a President-For-Life aren’t absolutely outrageous ideas.
There are 393 million guns in the United States, one for every man, woman and child who lives here—with 67 million left over.
Add to that statistic the fact that as a candidate our president suggested that “the Second Amendment people” could act against his competitor in the event she won. And add to that the fact that this president’s massive ego will never allow him to accept defeat, that he will find somebody to blame and that his target(s) will be run up in lights—on Twitter and Fox TV, if not in the mainstream media.
I have all the confidence in the world that the Secret Service can and will preserve the transfer of power, so I agree that we will survive. But given the massive number of guns in this country, the massive ego of a president constitutionally unable to accept defeat and his previous willingness to call forth his “second amendment people,” it is hard to believe our survival will come without real casualties.
1
I just happened to find a copy of Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America." The similarities are so striking it's hard to believe he wrote it in 2004.
Again, another brilliant column from Nick Kristof, but most folks are still left with the question: "What can I do." I address that in this op-ed on ways to come out of the viewing stands and onto the playing field of democracy. That's really pivotal to protecting democracy. Use it or lose it: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-op-col-retry-new-year-resolution-sam-daley-harris-12282018-story.html
2
If Donald gets away with the phony National Emergency at the border will he not be emboldened to declare another just before the 2020 election. This National Emergency is a training lesson on how to pull one off. Given the free hand shown by the Republicans in the Senate, will they have the courage to take a stand against it. The real threat to our country comes from within the White House and the floor of the Senate chamber.
1
"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life." Let's hope that is the case. The damage done over the last two years may take decades to fix. Some of it may never be fixed - such as relations with our allies. Trump has led us into great danger for his own self-enrichment. The worst President in American history.
1
In the Beginning, God practiced self-governance, and it was Good. If you're made in God's image, self-governance may be right for you.
Trump's election was a rare example of US democracy, within the framework of the Constitution. The people, not the Establishment made him President. Trump makes me cringe, but so does the ever so sanctimonious Adam Schiff, who I think is more of a danger to democracy with his blaming Trump's election on Russia, and who is attempting a coup against Trump, backed by most of the Washington Establishment. There are real reasons Trump was elected, one was the ever present US worship of capitalism and MONEY, with all the cable networks airing Trump rallies endlessly because it was profitable. In the US PROFIT RULES! Also many Trump voters have real concerns. If Democrats treated those concerns with inquiring minds and respect, the polarization would not be so great. Instead, the Democrats put on a circus.
Congress has long been the best Congress money can buy. The US capitalism worshiping mindset allowed the Supreme Court to rule on the side of money over citizens.
I've got no problem with capitalism, in moderation. A true test of US Democracy will be whether the Establishment and its Media go all out to destroy Senator Bernie Sanders. And then, if he is elected despite their best efforts, if the Establishment and its Media try to undermine him as they are working to undermine Trump.
2
So far, many functions of government have found that
the best way to get things done is simply ignore Trump.
He can rant and rave, but not much comes of it.
His one man, stand-up comedy routine will come to
an end in 2020.
1
There's absolutely no scientific evidence the American system will last forever. Just because something survived in the past, doesn't mean it will survive the present or the future.
1
We failed to teach subsequent generations about fascism.
A uniquely American fascism has been infecting more isolated and economically depressed areas of the country for half a century. The preppie elite in Washington has failed to acknowledge the decline of American farmlands and manufacturing cities.
This national crisis, Trumpism, has been building for years. He will not be re-elected, but we will be sorting out how to repair our broken party system for years. Generations who grew up in relative ignorance of the past will have to endure a lot of conflict in order to move the country forward. We are politically paralyzed now.
Our system is resisting, as Kristoff rightly says, "probably."
The voters, however, are weary of complex issues like gun
violence and climate change and would prefer to elect a fuhrer who "alone" will "fix it."
Trump has demonstrated how fascism can challenge democracy. Fortunately, we have the most resistant form of government ever devised, but the electoral college must go.
3
Trump and HIS Republican party aren't the only threats to our American values. It's the political electrical system. Personally I think our elected officials spend to much time worrying about raising funds and being reelected then actually representing their constitutes. I just hope everyday Americans start a revolution like we saw in 2018. Everyday concerned citizens step up for office or supporting those who did.
1
I believe that America is resilient enough to survive the next two years but can it survive the next six years? With the Democrats once again in disarray and a field of candidates far to the left of the majority I fear that the Trump revolution will continue through 2024, in which case things will never be the same.
6
If you read Jill Lepore's recent history of the United States, Trump seems less a unique force and more of a political outcome of the last forty-fifty years
4
The fact that Mr. Kristoff adds a "probably" is not too assuring.
Trump and McConnell are two of the biggest threats our country has experienced in the last 20 years. There truly is a question as to whether we will survive this threat.
8
What do I think about Trumps White House performance? I wake up everyday thinking this can't be real. It feels like we are in a Hitchcock movie.
9
@concord63 I wake up every morning hoping that Trump's gluttony and unhealthy diet has done him in.
4
It is the erosion of normal standards that concerns me. This started to some degree after Watergate. The public trusted the government far less after Watergate. The GOP began to call for investigations into every president that was a Democrat whether or not those actions were warranted. When the people of the United States elected Barack Obama president twice the GOP refused to work with him despite our voting for him. If there was ever a case to make against the GOP the years from 2008 to 2016 were that case.
America has become a country where our politicians, particularly those in the GOP, are unresponsive to 99% of us. People are angry. Why? We pay taxes, we vote, we try to get our representatives attention but all we get are meaningless statements. The actions they do take don't help us in any concrete way. The best examples of that are the GOP refusal to improve the ACA, Congressional refusal on long term unemployment benefits, the lack of an infrastructure program, and so on down the line.
While the GOP has declared war on 99% of us because we don't make enough to donate large sums of money the Democrats fail as well. They get caught up in defense rather than pointing out what the GOP has done. We, the voters, don't get two decent candidates for president. We don't get action in state houses or DC. We do see politicians making "meaningful" statements but that's it.
Hey guys and gals out there, how about working for US?
5
After watching every excruciating minute of that Michael Cohen hearing, his dire warning was the one thing that stuck out most in my mind.
Why? Because anybody familiar with Donald Trump knows that he is the true embodiment of his mentor, the nefarious Roy Coen, whose M.O. was to never admit defeat and "double-down" when confronted.
There's no reason to doubt Trump won't do this now.
Especially not after striking so many Mephistophelian agreements with everyone in an inner circle which stretches from his administration through the Republican Senate and Justice Department, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Rest assured.
He will not go quietly into the night.
4
Right-wing radio has been talking about a "civil war" existing in the country for a number of years. They cite red flag laws, religious liberty issues like sex education in public school and abortion. In the south I hear "guns and abortion" as the two rallying cries of the Trumpsters. Lots of voices preaching division.
4
Good job they’re gutless and incompetent, eh?
@C Inciting violence is illegal last I checked. Someone in Congress should take them to court.
The "we" that survives (if any survive) will be a very privileged few.
The Story of Mankind: They discovered fire. They learned to put fire on wheels. They burned themselves up.
3
Mr. Kristof, thank you for your chilling acessment. Others in the media have spoken of the slash and burn prospects we face if this president is increasingly immobilized by the arms of the legislative and judicial branches which are surfacing now. One wishes there was an entity supervising the myriad efforts currently at play. I fear it is going to get messy, perhaps scary.
I hear a lot of people who are worried that Trump won't leave office when his term is up. But I ask you, if the man can't even block a merger between two companies, what chance does he have to overthrow our democracy?
3
I do think Trump will contest an election loss. What is concerning is the reaction of the minority of our population who support him-- the entire Republican Party/Fox News. What is concerning is yes, the contagious divisiveness he inflames but also the policies and judges they are installing to create a very non-democratic society. My worry is Trump is a foreshock to a bigger, far more destructive earthquake. We are already governed by oligarchy. What comes next? Either we the people, the majority, take control of government again or we slide into authoritarian rule.
6
It’s hard to separate the assault on American Democracy from the global assault on Democracy which is also being enabled and encouraged by this administration. We do not live in a vacuum and whatever is left of our constitutional system after Trump, we will need to try to rebuild within, and help to revitalize, a dangerously eroded international landscape.
5
The global assault on democracy began long before Trump took office
2
I do hope you are right Mr. Kristof, however my fears center not on “what may be” but “what is” - the Republican demolition of US democracy is hiding in plain sight.
Voter suppression (limiting mail in ballots, shutting down voting sites/days that facilitate minority voter participation, etc.), purging citizens from voter registries, and in NC now clear fraud with nary a peep from the Republican leadership. Admittedly some recent progress to restore voting rights that were eliminated as part of the “War on Drugs” when that focused narrowly on (again) minority groups, but the strong feeling that democracy won’t be allowed if it threatens their power.
Add the destruction of Senate norms by McConnell (see, Garland and SCOTUS) and the Constitutionally granted bias of the Electoral College and we’re heading toward trouble. Does anyone really think Trump is going to accept defeat in 2020 gracefully?!?
10
I wish I had your optimism. There has been no real assault on our institutions yet.
4
Our Constitutional system and Democracy are strong, but not immortal. As has been pointed out multiple times since Trump's election, our Democracy requires adherence to unwritten norms to function well. Trump has ignored these norms and his supporters seem to applaud his anti-democratic actions. Many of those who do not support Trump ascribe his supporters' lack of outrage to an ignorance of the dangers his actions present to our system of governance. While this view may make those in opposition to Trump feel superior, it denigrates those individuals who supported Trump (wrongly in my opinion) in spite of his many obvious flaws. Maybe it is the fact that they do not feel that our system, as currently balanced, provides them with a voice that engendered their support for Trump. For our Democracy to survive, it must work for all in the U.S. and not just those entities who can afford to give large amounts to support election campaigns. While Citizens' United may have been decided along strong Constitutional ground (I feel otherwise), the unintended consequence of this decision is the further weakening the individual's connection to their elected officials and therefore to their government. Along with better education of how our government is supposed to work (i.e., civics) in our schools, we need to change the way we finance elections, including full identification of all non-public donors. Only then will we bring Government more in line with those who are governed.
8
The biggest danger to American Democracy doesn't come from one side or the other. It comes from one side AND the other - the idea of radical activists on either extreme that only their way can salvage the future of America.
Nicholas Kristof can't see that by militating for an aggressive leftward bent in American politics and culture he's as much a danger to Democracy as the Conservatives he cites who talk about risking all for the wall, gun rights and to end abortion.
Meanwhile a couple hundred million people balanced near the middle of the American political spectrum -- work hard, raise families, don't worry much about social issues, want a strong economy, want a government that takes care of the country's business as free of politics as possible -- are being hijacked.
We need Radical Moderates. We need to elect someone who will disavow positions on either extreme without worrying about being called a bigot by the left or a commie by the right. We need to elect a series of national leaders who will promise to govern from as near the exact middle of American Democracy as possible.
3
Wait a minute! It is not Trump who attempted to stage a coup. He won fair and square thanks to the electoral college which worked exactly as designed by the Founders. It was the Dark State with the media in support which is constantly trying to upend our democracy no matter what it takes. Americans in general are very happy with the economy and our capitalist way of life. The media needs to stir things up and ask ridiculous questions to give them something to write about. Clearly the media has reach a new low with their obsession with Trump and their collusion with the Left in attempting to defeat Trump in the upcoming elections. Don’t they know that people like Kristoff only add support to Trump??
52
The electoral college failed. The electoral college function, to allot electoral votes through gerrymandering called states, worked to the detriment of the whole. The electoral college then compounded this failure by ratifying a candidate so completely unfit for office, that two years later the entire country and every ally we have is assessing the continued viability of the United States as a democratic republic and treaty partner in the brotherhood of western democracies.
The electoral college was supposed to be a deliberate check on the election of a threat to our republic, and it failed miserably.
219
If Americans are happy then where does the rage come in? Also, what do you even mean by “deep state”? Who is it? Who runs it? Does it include the press? The democrats? Government employees?
If the deep state is more than half of the population then would that not indicate that democracy is working? Do you agree with atrump the the press is the enemy of the people?
I wish you would provide a little more evidence to back your assertions.
93
@Dan Locker
Its funny how you only hear one voice of Sanity commenting on this article. How did we get to the point where so many people think its DJT who is the threat to our Democracy and not the embedded colluding forces who have sought to bring him down using fake Dossiers secretly paid for by the Left and written by Russians, a 2 year Investigation by the FBI looking for Russian Collusion and now morphing into something else when they come up with nothing??
The only obstruction is coming from the Fractious Democrat Party which panders to its far right constituency who have on blinders.
Why havent any of the disgraced FBI agents and others who sought to commit treason been prosecuted yet?
None of this is lost on those who care more about then country than they dislike DJT.
12
I think Mr. Kristof may be right that what many in the US have come to consider democracy will likely continue, but the bigger question is whether it can be considered democracy at all. The idea that we live in a democracy may be the biggest, most common lie we've absorbed as a nation. We've never been a democracy, but hopefully we can still find our way there.
1
There is only one way to win this election cleanly: word of mouth advertising.
How did the coup work out for Turkey?
1
Perhaps.
We may have dodged the proverbial bullet because the corrupt, narcissistic would-be autocrat is also such a clown.
But — assuming that we do survive the Trump era — this national stress-testing of our democratic institutions should serve as a dire warning:
The NEXT would-be dictator may not be so inept and undisciplined.
5
I hope the columnist is not exaggerating.
I of course fear the worst, Joseph deGenova gun comment scares me.
NK is saying DJT's orders are not all carried out.
That means to me danger.
1
“Almost a quarter of Republicans said in a poll last year that “President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.”
My god. Who are these people and what sort of a country do they want to live in? I see this poll result and see others with a similar thread and simply shudder.
342
@Rob C
I don't think these people have any understanding of how a democracy works. And I don't think they have enough curiosity to learn. In that respect, Trump was and is their ideal candidate.
50
@Rob C
It's insane, but fortunately when you do the math, not as bad as it sounds. Even if republicans make up, say, 48% of the electorate, 25% of that is 12% of the voters. It's the fringe. I admit it's probably grown over the last few years, unfortunately, but there was always about that many people who never thought democracy was a good idea to begin with. One sad thing is that this 12% is spread all over the vast red-state territory. It's not like it's all concentrated in one place. So you have this dispersed infection, as it were.
19
@Owen - "So you have this dispersed infection, as it were."
The scary thing here in East Resume Speed, Utah is that (to paraphrase Jim Morrison): "We've Got The Numbers, But The Dispersed Infection's Got The Guns "
16
Good OpEd, but the 'Probably' part is not reassuring.
72
@ErinsDad There are no guarantees. Democracy requires eternal vigilance, as Jefferson advised. Americans generally don't heed. The TV and the money are too good...
7
In the debates, trump said he would only respect a result if he won (actually, and ominously "we'll see"). He won and has been the worst president in history.
When he (as everyone hopes and perilously assumes) loses in 2020, he'll just say the results are "fake" and he won't go.
What then? Likely a negotiated (secret) exit -- with his family and himself getting pardons. Let's just hope none of the conspiracy mongers get the gun folks to congregate for a shoot in.
68
@Mark Remember the day you said this...president trump is the worst president in history. Then come Jan 2020 ask yourself how on earth did he get re elected.
@Mark Remember when dictators like Duvalier in Haiti, among others, were farmed out to countries who would agree to take them? I wonder who would take Trump.
4
@Mark
No pardons for him and his family. Let justice be done and as a nation - let us pay the cost for that justice. I would prefer to pay that price, than let this evil go unpunished.
9
I agree with all of this, but there's something more. I think another thing propping up American democracy is Americans. Oh sure, there are the 40% of voters that are hypnotized by Trump, believing all his lies, hating everyone that isn't straight, white, and Christian. But the majority has become far more invigorated and involved than they've been in my lifetime, from the fear of Trump and his fascist followers.
There's really no doubt that Trump is an authoritarian person, and that many of his followers want a fascist state. He praises every murderous dictator he encounters, and his fans love it.
But most of America is revolted by his fascist machinations, and they're getting more politically motivated than I've ever seen. In the 2018 election I gave more money to campaigns, called more strangers to get them to vote Democratic, and did whatever I could for nationwide Democratic candidates, more than I ever have. I expect to do even more in 2020 (and a bit in 2019, for whatever's getting elected).
So I think we're not only going to survive this, we're going to be more politically engaged on the other side of it. All that remains is for Trump's followers to be ravaged by his idiotic policies, so that they will abandon him.
5
@Dan Stackhouse. I agree, Americans both in and out of governments. It is people that turn words on paper into actions and people that make institutions reflect our principles and rule of law that propels these principles and reflects justice.
1
Watching the enraptured crowd at CPAC, all swooning and cheering on as this prez spoke in tongue, leaves me reeling as to the outcome of this mess. Fox, Roger Ailes, and the cult they have created defy logic or reason. Only time will tell if they outnumber the rest of us, and that in and of itself is terrifying. This is as though half of our population is as lost as a Jim Jones cult. Politics aside, this is a slice of humanity that hardly registers a blip on the scale of the evolution of man as an upward curve.
6
@Marilyn
A lot of people support Trump because they are delighted "liberals" dislike him. They want to stick it to liberals≥ Because of years of propaganda, they are thrilled to make other people unhappy. That's the goal. It is silly and childish and in actually accomplishes nothing, but that's the way it is.
4
The biggest threat to our Democracy comes from a plutocracy that does not want to pay taxes, and controls the Republican party and right wing media. It is not enough to get rid of Trump.
331
@Mark Thomason
I wish there was a website where someone would have every Senator and Congressperson wearing a bomber jacket with logos for every corporation and Dark PAC that owns them. They would make NASCAR drivers look like amateurs.
Until we rid ourselves of Citizens United, break up the monopolies and tax the wealthy and corporations, we are done for. The only people I trust in politics are the ones who take small contributions from citizens only. These are the only ones to be trusted to lead us out of the wilderness in which we now find ourselves, and these people only exist in one of our two political parties.
I worry 2020 will be the year billionaires buy the election for Trump, we are going to see Dark Money ads like we've never seen before, they are greed personified and know that Trump is for sale.
67
@Mark Thomason Here's the problem with your thesis. In 2016 left-wing purists excoriated Hillary (manipulated, we now know, by the Kremlin -- see the documentary Active Measures) and thus held the door open for Trump and his neofascists. While it's true that Hillary was knee deep in corporate money, with Trump we have corporatism PLUS bigotry PLUS neofascism PLUS wholesale corruption PLUS potential treason. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good, as we did in 2016.
54
@Mark Thomason
There we have it. "...we can't vote for it". Bernie will be the spoiler (again) when he doesn't get the nomination. Dead-enders will "protest" giving us Trump 2.0 and free rein for the plutocrats.
12
Trump Derangement Syndrome. Will we survive? Things will never be the same that is for sure.
2
Know what TDS is?
A (hopefully transient) syndrome in which one slavishly supports a fat greedhead who thinks they’re just another sucker to be fleeced even though their open words as well as their actions demonstrate clearly that that’s exactly what’s going on.
In extreme cases, the sufferer loses the basic cognitive and perceptual ability to notice stuff like zooming debt, trade deficit, and refugee numbers, while insisting that their little tin god’s fixing all of them.
3
@Robert
You do not have to admire Trump to find his opponents disingenuous, opportunistic, and repellent. They are a far greater threat than Trump who poses no threat at all. He is them most transparent President ever really.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/22/mainstream-media-is-literally-making-people-sick/
"We will survive, probably" How did that become your litmus test? Let me repeat something: Donald Trump is our President. When you wake up and Donald Trump is your President, there is no 'probably' in your survival. 'Possibly', perhaps. Seriously, though, a bridge has been assaulted, but not passed. Perhaps President Hannity will pass it.
"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life."
From your lips to God's ears, Mr. Kristoff.
3
Thing is authoritarianism taking over does not require Trump be there.
Consider the evolutionary ISM of genetics.
In a pure form (so called) a species can't adapt.
If it does not eventually it an a lot of others will die.
Trump is a tool, a carrier in disease/virus terms.
1
We have no democracy. Corporations rule. Trump just makes it more fascistic and more prone to violence. If you're looking for Democracy look North or toward Scandinavia nearby countries.
Our generation may live to our normal life-end with only some inconvenience, if you have some money and space.
Our children will be on the move to find a habitable place to live, mostly in vain.
Our grandchildren will be living like rats in sewers, until food runs out.
Call that "survive" if you like.
2
Levitsky and Ziblatt are wrong, DEAD WRONG. Its EASY to kill democracy. Here's how you do it. Gerrymander districts so your people get elected out of proportion to the number of voters who regularly vote for you. Figure out who votes against you and give those neighborhoods fewer polling places, require identification these voters usually don't have and require production of that identification on election day, reduce voting hours and early voting and make it difficult to cast absentee ballots. You know unions are largely against you so make it more difficult for them to organize and operate. Lie to the public about what your policies, especially tax cuts, can accomplish. Use racial dog whistles to attract bigots who wouldn't otherwise vote. Raise obscene amounts of money by loosening regulations upon wealthy campaign contributors. And stuff the courts with compliant judges who will uphold whatever you want to do.
4
@Bob, great post but add this: allow a right wing news station to take over the airwaves, by taking the teeth out of the FCC by eliminating the Fairness Doctrine and other acts that centralize news coverage into something that is most assuredly not "fair and balanced."
1
...aides ignored him...The Justice Department did in fact bring suit to block the merger, but courts foiled Trump and allowed it to go ahead.
But they did not ignore him, did they, the JD in fact did sue to block, so (was it still the Sessions were?) the aides in fact were still Trump's stooges.
The point is, we cannot be too complacent, too sure, that this lawless unindicted felon and his immoral accomplices will not do everything in their power to start in power. Because not staying in power may mean prison or worse.
2
Don't be too sure about the survivability of our democracy. When 46% of the populace support Trump despite the stench of ineptitude, corruption, nepotism, mendacity, conflicts of interest, witness intimidation, obstruction of justice, attacks on the press, authoritarianism, contempt for the law and collusion with a hostile foreign power reeking out of this White House, our system of government is clearly in danger.
6
The real damage of this presidency and Senate is to the courts. The supreme court in particular. People don't seem to be paying attention, or resisting an illegitimate actor stuffing the bench with lunatics - Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will wreck havoc once the far right gets its crazy cases in front of them. We are going to see unfathomable rulings that overturn 200 years of precedent. It's going to be a bloodbath, and there's literally nothing that can be done about it. I predict massive amounts of tax dollars being shifted to the church, and extraordinary rulings that reduce women from second-class citizens to chattel.
2
Like you Mr. Kristoff I am optimistic, but guardedly so. DJT stands for exactly the opposite of what America is and has always been for us and the world. The daily barrage of assaults against every one of our institutions, as well as the lying, underhandedness, and amorality of our president is completely unacceptable, but even worse is the unquestioning support given by Republicans. They have abetted DJT at every point. And even when they know it's wrong. The rot in our democracy can actually kill our democracy if we let actions and attitudes that have surfaced in the last 2 years prevail.
1
Yes, maybe.
In my 71 years I have to say that the hippies, professional wrestling, professional religion have been a bit strange, but, Trump and his brain-locked cult are by far the strangest.
3
Oh boy, AT&T and Time Warner were allowed to merge; now that's a real triumph for democracy! Three cheers for the red white and blue! Trump was right on this, but for all the wrong reasons of course.
1
But would it have survived if Trump weren’t an incompetent, third-rate mob boss wannabe?
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The Republicans have won the popular vote once in my lifetime, yet 3/7 Presidential terms have been theirs. Congress is even worse.
Our democracy won’t survive because it’s not even alive. The institutions you refer to are just the institutions of state, not democracy. The one democratic institution that is meant to hold the President accountable - Congress - utterly failed every test for two years.
And what good is any of this if our water is poisoned, our lands are burning, our coasts are flooding, and vital (i.e., food-supporting) ecosystems collapsing?
3
Ultimately it is Trump's own ignorance and incompetence that prevents him from being the authoritarian thuggish leader he so clearly longs to be.
But my fear is that in the future someone more skilled and wily, but with the same inclinations will appear.
Will our democracy survive that? Dick Cheney mentioned during his time in office that "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter", he was speaking electorally. My stated fear at that time was that a future nefarious administration would look back on the extra-legal shenanigans of Bush/Cheney and decide that the constitution doesn't matter.
1
Yes, we’ll survive. The bigger question is: At what cost? So much long term damage has already been done and more is being disclosed every day. Truly patriotic Americans are caught between being too polite while unintentionally being too compliant as their opponents steadfastly condone un-American and illegal acts including treasonous consorting with our worst sworn enemies.
The continuous stoking of hatred and violence designed to divide and destroy us is reaching its boiling point with only the truth, the law and the power behind them to protect us.
1
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.Just in case,of course...
I'll be quite happy to take the pollyannaish view when this threat is gone. But I fail to see the value in encouraging anyone to "take a deep breath" and relax about all of this. If anything we should be getting out in the streets if we care about the republic and its constitution. Vigilance is called for. It's like the doctor saying "yeah, you're a little tumor-ish, might be cancer, but ya know, let's just take it easy, relax, your body is strong, so check back later and let me know if you are still alive".
This opinion piece is highly irresponsible. We are under the clearest imminent threat on multiple fronts that this republic has been under since the confederacy attempted secession. And those dudes were trying to secede, not overthrow the north. "trump" intends to overthrow our republic and it's as plain as the nose on your face. He couldn't be more painfully obvious. Ignore him at yours, mine, OUR peril. So don't tell me to relax. Your efforts would be better utilized to encourage all of us to get activated, Mr. Kristof.
3
Timothy Snyder's prescient little book, "On Tyranny," was published as Donald Trump was redecorating the Oval Office in his best Versailles-wannabe fashion. My copy is now dog-eared, the binding a mess and so many sentences/phrases/quotes highlighted and underlined (with accompanying margin notes) that it would be almost un-readable for anyone else.
Of the many insightful points he makes about how democracies crater into autocratic/authoritarian rule, none was as disconcerting to me as his critique of what he terms "the politics of inevitability"; i.e., the historical notion adopted by Americans that the end of fascist movements, the demise of Nazi dictatorial rule and the collapse of communist totalitarianism in the mid- to late-20th century implied the inevitable progress of liberal democracy.
"The politics of inevitability," he notes, is, as we have so painfully discovered in such a short period of time, "a self-induced intellectual coma."
The teleological paradigm we must adopt is that neither history nor the future is inevitable. The illusion we must cast aside is that linear progress toward a defined future for liberal democracy is certain. And we must understand that those who spoke of "eternal vigilance" being "the price of liberty" were not, first and foremost, speaking of "vigilance" against external enemies of liberty but of "vigilance" against internal forces that would take advantage of liberty to bring it to an end.
1
We may survive. Many species have not. Many species are not, directly because of the Republican party that is overjoyed to find a clownish president to push their agenda of greed and extinctions.
1
Don't bet the farm on it Mr. Kristof. There are tens of millions of voters that actually don't want democracy. They prefer their type of dictator. Trump fits the bill.
1
I disagree with Mr. Kristof's description of the "Land of the Free" as a democracy. It is no such thing. An oligarchy? Yes. A kleptocracy? Probably. More democratic than China? Yes, but spare the false comparisons to countries at the other end of the spectrum (China, Venezuela, Cuba, etc).
Trump is a one off. The rotted structure and rancid culture that vomited him up into the presidency is the problem.
2
Donald Trump has become a tiresome figure on the world stage. He is the only one who doesn't realize that his so-called Brand and Family now stands for the lowest quality imaginable (on all possible levels, including the symbolic). In marketing terms, Trump's brand is in decline -- and because he is such a morbidly "tiresome" persona without any redeeming qualities, -- so true --, he is dead in the water along with the entire so-called Family which all suffer from the same Boredom Factor. Genuinely well educated world citizens, Americans included, see the truth. Trump accidentally became president and he thought he could fake it or "buy" respect, but as has been the case his entire life, Trump's Chops are just not all that attractive or interesting. He is the most BORING public persona and we are all sick to death of him. His so-called "Fan Base" can have him all to themselves on a private radio show, but the majority of the world wouldn't mind if he disappeared into warranted obscurity. BORING.
What worries me most about our prospects is the fact that a great many Americans are being relentlessly peddled the idea that I hate them.
That is intolerable compared to just being hated.
There is a simple argument about the role of government that has had class, race, religion, geography, and vast amounts of money injected into it. It’s become radioactive.
For me, watching Fox News is frightening. To sit in your living room and see a story told endlessly about liberals’ campaign against “the folks” is remarkable. Bill O’Reilly spun gold out of that yarn.
A fine distillation of such messaging appeared last October in a Wall Street Journal opinion column by David Gelernter. Titled “The Real Reason They Hate Trump,” its subhead argued, “He’s the average American in exaggerated form - blunt, simple, willing to fight, mistrustful of intellectuals.”
Gelernter sees a noble Trump cleaving the country into two camps: “plain average Americans of every type vs. fancy ones.”
Deeper in the mire, he asks, “Is it possible to hate Donald Trump but not the average American?”
Not in his expert opinion. “I believe that the Trump-hater truly does hate the average American - male or female, black or white. Often he hates America, too.”
Gelernter, tribune of the common man, is a professor at Yale University in his spare time.
2
Even after all we’ve seen Der Trumpenfuhrer has 45% support. That’s a problem. That’s a HUGE problem.
1
Oh gee... I saw the headline and I thought this was about Global Warming! I thought Mr. Kristof would tell me something that would ease my mind.
Instead he treats me to Joseph DiGenova, "a prominent conservative commentator on Fox News" who says: “As I say to my friends, I do two things — I vote and I buy guns.”
OK, never heard of the loon. I go to wikipedia and I find out that that he was born in 1945 and he is "an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988. He is known for promoting conspiracy theories about the Department of Justice and the FBI."
Well guess what? I vote, and I do considerably more than two things in my life. I don't own a gun these days other an an Arisaka 99 my grandfather brought back from WW II.
And I don't know what to say to Mr. Kristof ... or Mr. DiGenova, or to any of the people who listen to him on FOX and voted for Trump.
Maybe the first thing would be "how about we get along and we obey the constitution?"
But then I need to say something: That grandfather had a saying that went "Always call a man 'Sir.' Butters him up real good ... doesn't make him any more bullet proof if it comes to it."
I've sworn an oath to the constitution. I've held a security clearance. I've worked in the nuclear weapons complex. I'm a trained pilot, flown military airplanes, am still current and flying at age 67. I could transition into an A-10 very quickly if need be.
Stop talking stupid.
3
More people have voted against him than for him so far every time out of the gate. As long as our large Great Cities stand they are not going to stand with him. Of course the percentage of non-whites who do not find him a racist is one of the smallest books ever printed. A great many women find him more and more offensive as he denigrates and belittles them while insisting he has always given them a fair shake. All of these crazed liberals vote - and twenty guesses how their votes are going to fall. As I write this the GOP Senate is rebuking him, making it all of Congress giving the thumbs down. And this little remembrance from our past - it made NO difference who the Democrats nominated after the most unpopular (to then) and most destructive "leader" of this century. Bush tarred the GOP with repeated failures and the country would have elected anything or anyone who had none of his credentials or following. The same scenario will unfold- - it does not matter who..
Good Op-ed. So well writen and argued, that I posted it to by blog InconvenientNews. But, I was still disappointed by a man who rarely disappoints. The title, "Will We Survive? Probably" got me all excited, since I thought the piece would be about Climate Change. It was only about Drumpf. The day is not lost. I found today in the back pages of the NYT, a piece in the Business Section by Kendra Pierre-Louis, The World Is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm- Study Finds.
That is an important article. And, I am still savoring, and despairing, over the piece 2/17 by David Wallace-Wells, "Time to Panic." He suggests that If you are not alarmed about climate change, you maybe aren't well informed.
There is a big question, about whether We Will Survive.
x
David Lindsay Jr. is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion,” and blogs at TheTaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com. He performs folk music and stories about Climate Change and the Sixth Extinction.
1
Well, he might well end up being President for life.
At his age and with his risk factors, there is a chance that he could suffer a heart attack or a stroke within the next 2 years.
He may yet cheat us all and never have to face the music for what he has done to America.
"Trump won't manage a coup and he seems more likely to end up a felon than a president for life".
As my mother used to say, from your lips to God's ear.
2
The concerns about Trump not vacating office when impeached or defeated are nonsense.
Most Trump supporters are just ignorant, not violent or anti-democratic. The angry white nationalists and trolls get much more attention than merited.
One important example: Many cite Trump's Twitter feed as evidence of the cadre or angry folks who will rise up in arms if he is convicted or rejected. I entertain myself every day by reviewing his Tweets. This is among the benefits of retirement.
He has 58.9M followers. OMG, people exclaim, he can control the narrative and arouse a revolution. Not.
Click on any absurd Tweet (which means you can pick any Tweet) and read the responses. 80-90% are hilarious rebuttals of whatever nonsense the buffoon spewed. Most of Trump's Twitter followers are doing what I do. Amusing themselves and using the opportunity to ridicule him.
If anything, his constant Tweeting serves as reminders of what a fool we have in the White House.
The fear is unjustified. The bully-in-chief and his roughneck rally attendees couldn't take over the Des Moines city council, much less the United States of America.
2
Give me a break. In just over two years, the president has converted the court (with the treachery of McConnell) into a permanent reactionary bulwark, has co-opted the Senate into his lap dog, and has created a brown shirt movement nationwide. He has abased every government institution and has permanently damaged our relationships with other nations, alienating our friends and emboldening our enemies.
Don't tell us this is how it's supposed to work.
We may survive as a democracy, but only if we get a president of the caliber of Washington, Lincoln, or Obama in 2021. Even then, it won't be an easy lift.
1
@Justin
Going on the basis that the 2020 election brings in a Democratic president and Congress...the remaining Republicans will do the same thing they did during Obama's two terms...disrupt and sabotage in every possible way...Fox News will spew their venom every hour of every day no mater how well the Democrats govern. Abe Lincoln said it best: "A house divided can not stand"...at the risk of loosing our country ...the Republicans and the Democrats must start working together...like the most recent meeting regarding the wall and opening the government.
Donald Trump wants what he wants when he wants it and it does not matter to him whether you like it or not.
That type of attitude does not work well in a Democracy. Donald Trump does not seem to work well in a Democracy. He seems to be falling back to his way of doing things as president of the Trump Organization. And how is that going for him.
1
Trump is a symptom, not the problem. He’s an opportunist and a narcissist who happens to be the current face of the GOP, but he’s incidental, if quite damaging to our place on the world stage.
No, the bigger problem is the festering sore that is white supremacy, exploited by oligarchs, Trump cronies, and Wall St. to maintain their continued looting of the Treasury.
Our next Democratic President, God willing, will be kept busy sweeping up the mess The GOP enables, instead of moving the country forward to a prosperous and healthy future for all before its too late. Something about Rome burning and fiddles come to mind...
1
I am sure that the conspiracy theorists will have multiple field days coming up with ways in which our democracy will be destroyed; there probably are quite a few of them in 'comments' already. But in addition to the inherent resiliency in American democracy, I think there is another reason to not fear that Trump will initiate a coup. And that's because, deep down, he is a coward. Sure, he blusters and fumes and fans the fanatical flames of his base, but it's all just bluster and posturing.
As Gertrude Stein might say it, when it comes to Trump and resolve, there is nothing there there.
1
The Resistance should use its legal right to buy weaponry, too. Just in case. I am not confident that those John Bolton once called “the great unlettered and unwashed” will not respond to a more intelligent demagogue.
If impeached, Trump should consider it just another of his bankruptcies, shrug, and then move on to his next failure. Poor little rich boy.
OK. But I’m not feeling any solace yet. When we have a goon-squad GOP party that celebrates ignorance and anti-intellectualism coupled with the propaganda fueled fascism of Fox News and unregulated social media fueling intolerance and hate (which affects how adults and especially teenagers think) I am not yet convinced we’ll hold.
1
"I vote and I buy guns."
Prepare yourself for the day when they lose and no longer pretend to care about voting or its outcome. Consider the genuine intent of the 2nd Amendment and then consider how well this moment illustrates the necessity of careful preparation.
Malheur. Charlottesville. Mad bombers living in vans. Veneration of the Confederacy. The worst people, the "me first" folks, the people we supposedly ignored are telling us who they are. Be ready for when they decide they're done talking.
The threat isn’t a coup, but of domestic terror, assasinating pols and keeping voters and citizens from participating. Think the KKK, or the militias that were training when Bill Clinton was president, or the bombings of clinics. It’s not like the US is too good for that, obviously.
All it will take is a comment from Trump, something like the remark he made about “second amendment remedies” if Hillary won, and it will happen. All they need is the word. And he’ll do it. People are going to die. It’s only a question of how many and to what effect.
1
ABH yields to no 1 in his admiration for author's derring do, willingness to go anywhere to defend a worthy cause, like facing the Janjaweed MILITIAS in southern Sudan, raising money for sole "medecin" there, Dr. Caetano who ministers to a population suffering from malnutrition. Bravo, but I question assertion our vox populi has led assault on institutions like the intel. community, and I challenge him to read works of Marr, Lane, Garrison, Prouty and others who r "d'accord "that LBJ, in cahoots with J. Edgar Hoover, Mcloy, mil. industrial complex, Texas oil billionaires inter alios staged a coup d'etat in '63 resulting in assassination of JFK who sought reforms and an end to our involvement in VN, so profitable to mil. industrial complex which stood to make billions if the war continued, which it did under Johnson who knew that only with JFK's death could be become president himself. Author of MACBIRD , a satire blaming LBJ for JFK's death remarked that his involvement in the slaying was just 1 of many crimes she could not forgive him for.0ur vox populi, to my knowledge, has criticized the politicization of our intel. services, but has never sought end of the Republic, nor deaths of political rivals. TRUMP is a democrat just like you and me, and I devine, sense in your attacks on The Donald jealousy, arrogant belief that how dare he, a roughneck from Queens, an outsider, pose a threat to the establishment. U do not read enoughMr. Kristof! U need to read more!
2
Mr. Kristoff, Grandma used to say, "from your mouth to God's ear." Having been an avid observer of the Nixon debacle in the 1970's, I admit to being more than a little fearful as I read, watch, and listen to today's news. I think much of it is horrific, and while I think it's often just paranoid hyperbole, at the end of the day, I am deeply disturbed with the changes taking place in my country. I do believe the 2018 elections, however, were a hopeful sign. Like Mr. Kristoff, I think Trump will end up a felon. Like Grandma said....
Your closing words to god’s ear
I like your conclusion!
I appreciate the optimism. May I caution that as with the climate threat, sometimes hope is all one can have. The planet has probably already passed the tipping point as evidenced by boiling methane lakes in the Arctic permafrost. When I was young the ozone crisis scared the tartar sauce out of me and carbon emissions came up, LA smog, droughts, air pollution. I learned men had been discussing these things since the 19th C.
This is like a bad dream of a slow-motion plane crash that will end in blackness. The human population will bottleneck and go back to the dark ages. Good luck with getting the library that Isreal sent into space when living in caves. The only good news is for the folks that have the right genetic mutations to remain adept during famine and repeated calamity. They will breed prolifically. I doubt this is the same genetic material represented in congress or on Wall Street. It will be an ironic outcome. Perhaps I will live to see it, if not certainly my kids. Like the Gorrillaz song, the future is coming on. In fact, it’s he-ere!
Come along for the ride, if you will:
July 7, 2017
Putin and trump meet. Everyone is barred except for the interpreters.
President Trump, I propose that is in our best interests that you remain in power. Should your enemies defeat you, on Nov. 3, 2020 - here is what I propose we do....
Oct. 20, 2020
Russian forces amass tanks and troops on the border with Poland. Two polish airlines are downed by Russian missiles. Russia expels all US diplomats from its territories due to spying and meddling in Russian affairs.
Nov. 2, 2020
Trump goes on air, "My fellow Americans. As you know Russia is on a war footing with a NATO country and has shown aggression towards the USA. We have reason to believe that Russia has plans to hack into our highly computerized voting system and skew the results in favour or Mr Hickenlooper in order to force a change of leadership which would occasion a governmental transition. It is during transition that the US is at its most vulnerable. Thus, my fellow Americans, I have conferred with my attorney General and I am issuing an executive order to postpone Tuesday's election, until such time as tensions in Eastern Europe have lessened. My cabinet has provided proof of Russia's intentions to a few media outlets - Fox News and the National Enquirer. These are dangerous times, but fear not, there has never been a stronger and more stable President than me.
Good night.
And please keep shopping.
1
Oh, from the headline I thought you were talking the actual survival issue facing the country and human species, the destruction of the natural world. Never mind, carry on fiddling.
If he has not seen it, Mr. Kristof would do well,to screen the documentary short “A Night at the Garden “, which is about an American/Nazi rally in February 1939 in Madison Square Garden. The theme of the evening was “American Nationalism “ (not National Socialism ) and existing along with the Swatzikas and uniformed teenagers in attendance , was the slogan, “Make America Great“ .
I do think that America has the ability to heal itself from the cancers that it sustains every 40 to 50 years or so but let’s not also overestimate our ability to deal with such a violent and flagrant disregard for the rule of law as we have seen with Donald Trump. Sometimes the only way to deal with a tyrant is to get rid of him, legally of course, but nonetheless decisively.
Survival is not about Trump. We all need to stop burning fossil fuels right now or the whole human project is down the toilet.
The focus on Trump is disheartening. Republicans support evil, yet are still the leaders of everything. Liberals with voices shoot spitballs into the wind.
The idea of “norms” protecting the rule of law from abnormal people defines itself as ridiculous. Trump is an abnormal person in every sense of the word and he has show us in all his abnormality the flaws in our assumptions that “ people would never do something like that”. All of the “norms” that trump has violated need to be codified by statute and laws must be created to protect us from abnormal people because no matter how abnormal Trump is, there is someone out there who is worst, believe it or not.
The CNN threat alone is grounds for impeachment. It is absolutely the worst example of abuse of the presidency since Nixon threatened his enemies with the IRS. He took an oath to "protect and defend" the First Amendment, not to nullify it. And that's JUST ONE of Trump's myriad crimes. Are we nothing but a nation of cowards?
2
"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life."
While I certainly hope you are correct, I equally fear that he will manage a coup, and that his declaration of an "emergency" for his stupid wall is a dress rehearsal> He will find a way to declare martial law, or nullify the 2020 election, if he even allows it to happen. Or perhaps we'll just have Civil War II.
Am I an alarmist? Perhaps, or perhaps just someone who has learned that history, while it may not repeat, does rhyme - and the rhyme scheme is way too close to Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Also remember: alarmists are always right eventually - and this sure seems like "eventually" right now.
Hey, I’m from North Carolina. Can we get some of that Democracy down here? Sounds kinda cool.
1/4 of Republicans want the President to shut down news outlets? I bet it’s more. No wonder Republicans consistently attack public schools; ignorance is power.
Thank you Nicholas for your optimism. I wish I felt that way. We have been damaged so seriously by Putin, his troll farms, this sick administration, and his puppet Trump. I know we will never regain our standing in the world, we will never be looked up to again. Maybe we will turn something around or just be a warning to others...
1
those who think President Trump should "close down" newspapers and broadcasters clearly have no idea what our democracy is all about. they think the President is a dictator or king, or would be happer if he were, and that a free press should be shut down to achieve an end too horrible to contemplate. 20% of Republicans polled ADMITTED to these beliefs! maybe it's time to resurrect HUAC and investigate the most unAmerican organization around today: the traitorous Republican Party.
The rubber meets the road when trump defies court rulings in favor of subpoenas issued by the House. What happens then? Do we send in a SWAT team to get the documents? He doesn’t give a fig about the rule of law, and as the noose tightens ever more around his neck, he appears capable of just about anything to try and save it. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet.
Anyone who doubts the alarmist exaggerations offered too often daily in the Times regular columns ought to read the well-informed column in the Times today, “Canadian Politics Aren’t Cute. They’re Corrupt” by Jen Gerson, a contributing editor to McClean’s magazine, and compare it to the baseless Opinion piece “Thank God for Canada! Our boring neighbor is a moral leader of the free world” Feb. 6, 2019 by Nicholas Kristof. Yes, Kristof calls the Trudeau government the “moral leader of the free world” in the midst of the scandal that Gerson details. So we may take “We will Survive. Probably with a grain of salt.”
Our journals of opinion that cater to upper class careerists have long needed their conventional wisdom challenged, not as here, reassured. For too long our government and private institutions have worked for top 1 percent economic class to reinforce the status quo in our society, to protect the stability and historic inequality of the acquisition of wealth, by reinforcing lanes of class, race and gender inequality. Trump did not invent discrimination, elitism, and misogyny at the FBI, the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon and in government. Attempts to make him a bogey man threatening our democratic institutions are as simplistic as the Kristof column extolling Canada’s government as morally superior to Trump’s. If Trump is our moral opponent, the bar is too low even if we defeat him.
1
The things Trump is saying about the 2020 election seem to be treasonous in that hey are selling out our country to a bunch of anti-democrats (with a small d). He is certainly breaking his oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. He should be impeached and arrested. And ashamed.
Well, it survived Obama. So I’m sure Trump won’t be a problem.
2
Pangloss much, Mr. Kristoff?
We don't have a democracy when the banksters who destroyed the economy in 2008 not only go scot free, but continue to live high on the hog. And just today, we read that they and their ilk are being issued an invitation to pillage and sack the average American once again.
So Trump is hardly the first indicator that we are in trouble. It has long been this way, at least since Reagan, and maybe Nixon. There is one law for the ultra wealthy, and another for Joe six-pack.
The ability to post comments like this to the NYT is meaningless when despite those comments we are being eviscerated in every other way.
What we have is a kleptocracy.
Since the 2016 election I have been in a spiraling state of despair for our country, As a lifelong Republican, I have anguished over the deterioration of the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower into the party of authoritarian trump kleptocrats and grifters. Much credit goes to Justice Kennedy for his Citizens United and to Murdoch for his Goebbels News network. But just yesterday l saw a glimmer of hope. A woman I know from a typical salt of the earth, Alabama blue collar family of trump voters had stopped in front of a television playing highlights from the CPAC asininity. She looked at me and said “there’s something wrong with that man.” A rare ray of hope.
1
but we won't survive climate change.
1
Hilliary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes. The horror show that sits in the White House should never of happened. Period.
Voting for the person....not the political party....
Whom can the electorate trust.....???....that is who is not
going to be representing special interests of those who are
funding their campaigns.
I do not trust anyone who is beholden to Super Pac money.
either the DEMS or the GOP....not at this point. …
Who is running who wants to get rid of Citizens United.???
Maybe it is time for an Independent to be elected....maybe Bernie;
maybe someone who has been a respected Governor..
like Bill Weld....but those who pander to the media...well
that's not what the nation needs or wants....no more media
hype about the 2020 election...just need to clean up Trump's mess...and kick out the phony GOP in D.C.
I fervently hope Individual-1 will be in a Federal penitentiary by January 20, 2021.
But, if not, I would certainly love to watch him being dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming by Federal troops, the Secret Service, or whoever gets the duty, when the newly inaugurated POTUS #46 arrives at the front door.
I hope every major television stations carries the spectacle live. The talking heads of FAUX News, of course, will be showing a replay of the 2017 inauguration to their credulous viewers, and assuring them it's Individual-1's second inaugural.
I hope Kristof is right overall, but disagree with much of his analysis. Remember the last weeks of the 2016 campaign, when Trump claimed, without proof, that if he lost it would be because Democrats were stealing the election. After winning in the E.C., Trump still made the absurd claim that millions of illegal aliens voted or he would not have lost the popular vote by more than 3 million. Both attempts sought to undermine trust in how we elect presidents.
1933 Germany, the 'Reductio Ad Hitlerum' analogy, is cited and dismissed. A better historical analogy is how FDR sought to pack the Supreme Court when SCOTUS stopped many New Deal programs. Trump/McConnell have now packed the Court (RBG - Please hang on, we need you!).
Guns of the Right are mentioned, and dismissed, but our CIvil War happened.
Finally, the 2018 results are NK's 'proof' we will be OK, but those were state-wide, not national, votes and if a coup comes, not from Fox's Deep State but from the Right, it will be to resist a Democrat from ever taking office. That may come from declaring a State of Emergency to stop the 2020 election taking place at all in response to a manufactured crisis. Trump could then issue a 'Reichstag Fire Decree' policy (my Hitler analogy) to crush all opposition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree
1
Try to imagine Trump standing politely next to his victorious rival at the inauguration in 2021.
Try.
148
@Prof. If he loses, he would never attend. Tradition and national interest mean less than nothing to Trump.
22
@Prof
I envision him being on a flight to a country with no extradition treaty with the US.
22
@Prof
If trump loses he's going to be responding to indictments and the real threat of jail. He'll either leave the country or hole up in his compound with his attorneys.
13
American democracy has been gone for years, long before Trump arrived. Several years ago, President Jimmy Carter said so himself. "The United States no longer has a functioning democracy." He was correct to say so then, and things have only become worse.
1
We are a minority-run country and we will continue to be so unless drastic changes are made to our system, including the elimination of the electoral college, the elimination of the two-senator system for every state, the requirement that everyone must vote, the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine, the investigation in every state of gerrymandering, the elimination of allowing Supreme Court Judges lifetime membership, and reducing the powers of the president.
We have Donald Trump because we also have a state-run media outlet that includes Fox News and a host of far right radio and TV personalities that spew their rhetoric to millions of people each day, not unlike the state-run media depicted in the book 1984 that depressed man's individuality. We have a celebrity president, a grifter-real estate mongol who was elected by the reality-TV generation who is supported whole-heartedly by the Republican base. This formula could work again in 2020 and beyond.
4
Nick,
You need to watch Trump and FOXNews more. He is not attempting to expand his base; he is simply doubling down and making them more enraged. They watch Fox news, and hear only his view of the facts. When he loses in 2020, the call will go out to his fully enraged base to protect him and our nation from the orchestrated coup of the deep state and the socialists. Even if only 2% of his supporters answer his call, he will have 1 million armed militiamen coming to "his" White House to occupy and defend it.
Will the military order their troops to fire on the White House and its 1 million defenders? How many of the troops will obey that command? It really doesn't matter--we will have our "Civil War."
1
I believe that historians and political scientists will see, when their histories and analyses are complete, long after Trump is (thankfully) gone, that this present American era, this moment of Trump, has been a period of much needed change and renewal, that we learned things about our country and ourselves we’d not known about without a Trump to play off of, to oppose. One thing Trump taught me, and I’m ashamed to admit this, but how cavalier I was about American Democracy, how easily I took our noble system of government for granted. It took a face-to-face with a Trump to show me how hollow and denatured my democratic spirit had become. Today, because of Trump and his political and businessman ilk, I am more patriotic and more a citizen than since my boyhood days when I was a flag waving, proud to be an American, Boy Scout. That feels both good and right.
2
Surrendering democracy is a choice. So far, 63 million have so chosen.
65
@Max & Max
63 million out of 325 million is small minority. We will beat them in 2020.
3
Democracy has been in peril many times before 2019. The Revolution from England, our Civil War between Northerners (the Union) and Southerners (The Confederacy), and World Wars I and II which scorched earth in Europe and Asia.
The peril we're facing now is terrible. Our 45th president, Donald Trump, is whipping up and leading the forces against Democracy. We remember our past and the totalitarianisms that failed.
The road ahead is unpredictable, but frightening. Rosie the Riveter, is gone with the wind. In Rosie's stead, Gen Y Congressmen and women who are ignorant of world history are the thin edge of the peril wedge.
25
@Nan Socolow Please do not underestimate us. We the people are sick of the Trump clan and their buddies running this country into the ground. Hard as it might be, the media reports regarding Trump's reluctance to leave our White House is most likely true, however, what is also true, is the word on the street. More Americans than not are disgusted by Trump and are vowing to vote him out of office. I put my faith in my fellow Americans. In the end, Trump will be disappointed by having to leave the people's House, but he'll get over it. Something tells me he's known disappointment before.
3
"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life."
He won't be either of those things. I think there's a pretty good chance he loses in 2020, and should he prattle on about rigged elections or whatever, I don't see any of our governing institutions standing by an unpopular president that just lost an election. And should he win? Well, he gets to retire in 2024 thinking he was the best president ever.
As for the felon part - well, have you ever seen any of our elites pay the cost for criminal malfeasance? We invaded Iraq based on lies. We ran a torture program. The big banks crashed the economy in '08. How many people involved in any of those things are doing time? America has a different system of justice for the powerful.
1
Fear is our greatest enemy. What is the worst that can happen to us? Well, we all die and our species can be wiped out by climate change. Those on social security and medicare as I am can live under a bridge as those benefits are lost, but perhaps I will get to know many of those Trump supporters who will be my neighbors under the bridge. Perhaps all those who stuck up for President Obama will be jailed for 'anti government' activities. And worst of all I might lose the NYT as it is forced to close down for those same faults. Fear not. People actually do survive in third world countries.
Grim you say, but these are the worries taken to the extreme that seem to underlie many comments here. And I suspect even Trump supporters share them from a different perspective. The fear in this country can destroy us as quickly as actual events, but breathe, go on and pray that our vote will count. There seems nothing else to do.
1
I spent almost my entire working career serving my country as a member of the Foreign Service with the US Department of State. My husband and I were so excited to finally move back to the US after spending 25 years overseas. There were many times that I had to serve under administrations and promote policies because that was what I was hired to do; the State Department did not care about my personal views. I understood this and no matter what I personally felt about the standing President and his policies, I respected him and the government for which he stood.
In the past five years, I have been sickened by the decisiveness of my country. Mr. Kristol, your viewpoints do not reflect mine nor probably all of the Americans who voted for President Trump. Your arrogance, as reflected in your writings, perfectly symbolizes a lack of respect toward individuals who do not share your beliefs. How sad that this sickness plagues our government and society today.
19
@Joan Odean. It is impossible to summon respect for those who seek to abolish freedom of the press and to reduce the constitutional separation of powers to something less than lip service. I may give them courtesy, even kindness, but no American who advocates ideas at such odds with basic American values deserves my respect.
108
@Joan Odean Do not forget that we have a President that feeds on conflict. He deliberately berates, belittles, and insults his opponents. He shows no respect for anyone that opposes the direction he wants to take the country. He ignores facts and will not provide good rationale for his decisions. He acts more like a King than a president. He makes no attempt to unite the people of this country. Why should you be surprised by the way people who oppose him act? He shows them no respect so they show no respect back to him.
77
@Joan Odean
I'm sick of the divisiveness too.
It has been established that many trump supporters like his vengeful acts and voted him in to inflict pain on democrats, liberals, educated people, anyone who isn't white, and women. As one person said when confronted with the pain trump supporters are suffering over his trade wars, "he's hurting the wrong people". The tax cut bill punishes people in mostly democratic areas on purpose.
There's no room in a decent family, community, town, city, state or country for people like that.
It's hard to respect people who want to inflict pain on people they don't even know.
60
Everything is relative. Your view of Trump's tougher treatment of Russia has to be measured against Putin's new arms, his aggressive posture towards Eastern Europe (including cyber warfare), his continuing cyber attacks against the US and his support for Maduro in Venezuela. I believe Putin thinks he has Trump right where he wants him, sounding tougher but doing nothing.
Mr. Kristof, as painful as it is to read and hear, it is good, honorable, right and fair to mention fascism, Nazis, and other terms in relation to Mr. Trump.
The institutions that he attacks are the pillars of our country, and
he attacks them relentlessly. My fear is that not enough of the country is paying attention. Not enough of us have experienced the years of World War II, or even read its history, so not enough of us are able to see the similarities between Trump and the mad dictator. I saw the picture of the crowd that Trump was wooing with his flag hug. Their faces had the same expressions shown in pictures that Hitler's crowds wore when he spoke to them at his rallies in the 30's.
We should all understand that the president is a dangerous threat
to our world. We should all be aware that these are perilous times and we should take nothing for granted about our future.
Nancy Pelosi sees the picture clearly when she says "Either we are a team, or we are not". She is not afraid of the bully president. She's a woman of courage and principle, one of the true heroes in our country today.
5
It’s a betting opportunity, kids!
Let’s make it simple: United States of America or Not
I’ll put my home and family on the table. What will you bet?
The author ends on what he says is a note of reassurance, but I followed the link cited in the second to last paragraph and found this: “almost a third of the American people (29%) agree with the idea that “the news media is the enemy of the American people,” including a plurality of Republicans (48%).” This is hardly reassuring.
73
If you are looking for a tell as to how 2020 will unfold, it won't come until after the GOP primaries.
I sometimes try and imagine what McConnell and gang are really thinking. I know that they love their power but do they really love Trump? Do they really trust him? Would they love to rid their party of his ilk?
Mitch won't openly challenge Trump until his prospects for re-election are more secure. And then, a great deal of how he will react will come down to where we are at that window in time. How well will Americans be doing? How will is the economy going? How is Trump doing with swing voters?
Either way, we are still well over a year out before the crystal ball becomes less murky.
Our nation and the environment can survive two more years of Trump. My concern is that there will be an unfair election in 2020, because the United States and the entire planet would be destroyed by an increasingly cancerous Trump's second term. We must protect everyone's right to vote and the security of our voting machines!
I love your optimism Mr. Kristof, but have you been to Fox News lately? Have you read their comments section? Have you noticed the coordinated messaging between the Administration, Republican lawmakers, their media outlets, and their 40 million willfully credulous and spiteful followers?
I wouldn't be so optimistic if I were you...
1
I can think of two scenarios and they are all up to the Democrats: (1) The Democrats run an unlikable liberal who comes across as out-of-touch and unlike most Americans (much like Hillary Clinton) - and Trump wins reelection (wins the electoral college again, loses popular again) in spite of everything he's done - and we creep that much closer towards a soft-fascism and the ultimate result of his rule - a dumbing down of our republic and a future Trump-like leader with more fascist substance; or (2) The Democrats run a likable centrist like Joe Biden and Trump loses (the electoral college by two states and the popular by a lot), and quickly begins fretting about the potential for criminal prosecutions in places like New York. A few weeks before inauguration he leaves a letter of resignation with a lawyer and slips away from his security detail and boards a private jet for a non-extradition country (possibly Russia) and spends the rest of his life living large on the lamb.
Rome survived Caesar. But he doomed it.
77
@Jan Which was later reformulated into the Catholic Church, securing Rome's wealth and influence to this day. If we go the way of the Romans, looks like Handmade's Tale will turn out to be prophecy.
8
Always the voice of compassion, and often of reason and calm. Thank you. Now, here’s the beef : Trump is like a carrier of communicable disease, spreading and amplifying the effects.
Not the originator, that would be FOX, AM Radio, and various FAR Right Wing “ groups “ and PACs. Their is currently no effective Vaccine, the best treatment is tincture of Time. When a certain threshold of his Fans break their fever and wake up, the contagion will be stopped. It’s all about the numbers, and getting out the VOTE. Speaker Pelosi terrifies Him, probably the first Woman to do so since his Mother. Let her lead, ignore his tantrums and theatrics, and laugh at him. That always slays a Bully. An overgrown, overblown, soon to be overthrown BULLY.
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Quote attributed to Winston Churchill:
"We can trust the Americans to do the right thing.....but only after they've exhausted every other alternative first."
This is very true, we are well past the midway point in this election cycle but there is not a day that goes by when I am not scratching my head at the absurd hypocrisy we are living in. If convicted does Trump get a library, secret service, and private assistant for life? That doesn’t seem fair. Will all Dems running for 2020 pledge to not pardon anyone associated with this syndicate? I sure hope so. Will 1/3rd of the population stop following Fox TV? Prognosis negative.
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In the photo accompanying this column, the way the light hits the blurred presidential seal forms a pattern that resembles a question mark. In red and blue, no less.
Op-Ed columns that theorize about Trump being an authoritarian, or being a model for authoritarians elsewhere, as Thomas Friedman's did yesterday, are a dime a dozen these days. But what about Trump's clowning? He says he's "in love" with North Korea's Kim. On a later occasion he hugs the flag in a two-hour speech and says "Number one, I'm in love and you're in love. We're all in love together." As if he's pushing one of his branded products. Any journalist who aspires to come up with a Unified Theory of Trump is going to have to explain this aspect of him as well.
We’re going to have 40 years of Trumpian judges at every level of the judicial system.
That’s not going to go away just because Trump’s gold plating has worn off.
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@Just Julien
Nailed it Just Julien!
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@Just Julien: When the Democrats regain control of both houses of congress and the presidency, don't be surprised if they add two more justices to the Supreme Court.
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@Tom B I'm no longer a US citizen but I do so hope that the Democrats can and will.
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What happens if he refuses to turn over power in January 2021 if he loses in November 2020? That kind of extreme situation would result in incredible volatility. At that point we're asking the levers of government to refuse to be pulled by Trump, and who knows if they'll do that. Especially if McConnell and Graham are screaming that the election is illegitimate and Fox is telling honest Patriots to arm themselves and go to the streets.
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This is an absurd premise from the get go. You may or may not like President Trump, but the simple fact is he had always complied with decisions of the courts. There is natural friction between the branches of government and we rely upon the courts - though one of the three branches - to referee. Give me a call when Trump ignores the decisions of the courts. Until then I doubt he is going to cave to the caterwauling of his detractors.
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@Thomas Smith
This editorial covers far more than Trump's relationship with the courts. But since you brought it up, claiming that a particular judge is biased against him because of his Mexican ancestry may not be a refusal to comply with a court decision, but it certainly constitutes an effort to undermine and discredit the courts in the eyes of his rabid followers. That is the behavior of a would-be fascist, whether it is ultimately successful or not.
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I'll tell you what will happen. Trump will loose in 2020, say the election is fixed with all sorts of clams about ballets and illegal voting and then try to tie the results up in recounts and the courts as long as he can. What he will not do is admit defeat and turn over power like a gentlemen or statesmen.
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The way I see it is that even if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020 and tRump is long gone, why would the Republican minority do anything other than exactly what they did to Obama? Obstruct, let nothing get done and then blame the President for nothing getting done.
I’m less worried about the survival of Democracy than I am about whether Dangerous Donald will stumble into a catastrophic nuclear war.
I am not so sure about this. Consider that nearly half of American voters voted for someone who said "only I can fix it."
I am quite sure democracy will survive, but 538 has Trump's approval rating at a steady 42 percent. That means he has a lot of support.
It may take a lot of force to remove him from office if he loses a close 2020 election and he may use his powers to maintain power which would send the country into a constitutional crisis and, it is important to know that the Constitution does not make clear a procedure for a transition from one president to another.
With five block head Conservatives on the Supreme Court, a court who thinks corporations are people, I feel the SC is a failed institution and could not be a reliable arbiter regarding a transfer of power.
Congress has an approval rating close to the single digits, so they are a failed institution also.
So, what is left? The presidency and it is obvious to any clear head that that is a mess.
Yes, democracy will probably survive, but there could be a huge blood bath, making 1968 look comparatively peaceful.
One thing Trump has done very well is to expose the latent hate, division, racism, ignorance, and bigotry among the American people.
I think the next two years are going to be filled with a lot of strife.
Let us hope, between now and November 2020, a clear leader approaches the stage.
America has considerable resilience. But it is also being tested in a way which would have seemed improbable 10 years ago, to say nothing of the golden years of the 90s.
Plutocrats are vacuuming up most of the gains of economic growth, with the rest of the 10% getting whatever is left over and the bottom 90% nothing. Political irrationality is widespread, barefaced denial of facts is now routine, Trump is teflon to his base because they will excuse or ignore everything as long as he continues to outrage liberal opinion, which he will do until they carry him off in a box. Dangerous political forces have been unleashed.
Meanwhile America is in permanent governmental gridlock, incapable of acting on infrastructure, border security, tax reform, health care reform, drugs, guns, global warming, the deficit - basically any issue of public policy.
How did things get so bad so fast?
I'm delighted to see my own optimism articulated so well. Two additional dimensions of this that are worth noting:
1. Trump has been largely contained by his own administration, as well as my "externals" (Congress, our noble Fourth Estate). He is largely impotent within the Executive Branch, except by edicts that are readily undone by externals. Who doesn't now understand that this blowhard is quite incompetent as a manager, let alone a leader?
2. The resilience of U.S. society against our authoritarian phony is a great message to other peoples dealing with right-wing government—or nations trying to keep faith about prospects for a democratic republic. We are showing that democratic republics can survive swamp things. (The Chinese domestic ideology against "democracy," pointing to U.S. congestion, is undone by our resilience. Putinism is losing. The Iranian hard-liners are losing.)
The world needs our resilience detailed as much as possible. Even in "failure," we are a beacon of hope.
Democracy's challenge isn't Donald Trump, though he has served to highlight the problem as only a sociopathic narcissist can.
Thanks to failing education and parental abdication all anyone under the age of 50 cares about is what's on the screen they hold in their hand.
TV and now the Smart Phone have set the stage for a world characterized by content providers (and the sponsors who pay them)and content consumers who live on the razor's edge of not knowing what to think, or buy. Somehow, the word "immersive" explains much of it.
So whether it's Bill Maher or Michael Cohen, A.O.C. or Martha Stewart, it's emotion that rules the day and not rationale.
Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress (content creators), it's obvious that it's the minority that has gone to Washington to represent anyone but themselves.
At best we are watching Democracy morph into the next thing it's about to become. "And your Host, The Donald!"
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I’ve always found it hard to believe that the alligators living in it would applaud either when the swamp was drained.
Democracy does not have a chance of surviving.
Why would the Republicans give up power? Because we ask them? With the demographic trends, they'd never get it back. And what about their decades-long anti-democracy plan they've recently put the capstone on with their Supreme Court appointments?
They're going to walk away from all that?
All they need is to rig the voting machines, which their Republican companies own and control. What would we do? They've already stolen elections and we just said, "Oh well," because Democrats are weak marks.
So we protest; they'd just ignore us and we'd all go home and hope for the best like good Democrats. After all, they have all the guns.
Or they could declare martial law. Wouldn't even need a fake pretext.
The American people are such programmed sheep, they'd protest for a month and then accept it. We're already living in a police-surveillance state, so that's already happening. Everything's in place - and you think it won't be used by the Republicans? They created it.
Why would they let Liberals take over Their country - they don't even think Liberals are citizens or "true" Americans.
If Democrats were serious about the anti-democracy that's happening all around us they'd already be out in the streets, but - nothing.
We are that frog in the slow-burning pot. Democrats still think everything is normal. They don't have a clue that it happens gradually, then suddenly, and it has mostly already happened.
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You are right about Trump he won’t be able to manage a coup but don’t count out his supporters which hovers around 35%. Like Cohen said “he talks in code”
It's not just Trump. He's merely the symbol of what can go wrong in America and has for the past 50 years...
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Some days, I'm optimistic. Some days, I'm pessimistic. The greatest danger, in my view, is that Trump's behavior will be normalized, and we'll revert to being cave people. That has already happened with his "base," and it's setting up a scenario for violent, unlawful behavior. Trump has always been off the rails, and now he has taken a bunch of people with him. The most hopeful outcome: When he loses in 2020, his followers will disengage from the system and revert to sitting at home and drinking beer.
If we acknowledge that "the American system so far has shown itself resilient" we must also acknowledge that the American people have shown themselves barely worthy of keeping the Democracy they inherited.
A consistent 40% of Americans approve of this President despite, or perhaps because of, his 9,000+ lies, his attacks on law enforcement, his love of murdering dictators and his disdain for our constitution. Almost a quarter of Republicans want to rip up the First Amendment because of criticism of the "Great Man"?
A President that is apparently afraid to fire anyone face-to-face is unlikely to look a General in the eye and say "I'm not leaving. Get the tanks". I don't doubt when his time comes he will leave the White House the same way he came in: lying, whining and without grace.
But just because Trump will go, doesn't mean we will keep our Democracy. Certainly not a healthy one. Not after tens of millions of Americans chose abandoned it.
Trump is not who destroys America. As many had said many times, he is just one symptom of the malaise.
We should concentrate on what created the monster to avoid the next .... and the next after ... assuming somebody is alive.
I haven't been able to read all the comments so my apologies up front if this is a duplication.
I posit that all of this about the wall and a national emergency is simply prelude to 2020.
When, not if, he loses, the election he can declare the election was illegitimate as his friend Putin supplies the data to support his thesis that it was not "fair" - one of his favorite words.
So all of this is now in motion with the phony wall emergency to secure the White House as another Trump property ostensibly using a very flawed law to accomplish it.
Unfortunately for We the People, Trump isn't the end of the story. What we are seeing with Trump is how much the continuation of our American system depends on the good faith of those charged with upholding it. More alarming than Trump's actions is the speed with which a republican Congress surrendered to him. And why is that? Is it because they support the smashing of trade agreements with nothing to replace them, the smashing of international alliances with nothing to replace them, turning on our own country to fawn over dictators and monsters? Is it because they approve of an administration that is a record breaking revolving door of corruption and incompetence? Is it because they approve of a president who is either complicit in this corruption or completely out of touch with what is being done in his name? Is it because they approve of the president handing a top secret security clearance to his daughter who doesn't know the definition of complicit but, based on her failed experience marketing shoes and purses, is critical to the national interest? Is it because they don't have a problem with the millions of our tax dollars that are being shoveled into Trump businesses to support his endless time off? Is it because they have no concerns that he and his children are using his office to enrich themselves? With the help of an acquiescent republican party, Trump will leave our democracy weaker than he found it, ready for the next one.
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No other President in our history has ever displayed the narcissism, megalomania, and contempt for democracy that Trump has.
I don't think he will be successful in trying to stay in office if he loses in 2020, but I frankly have no doubt he will try.
Oh how I hope and pray you are right, Mr. Kristoff! Ionly wish I could be more confident about it.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. However he exits, the disease will remain.
There are fundamental cracks in the foundation of this nation. Some of them have been there from the start, like the legacy of slavery. With current demographic trends, these cracks will only widen. Add an external force, like climate change, and the foundation could split and crumble.
Every article I’ve read about how the nation will survive has been based on faith. Reality may insist on a different result. We’ll see.
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Probably? Maybe? American democracy is a mess that is why Trump is there now.
Kinda what I have been thinking for a while, which is that Trump's ineffectiveness at, well, just about everything is what will save us. He would love to become the next Orban or Erdogan, but isn't smart and persistent enough to get there. He is not good enough at being bad.
Where were all you good people, worried about democracy and US presidents overstepping their bounds when we were pre-emptively sold on so many needless wars that bankrupted everybody in America who wasn't too big too fail? Be honest. Times were worse -- talk about Major Crisis Mode -- when the Supreme Court had to step in to tell us who our president was, and then the youngster went and attacked the wrong country out of spite...
We survived the Bush years. In terms of death, destruction and the economic collapse of our country, we really have come through the storm, Mr. Kristol. This is just a Drama Play! compared to the Bush, and succeeding Obama, years.
Let's get back to normal already, and end the calls of collapsing democracy to install socialism. Stop encouraging the division and fearfulness.
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Yes, our democracy has withstood the assault of President Trump thus far. But every day, many Americans are increasingly inured to the latest scandal coming from the White House. The President pays off a porn star to squelch a negative story during the election? No big deal. The President gets his son-in-law a top-secret security clearance despite the objections of his intelligence experts? Who cares. The President lies multiple times every day, making up "facts" to sell whatever "product" he peddles? He's no different than any other politician.
As Levitsky and Ziblatt outline in their book, this political and social cynicism is an important contributing factor in how authoritarian leaders assume power, and how democracies die. Dictatorships arise when no one knows who to believe, or has faith in political institutions or cares anymore. Even if our country can withstand President Trump's assault on our rule of law and free press, he's already done great damage to our body politic.
To say that America's levers of Democracy have protected us "so far", is not relevant nor comforting. We have not before come up against what is occurring right now. We are in uncharted waters. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are very much intent on extinguishing the world's oldest Democracy. It no longer serves them. They have no hope of surviving in such a system. While Trump swings his sociopathic sledgehammer at the every pillar in the White House, serving up more offenses and crimes than we can consume, let alone prosecute, McConnell works furiously behind the curtain - moving money, power and judges into place to take down our very foundations. At this moment, our system does not appear to be able to reel in what is unraveling. Now is NOT the time to "take a breath." We have to match what confronts us with equal resolve and intensity.
Trump did not take over the Republican Party. The Republican Party took over Trump. Yes we can survive Trump, but trump is not the root cause. He is the manifestation of a corrupt, criminal, anti-democratic, and toxically destructive political party. Our salvation is only certain when the GOP implodes. I doubt that will happen, too much money involved.
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We know what Trump is. The rich that own everything said enough is enough having to buy people for the white house. These would just took it out right.
They don't care anymore if we see their corruption. They own it all. The 1% own 90% of the wealth. When will we wake up when they own 100% and we live like people from Somalia?
Time to build a government for the 21st century. This one is rigged beyond repair.
Of course Trump could not manage a coup - let alone much else according to his hap-hazard history of failure and confusion.
The real threat is the underestimated and now manifest power of his enablers- from voters, to The Faux News Network, to Senate majority Leader McConnel who can/have enacted this coup. The main mechanism for this American tragedy is Citizens United, voter suppression, and yes, in the sky box looking on with remote play calling is Vladimir Putin.
In regard to media outlets, Trump said sometime ago that CNN should have its "license pulled". It doesn't have a license and it doesn't need one, but in this case ignorance is not bliss. His statement reflected his deep desire to have all opposition silenced.
Please consider this:
We have institutions, we have a long history, aside from the civil war and other eruptions, of settling our differences without major violence, but there is no known mechanism if those institutions fail to protect us.
We have the courts. They can be ignored.
We have the congress. Yeah? What good is that doing now with a totally compliant Republican party singing praises of an out of control president?
We have the news media, but how much actual force would it take to close down the NY Times, the Washington Post and CNN? All of these and other outlets depend on the internet for both gathering and transmitting news (CNN uses satellites to send its signal, but the internet has become a major way to gather news by video, too.)
What could we do if Trump declares on Nov. 4th, 2020, that the election was not valid because millions of people who should not have been allowed to vote went to the polls?
WHAT COULD WE DO?
Who would go to the White House to arrest Trump? Trump is commander-in-chief would the military take him into custody?
These are no fanciful questions. The stark, ugly fact is that if someone decides to overrule the Constitution, we're stuck.
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I don’t share the optimism a lot of commenters are sharing.
If Trump was is as tainted as you think, Bloomberg would be running same with Hillary, both choose not to run, Bernie not beating Trump this time.
Trump is was ill prepared for the presidency, which is why he was selling his steaks and ties and trying to get a trump tower franchised in Moscow during his campaign, Trump doesn’t build anything anymore he license his name.
I shake my head everyday with what this guy does and says.
Still hoping he grows into the presidency, however , I’ll make my decision on Election Day next year.
The divided government emerging from the Democratic Party's takeover of the House of Representatives has already eclipsed the productivity of Congress when it was totally under Republican control. Reaction to the president's fake emergency declaration, congressional rebuke of Riyadh and gun background checks are three harbingers of bipartisan progress.
One reason that less damage has been done to the nation's democratic institutions than feared is that the president is not the brightest bulb in the firmament. Most of the damage he has wrought since taking office has been self-inflicted through his utter lack of intellectual or emotional intelligence.
A different delusional authoritarian smarter than Trump would almost surely be leaving deeper and more permanent constitutional rot in his or her wake than Trump has managed so far.
Perhaps US democracy will survive Trump. But I know I will never be the same. Before Trump, I had a view of this country and the values of Americans, despite our differences, that has been utterly shattered by the slavish devotion of 30% of my compatriots to a man so immoral, so corrupt, so vicious, so clearly authoritarian, so ignorant and indifferent to the rule of law. In my wildest nightmares, I could never have imagined that a trump could be elected, much less adored, by a significant minority of my fellow Americans. Whatever happens in the future, I will never feel the same about my country again. And this makes me sad to my core.
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It isn't only about American institutions holding up against Trump.
When I read chatter on the internet suggesting armed resistance to the deep state and Dem elite coup to remove Trump, I worry that impeachment could lead to acts of domestic terrorism.
A sizable % of the NRA crowd believes themselves to be the last bastion of defense for American democracy and freedom, which right now means defending Trump to these people, and they swallow whole the conspiracy theories Trump dishes out.
The ideas may be delusional but their arsenals are very real with lots of military style rifles. The fact that the ideas are delusional just makes the situation seem all the more dangerous.
I hope that the next institution to be tested won't be our military.
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"Trump won’t manage a coup, and he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life."
Another asleep at the wheel conservative...or one with an agenda, selling complacency as we hurtle toward 2020's elections...
Let's not "overlook" his statements about refusing to accept the outcome of 2016 if he wasn't elected nor his completely phony "national emergency."
Should we really expect him to simply fade away after an election loss...? Really?
Perhaps, but Trump and the incompetence, criminality, and corruption of Trumpism will transform America way into this century and beyond and not for the better. Trumpism has emerged as a racist and religious, evangelical Christian cult based fascism. However, Trump is not an aberration as much as a culmination with Reagan to Trump of Republican policies, of Reaganomics, resulting in an inverted totalitarianism of government of, for and by the 1% of the institutions of governance at the state and federal level. Sinclair Lewis was prescient when he said: “Fascism will come to America wrapped in the Flag and carrying a Cross!”
Louis D. Brandeis (1856 – 1941), Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the U.S.(1916 -1939): “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.”
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Trump is the symptom. The GOP is the disease. Now that the right has control over the judiciary, I fear that plutocracy and other anti-democratic impulses will be baked into the system. The Senate is stronghold of low-population states and liberal House Democrats are at the mercy of their most conservative members. I’m not too sure that much will change when the Mad King and his kakistocracy have passed from the scene.
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"Moreover, while the Democratic victory in the House is good news for accountability, it also results in a divided government that can’t get anything done."
So for two years the GOP had complete, untrammeled power...unified government. How did that work out? The Grand Ole Party couldn't even get their precious wall built. All they have learned is how to destroy, but incapable of building....anything!
Will we survive Trump Derangement Syndrome? Perspectives have altered. I for one will take every political piece written in the Times, and the like, with more than a large grain of salt. Not that I was ever a disciple.
I just read that I live in the most politically intolerant county in the country. No surprise. I only have to listen to my local NPR to get the drift. The idea that Trump is the, or even a, threat to Democracy is delusional. The only extent that he is a treat is through the extremist reaction he seems to inspire in his opposition. It is they who would sacrifice all Democratic fundamentals, and their first born, for the chance at giving Trump a black eye.
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The better question is what can Congress do after Trump? Here is a list I have been pondering:
1. Require presidential nominees to release their tax returns
2. Flatly prohibit nepotism in White House posts
3. Require presidential nominees to undergo psychiatric evaluation by an independent or bipartisan medical commission
4. Require presidential nominees to provide full and complete disclosure of conflicts of interest, and to divest themselves of conflicting interests
Anything that makes people read the constitution, the Federalist Papers, and other commentaries on it, carry copies of “that little book”, as Kamala the Cop Harris dismissively called it, and argue about it in bars and coffee shops isn’t all bad.
Trump is unfit and a problem. But just as we have done more damage to our country overreacting to terrorism than terrorism has done, overreaction to Trump is a greater a threat than Trump.
The US has been greatly diminished by republicans and this criminal administration. Our State Dept. has been decimated, takes years to create trust among allies. Public education is not working and the cabinet boss is a fraud. Climate change. No progress on health care. Meanwhile functioning democracies are moving away.
If we survive, remember who gave us trump - the GOP! Indeed, Republicans gave us their best to be our leader with 90% of them still supporting him in spite of all he has done so far.
"there will never be a peaceful transition of power" under trump with Republicans in power. So true! If they steal the House back, the coup will be complete.
Republicans are an authoritarian style party that does not tolerate dissent. Yes, there is voter fraud - by Republicans - 2016 POTUS and 2018 North Carolina and Georgia prove democracy can be killed in the US.
Republicans, especially McConnell have been editing the Constitution since stealing a SCOTUS seat, now declaring a faux national emergency to siphon and divert tax dollars to themselves. It's also a rehearsal for martial law, if they lose.
Institutions like the FBI's top Russian counter-intelligence experts have been publicly humiliated and purged - as if trump followed a Putin hit list to a T, with the full support and complicity of Republicans. Why?
Republicans want monopolistic power to squelch true-competitive-free-markets monopolistic wealth hoarders hate.
They're busy corrupting the justice system too, giving appointments to unqualified partisans for life.
Journalists have not been intimidated in spite of trump's threats to jail them and crazy people targeting them with bombs and actual shootings of journalists (as in Maryland).
Trump's cover for MBS on Khashoggi, and for Kim, Erdogan, Duterte and El-Sisi is frightful.
"American democracy is too resilient for Trump to destroy."
I am not so sure - we're at a precipice - could easy go either way and right now we are leaning toward the dark side!
My uncredentialed opinion but I've been around long enough to see and understand our slow but encouraging evolution toward a perfect liberal democratic ideal since WWII.
And in concert I've come to understand the awesome power of the forces against our evolution forward.
Those stronger than ever; now well institutionalized and in control of our regressive authorization racist natures.
All progress always been a real slough for us - we are a pretty conservative Nation; in many ways antebellum; in many ways strongly Calvinist and Puritanical (albeit hypocritically).
And we've always had a thing against egg-heads/science (I liked Ike but thought Stevenson deserved more respect than accorded).
Our presuppositions (religious or social) very immune to facts/logic - and holders very prone to "forcefully" impose such.
Going forward - making social progress - always been a real slough.
Going forward today will be even a worse slough - slipping backwards a much easier happenstance.
Again regressive forces well institutionalized; in control of our more regressive authorization racist nature; they've masterfully fostered apathy, cynicism, and logical fallacy memes in others.
We've let the 42% rule - we might well continue to do such.
Girth well - we are in for the ride of our Nation's life.
Respectfully ... Americans and the world will do better than that! We know he's bad for America, counting daily the efforts he takes to skew, revoke, and worse. He's out-numbered, and out-smarted. The only response he has left is to destroy yet one more thing each day. We wish someone / more than one person would stand up and say, "No one believes you. Stop saying [insert here whatever he is saying or tweeting at the moment].
Optimistically looking on the bright side, 2019 version: “President Trump probably can’t destroy American democracy.” Good news, I suppose, in a relative kind of way.
I agree that U.S. democracy will "probably" survive Trump.
It's the underlying polarization and erosion of norms identified by Levitsky and Ziblatt that are more concerning for me. Substantially contributing to these conditions is a willful right-wing ignorance bordering on insanity and turbocharged by a ludicrous TV "news" network and rabid reactionary talk radio personalities. Those conditions were critical to elevating the glaringly dishonest, unqualified and conflicted Mr. Trump into office in the first place. They will not disappear post- Trump.
Serious Republicans could end all this speculation and waste of Timme resulting from the Trump tragic experience.
All they need to do is pull together behind a serious candidate. That candidate could be conservative, could subscribe to a Republican oriented judicial philosophy, anti-abortion, other conservative principles and Constitutional norms.
Under current circumstances, why wouldn’t a candidate who faithfully represents the center right side of the spectrum (devoid of Trump’s erratic (or is it erotic) attraction for authoritarianism) be strong enough to sweep him away, attract enough traditional Republicans and independents to win?
Given the direction of all investigations, the seriouness of the revelations, it’s hard to believe that true conservative-minded patriots would not rally behind a responsible Republican and flush Trump out of the system. That would be a true profile in courage.
It might not be great for Democrats (my preferred brand) at the polls. But, in my judgment, it certainly would be better for the country and the world. Imagine a White House free of a criminal, a racist, a misygonist, a bulliy and a compulsive liar, who thrives on fomenting chaos and Constitutional crisis, and ignores so many urgent issues that need serious attention.
1
"And his rogue behavior helped Democrats seize the House of Representatives." Trump is undoubtedly the worst President ever, but the reason the Dems seized the house was because of the corruption in the Democratic party as well as the GOP.
The Progressives are NOT part of the status quo. That is why even establishment Dems like Pelosi are trying to hitch a ride on the Green Train, because that train represents where "we, the people" want to go.
As for the AT&T/Time Warner merger, Trump was right for all the wrong reasons. It never should have been allowed. Will we survive? How would we even know if we do? The media has been so corrupted, there is no one to let us know. For that reason alone, I doubt we will.
1
I’m more concerned with our over-reaction to Trump. The House Oversight Committee is behaving like a mob of Jacobins conducting a sweep of all things Trump with the breadth of an Internet Web Crawler. Gotcha! The Republicans would be doing the same to the Clintons if HRC was President. When will we wise up and realize that we are scaring away our best and brightest future candidates for office with these menial vindictive and counterproductive behaviors.
1
He falsely takes credit for a growing economy and still only 46 and that’s his best. The most important thing the Dems need to do is understand why HRC lost the swing states so closely and understand the people there. That’s the value of the Electoral College When he bragged he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it, it would disqualify anyone to hold an office in a democracy.
Time for progressives to grow up. Their sense of entitlement has blinded them to the reality that our system will survive just fine despite someone they abhor's having one the presidency.
1
American democracy is aided by time itself. The rabid deluded part of Trump's base is dying off by age, alcohol, drugs or guns. Other populations are rising more rapidly. The opportunist Trump supporters will swing with the next breeze to blow through town. Mr. Trump may well do more than resist his upcoming political comeuppance by tweet and buffoonery. But in the end he will retreat to wallow in his own mess like a one hit wonder rock band from 1982. It may well be from prison with his "brand" forever soiled. That alone is worth the price of admission.
Democracy has been in peril many times before 2019. The Revolution from England, our Civil War between Northerners (the Union) and Southerners (The Confederacy) and World Wars I and II which scorched earth in Europe and Asia.The peril we're facing now is terrible: our president, Donald Trump, is leading the forces against Democracy. We remember our past and the totalitarianisms that failed. We've passed the point of no return in this 45th presidency. How can we be optimistic about our survival? Rosie the Riveter was last century.
My Apple watch keeps telling me to breathe: even now when I read your column, when I listen to the news, when I hear trump lie again and again, when I have those 5 am chats with my running pals, when I think about my son and his family heading into the future, when I think of family separations at the border, when I hear about gun violence and the gall of the NRA. Until it stops, until I can breathe, I feel as if we won't survive.
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@Nancie
We'll survive, okay, trump's stupidity stops at usage of the H Bomb. It's up to us, who see the perils the man poses, to not despair, and to examine the candidates who will oppose him in the next election and choose wisely. The one I see who will effectively erase his effect and send the nation in the proper direction is Bernie Sanders.
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@Nancie And you haven't even mentioned climate change.
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Thanks for writing this. I actually feel a little better this morning after reading it.
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I am not so sure. In all of history democracies and republics make up a tiny part. Seems that the tendency is to drift toward authoritarianism or oligarchy. I see that drift now and it will take strong action to stop it. Vote vote vote!!
Disaster does not have to mean the end of our democratic system. "Democracy sliding into dysfunction" may be worse. How is a purported democracy different from an autocracy if it fails to provide large segments of the populace (Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, LGBTQ's and Jews ) protection or basic rights?What type of democracy requires certain citizens to live only in particular areas or face abuse? Can we call ourselves a democracy when our single leader can be elected by a minority of the voters? The basic rights of Americans can be taken away without a coup.
Pretty good piece, but I absolutely detest your last line, particularly the "Trump won't manage a coup" part.
We have no idea what he will or won't do. We thought he was a sick joke in 2015. We thought he was a sure loser in 2016. And in 2017, we thought (or maybe prayed) that the GOP-controlled congress would put a check on his insanity.
All of these things failed to come to fruition. Nearly 40% of the country has, for one reason or another, completely lost all sense of reason, and treats his word as the word of God. The donor class continues to salivate over the monetary treasures the Trump administration provides, while their congressional lackeys violate their oaths of office every single day Trump remains in office.
I can't predict the future either. I think you wrote a good piece, and ultimately I think you are right. But please don't claim that the seemingly implausible won't happen. At this point, it's anyone's ballgame.
Congress has long been the best Congress money can buy.
The US capitalism worshiping mindset allowed the Supreme Court to rule on the side of money over citizens.
Trump's election was a rare example of US democracy, within the framework of the Constitution.
The people, not the Establishment made him President.
Trump makes me cringe, but so does the ever so sanctimonious Adam Schiff, who I think is more of a danger to democracy with his blaming Trump's election on Russia, and who is attempting a coup against Trump, backed by most of the Washington Establishment.
There are real reasons Trump was elected, one was the ever present US worship of capitalism and MONEY, with all the cable networks airing Trump rallies endlessly because it was profitable. In the US PROFIT RULES!
Also many Trump voters have real concerns.
If Democrats treated those concerns with inquiring minds and respect, the polarization would not be so great.
Instead, the Democrats put on a circus.
By the way, I've got no problem with capitalism, in moderation.
A true test of US Democracy will be whether the Establishment and its Media go all out to destroy Senator Bernie Sanders.
And then, if he is elected despite their best efforts, if the Establishment and its Media try to undermine him as they are working to undermine Trump.
@Lucy Cooke
I totally get your rage over the decades-long capitalist runaway, where corporate power rose and wages and benefits fell steadily and lately rather quickly, to the point at which inequality is now so wide that we find ourselves in a second Gilded Age.
But Trump is absolutely the wrong choice for this problem. Besides being an idiotic destroyer, pathological liar, and racist misogynist, the most important thing to remember is that he recently signed a massive tax cut for corporations and the very rich -- who really, really didn't need it.
So yeah, I understand how about 80,000 very angry blue-collar workers from four mid-western states rebelled against the establishment and allowed our electoral college to bring to power someone they thought would rectify all of these class-based ills, but unfortunately, they didn't actually elect that person. They elected someone very different.
It makes logical sense to me that he was elected, given what has happened economically over the last 30 years, but destroying democracy is NOT the way to go. I completely agree that the democrats have really blown it over the last couple of 8-year cycles with respect to understanding the inequality factor, but I think they get it now.
They had better, because the Republicans have given up completely.
Every system needs a periodic stress test. Our institutions seem to holding steady and we will devise means to fortify those that have been weaken.
The Republican party does seem to be in a bit of a mess.
I think they are failing the stress test!
Thank you for helping to put my mind at ease, Mr. Kristof. I have been extremely concerned lately, as I watch the GOP abnegate all responsibility for governing, attack our institutions, undermine our democratic norms, attempt to subjugate our free press and divide our country with their inflammatory, racist lies. McConnel squawks about "socialism" being the problem while the GOP shamelessly peddle autocracy and straight up fascism as being the solution. The intellectual dishonesty coming from the "right" is both terrifying and stultifying. They even have their own 24/7 propaganda network, several actually, now that Sinclair Broadcasting has emerged from the right-wing, fever dream swamp. I do think we have cause for concern, especially when I hear those who have been close to Trump express the fear that he will never give up power peacefully or willingly, but I do appreciate your words of calm and caution, and I dearly hope that cooler (and more democratic) heads prevail.
I too am in hopes we, as a nation, will survive Trump. Sadly, Trump is but a symptom of a deeper problem... the influence money has on our political system. The concept of "Common Good" and "Compromise" ,sadly, seem like distant past dreams.
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@Chris R
Absolutely, Chris. If there is one thing that this country will hopefully learn from this mess is that massive inequality and total corporate power is not good for the country. We realized this around 1900 and finally did something about it over the ensuing 20 years. Now it's back, and now we need a set of ideas and leaders to get us out of it again.
Of course, it's up to us to elect those leaders.
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I would add that while the institutions remain solid, the rhetoric has strengthened and focused. We are more aware now, necessarily so, of how much anger there is in the nation. It is an anger that results in racism, misogyny, fear and even despair. We are more aware now of how tilted opportunity is for some few people in our nation. In becoming aware of how many people are living desperate lives, we are taking action. We turned the House. We have a New Green Deal on the table. I'd suggest that we needed to bring this reality to the surface to properly address it. Yes, I too wish that it wasn't Trump that did it. Nevertheless, now we need the rhetoric to slowly convince the middle of the nation that large, inefficient, even federal, institutions and ideas, can help them lead productive lives, free from fear.
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Our system relies on the courage and integrity of individuals holding certain positions. Without those attributes, the system functions slowly and comes perilously close to collapse. Enter Trump and McConnell, two individuals occupying positions of power who are without the requisite courage and integrity to make the system work as designed. Fortunately, the rule of law ultimately relies on lawyers and, Brett Kavanaugh aside, lawyers seem to be what will preserve us as a functioning democratic republic.
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Watergate and now
I've recovered part of the journalist's notebooks I filled during the Watergate inquiry in Washington from April to Novembrer 1974; as a foreign correspondent, I then had White House, Congress and Supreme Court press passes which gave me first-hand access to most of what was happening. Two things strike me while rereading my notes.
One, the sheer scope of what Donald Trump and his clique are suspected of is far greater than what Richard Nixon and his team had done, and at the same stage in the process, the probability of their guilt is a lot higher now than it appeared then (let's say early April '74) .
Two, the Watergate scandal was limited to a small bunch of shady political hacks within Washington itself; the current bundle of misdeeds concerns several top-level people in the White House, and affects much of the Government and territory of the United States; if the Russiagate proves real, it even spills out into plotting with a foreign, largely hostile and tyrannical country. The very principles of democracy are directly threatened, unlike 45 years ago.
On this dual basis, one has to conclude that either an impeachment move or an indictment of the sitting President is much more justified today than it was then.
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@Yves Leclerc
It probably is, but during the Watergate period we had a group of republicans that ultimately decided to move forward with impeachment. It's very likely that Nixon would have been removed, had the impeachment process moved forward, which is probably why he resigned - that and the shame, I suppose. Also, I think we had a more reasonable electorate. True, the Vietnam war had polarized the nation, but I don't remember that polarization being quite as extreme as it is now. (Or maybe because there was no internet and social media it just seemed less so ...)
Anyway, now we have a shameless president, and a republican party that shows zero interest in acting independently, and an electorate, almost half of which seems ready to support our president no matter what. So while I think you are absolutely right, I have a feeling that we will probably be waiting until 2020 before any true action takes place, and when it does, it will be voters, not congress or the courts, that gets us out of this mess.
His Presidency ought to be a good lesson to Americans. However, I am not betting on them learning more about how our democracy works, why, and why it needs constant vigilance.
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Along with the Nuclear clock, we should adopt a Freedom clock that indicates the state of our democracy. Before Trump, I would say we were somewhere around 11:15 pm. Now after two years, it seems as though we’ve slid forward to maybe 11:40 pm. McConnell and other GOP leaders had better start standing up to Trump before that clock ticks any farther forward!
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The big problem in 2016, as I see it, was the supposedly centrist media that gave equal time to the transgressions of each candidate. Hillary was flawed, no doubt, but putting her on the same plane as Trump is anything but "balanced." I don't blame Fox - they do what they do. I blame the media institutions that we depend upon to be the adults in the room, to give us a realistic picture: CNN, and to a large extent, the Times. It seems they've learned something since. Let's hope they act more responsibly, in a truly balanced manner, this time around.
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The media should have stressed the contrasts, like Hillary’s transparency about how she got rich. She disclosed information Trump held secret.
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@Bunnell Yes! It is not "balanced" to give equal time or space to fact based positions and pure lunacy. For example, pretending that climate change deniers have a legitimate "position" degrades the important discussions we must have and delays the critical decisions we must make.
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@Richard Winchell fully agree! This Edward R. Murrow quote says it all:
"I simply cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument."
The so-called "liberal media" have been so intimidated by everyone from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump that they have bent over backwards to appear to respect all viewpoints, regardless of legitimacy and basic common sense. That's been a huge factor, I believe, in our inaction on critical challenges, such as climate change and gun violence. We simply haven't had logical debate, and that's quite literally costing lives.
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The future is notoriously hard to predict.
199 years: that's the longest period (in history so far) that a government has stood without serious existential threat from a substantial foreign invasion or civil war. We are coming up on 155 years since our own civil war, the one that nearly ended the American experiment.
Our republic, and our constitution, are strong but brittle, and their 17th Century character makes them glacially slow to adapt to 21st Century needs, which press down on us torrentially.
We change our constitution, or amend it, at some peril--and we cling to our constitution "as is" at some peril--and we estimate the peril of each course with information that is contested, knowledge that is biased, and wisdom that is in scarce supply.
It is not safe to predict safety; it is not dangerous to predict danger. Confidence in our system of governance is a virtue, as is preparation for its failure. The American media expresses confidence, while the Pentagon makes plans for failure.
I propose that the American citizen who cares about the future--rather than choose a rigid stance either way or adopt a wait-and-see attitude--study and read widely and critically, with skepticism and without prejudice, develop his or her own wisdom, and encourage others to do so. Make the most informed and wise judgements that you are able to. Make plans that include the chance continued stability, and the equal chance of horribly violent and widespread war and destruction.
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I am a reformed Republican of many years. The have become much to extreme. So I am now a Democrat and just like the Republicans the only thing I hear from them is they need money. The care little for my opinions. They, like the Republicans, send an opinion poll which only gets counted if I send money.
I am appropriately on the left coast and far from the center of political power. In fact I feel as if I am in the wilderness of political power. I vote for Diane, Nancy, Mike(Thompson & gun control, way to go Mike) and of course Gavin. They have mostly followed my wishes and represent me well. They are unfortunately very little more powerful than their contemporaries who represent far, far fewer voters.
So I voice my opinion when and where I can to try to end the madness that is the Trump administration and the far right fringe that is now the GOP.
I hold out hope that the Constitution will preserve the USA. Good strong people must do the right thing in the right places even if it goes against their party and the people that appointed them.
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Here's the scenario I've long assumed will occur: As he did in 2016, Trump will preannounce that the election is "rigged" if it doesn't result in his winning. This time, his doing so from the White House will lead to protests, which will result in violence, which will lead to calls for a suspension of the normal transition.
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You write: "he seems to me more likely to end up a felon than a president for life"
This makes me feel you "protest too much." I had not yet seen in print the unthinkable thought that Trump would, could, or might be a "president for life." But I have sometimes thought to myself that his next step would be to try to undo presidential term limits, especially given his comments on the subject about another country (I forget which one it was). Now that I see this possibility even uttered in print, it scares me to death.
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@actualintent His buddy Rudy already had the same idea in NYC after 9/11, when he floated "hey let's just call off the mayoral election and I'll be glad to stay on indefinitely" - perfect playbook for DJT.
NYT 9/28/01: "Mr. Giuliani has asked his three possible successors to agree to postpone the next inauguration and let him stay on for a few more months to continue his work on the city's recovery. He and his supporters are holding out the threat that if the mayor is not given his wish, they will mount an attempt to repeal the term limits law so he can run for re-election in November.They argue that he needs just a few extra months to finish the most critical work in the wake of an enormous disaster. But one critical task after another is going to crop up for the foreseeable future."
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/28/opinion/the-mayor-s-dangerous-idea.html
I'll be relieved when he's out of office but not until then. I was also one of the few people in my circle that thought he could win the presidency. In this case, I do not like being right. Mr. Kristof, I hope you're right instead of me. Until then, I worry and resist.
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@Stephanie Vanderslice Additionally, he was elected in part because so many thought it couldn't happen--Comey, Jeffrey Toobin, Robert Reich, although only the first two have admitted this. Complacency is a dangerous dangerous game.
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Mr. Kristof concludes "Trump won’t manage a coup" and I support this conclusion for two reasons:
1. Trump can't seem to manage anything. He didn't repeal and replace Obamacare. He didn't get Mexico to pay for a border wall. He's incompetent.
2. Any coup would require the assistance of the military. My son is serving in the Army, and he tells me that Trump is widely unpopular within the Army after his remarks in Helsinki claiming that Vladimir Putin is more reliable than Army Intelligence.
The real danger is what Trump has done to the Republican Party. Now we have the real possibility that someone who IS competent will, emboldened by Trump, manage a coup.
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I share your assessment. Trump has repeatedly undermined and alienated our military leaders and seems unable to understand the consequences.
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I will share your optimism when we have our Checks and Balances back in Congress, the Judiciary and the White House. Until then, I will keep my fingers crossed.
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We will probably survive but, like a teenager testing his boundaries, Trump has managed to tug, prod, and bash his way at just about every check and balance that the Founding Fathers devised. There are some legal and historical lessons here moving forward for the health and safety of the country.
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I do have a hard time believing that Trump could muster the opposition to the “peaceful transition of power”, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t encourage some kind of encirclement. He has, after all, the ears of many millions of angry citizens through his surrogates.
More likely is a concession speech that won’t sound like statesmanlike, or like much of a concession. A speech that brings no closure to the hate and fear and vitriol so often seen among his base.
But it’s hard to feel overly optimistic about the direction of this country overall. The visceral hatred of ‘others’ usually aimed at foreigners, people of color, or a different religion......is now seen among people whose main difference is which lever they pull in the voting booth.
I’ll remain ‘cautiously’ optimistic, since Trump’s support is primarily older, and far more comfortable than the usual spark plugs of drastic civil change. Time will tell.
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My concern is that our institutions may not prevent the exercise of bad judgment in the face of a crisis where the executive controls options. Consider Trump faced with the equivalent of a Cuban missile crisis. When the missiles were first discovered almost everyone favored a military attack on Cuba; indeed, the Joint Chiefs favored a full invasion — likely triggering a nuclear response — right to the end of the crisis. The peaceful resolution was reached because Kennedy did not react by instinct alone — the executive committee he set up discussed Russian and Cuban intent, consequences of military actions, and possible alternatives. He also sought the advice of experts on Russia, Cuba, and other questions. I can’t imagine Trump having the discipline to follow such a process.
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@Chet Are you saying that JFK didn't trust his intelligence and military communities. Good for JFK, bad for DJT.
@h dierkes
Of course that is not what I am saying. He closely examined and discussed the intelligence on a variety of subjects and believed it. If you are really interested in this read May & Zillow, The Kennedy Tapes which places you in the room in real time. In their conclusion the authors note that Khrushchev precipitated the crisis by acting without personal foreign policy experience, significant consultation or reliance on those with such experience, or a review of intelligence, relying instead on U.S. newspaper statements that were passed to him. Who does that remind you of? Khrushchev reversed course when forced to because the U.S. had nuclear and missile superiority.
@Chet Thank you for the info. Didn't JFK have a problem with some advice concerning the Bay of Pigs episode. And then there was the story that his military wanted to shoot down an airliner and blame it on Castro although I don't know if I believe that one. There is more background on the leadup to the summit with Khrushchev, the Cuban missile crisis and the introduction of troops into Vietnam that didn't get much attention. As I recall Reston dealt with some of it in a column or a book.
The 40% said Obama wouldn't leave the office either. As Kristof says let's take a deep breath. Trump is winding us all up and we have to keep control of the conversation. Just focus on getting him out of the office through the normal process. It's much easier than we think it is. Make this priority one.
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Yes our institutions are stronger than in Germany in 1932. But the slide into kleptocracy has been underway for decades and we have just witnessed numerous acts of authoritarian orders that have been sanctioned by Republicans who show no sign of standing up to him.
Fascism is also not the same animal it was in the 1930s. The advances in influence selling are now much more refined. Dark money and unregulated social media is a dangerous combination to our democratic norms. State TV is an effective propaganda tool of the government that is well developed in Russia and other authoritarian countries. Trump and Fox are trying to keep up.
Until these forces are brought under control, our democratic republic will be at risk.
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Are we resilient enough to survive his court appointments? They are the "gift" that keeps on giving.
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Where is the cry to disbar these lawyers who have been involved with obstructing justice? Where is the American Bar Association? Has any one of the lawyers been put on notice that they are being investigated? Is not changing a sworn statement a criminal act? Is signing off on a false financial statement not a criminal act. Are not Guiliani’s false statements on live TV not just another code for witness tampering? Why is Cohen the only one to be disbarred? When a lawyer steps over the line, they should not be allowed to continue to practice. Where are the State’s Attorney General?
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@Elizabeth Shamas
The American Bar Association mirrors the Criminal Justice System, (Federal and State Attorneys General, Judges and prosecutors), in that it is made up of the same fellows, graduates of a handful of law schools all teaching the same ideology. They are the products of apprenticeship to each other. As institutions they are "strong" in that they resist attacks and criticism and protect their own. They are also "weak" in that they serve the whims of legislators and the executive, the only institutions with the theoretical ability to curb their power. That should answer six of your seven questions.
The other can be answered, "Changing a sworn statement can be considered a criminal act or not. The swearing-in officer's supervisor is almost always a judge in non-military courts, and that judge has the power to press charges or ignore the offense. Changing a sworn statement is a common occurrence that often results in objections from counsel but rarely results in charges."
America is in a state of denial regarding President Trump. Journalists document the daily assaults on reason, the constitution, institutions, allies and truth, but everyone carries on in a trance-like acceptance of the greatness of America and the inviolability of her position in the world.
This trance, this meek acceptance of Trump's obvious across the board incompetence, mendacity and thuggery has the effect of normalizing deeply aberrant governance and represents an existential threat to the country as we know it.
This is a deeply serious issue, not just for the U.S. but for the entire globe. The last two years have lurched onward without catastrophic upheaval thanks to decades of momentum in American and international institutions, a few responsible cabinet members and aides and Trump's learning curve. All of those things are disappearing. Former allies are taking steps to move forward without American support. Despotic regimes are emboldened. Almost every modestly accomplished person in Trump's executive orbit (as well as many odious ones) has fled or been forced out. Trump is replacing them with acting appointments or yes men and more and more forcing his will into policy action.
Consider the man in the eye of this hurricane. Donald Trump is president of the United States. The most powerful office on the planet. He lies so continuously that literally every word that he says is suspect. His qualifications were being born rich and pretending to be a mogul on TV.
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@Rob I don't think we're in a trance - we just have limited options at this point. The important thing is that we get everyone to VOTE!
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@Rob
You're painting with an awfully broad brush, person from Canada.
There is no "meek acceptance" in my neighborhood.
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@Matthew Weflen - This person from Canada is paying a price for your meek acceptance of Trump. Tarriffs are still in place on Canadian steel and aluminum, justified by Trump on the basis of national security because your closest, most reliable ally poses some kind of threat. At the request of the U.S., Canada arrested a Chinese executive several months ago. China has taken action against Canada, arresting several Canadian citizens in China and cancelling massive agricultural contracts. Trump has discussed using the arrested executive as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China, completely throwing Canada under the bus. This isn't just about you. The world suffers when Americans elect a grifter/performance artist to the highest office in the land. It's been over two years now. Charlottesville, pulling children from their mothers' arms at the border, pointless government shutdown, legitimizing North Korea's vicious dictator, and Trump's approval rating is unchanged. There are no marches in the streets. No outcry. Trump is defiling your precious constitution and there's barely a whimper about it. The world is watching in horror as an Emperor with no clothes makes a mockery of America, and I don't see much in the way of resistance.
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Hopefully as resilient as it needs and requires to survive the complete absence of fair media in this country. Democracy will survive just fine.
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I’m not sure that much of this country understands what “democracy” is.
I believe they think democracy permits them to do and say whatever they wish with no repercussions, even if what they wish is to solve a problem with a gun. I fear they feel empowered to live in a white-only, Christian country where civil rights are determined by skin color.
And I am most disturbed to hear them proclaim that their criterion for political success is to grind liberalism into the dirt.
Direct assaults on democratic institutions can be more readily dismissed as ineffective. Of greater concern is the slow subtle damage to the collective psyche of our nation. A consistent drumbeat of "enemy of the people", "deep state", and other pernicious attacks on our institutions will contribute to a weakening of what invisibly binds us together as a nation: Our patriotism. Our belief in a shining city on a hill that guides freedom everywhere. Our belief in our fellow man. Our belief in "asking what we can do for our country". What I fear is the slow erosion of those things resulting from the words of the current President (as well as the silence from those who do not refute such words).
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My glass half full way of looking at it is that we've survived worse--the Civil War, the first Gilded Age, the Depression/WWII, the Civil Rights/Hippie/Vietnam/Nixon era. And I'm comforted by the fact that Trump is too incompetent and lazy to do the work to turn this country into an authoritarian state. We just need a Lincoln or Roosevelt to come along and sort things out (no big deal!).
The glass half empty view is that even though we'll survive Trump, he's laying out the road map for a more competent would-be autocrat and is preparing the citizenry to accept that. I just finished Edward Watt's Mortal Republic about the transformation of the Roman Republic into an Empire, and Watts makes it clear that it's not as simple as saying the Republic was done when Caesar crossed the Rubicon. It took a couple generations of erosion of political norms and partial attempts to establish autocracy to pave the way for Caesar. Trump is showing that the POTUS has been more constrained by norms than laws in crucial areas, and it's become clear that Congress and a fair number of citizens are willing to go along with the flagrant violation of those norms.
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@Hans Pedersen Your second paragraph is spot on.
There appears to be a growing minority of Americans who either don't believe in democracy, or don't care enough to concern themselves over the attacks being made upon it. This will catch up with us.
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"[W]hile the Democratic victory in the House is good news for accountability, it also results in a divided government that can’t get anything done." Does this mean that a GOP-controlled legislature got anything done?
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America's institutions may be holding up fine, but it's the people that are the real problem; the 40% that call themselves Republicans.
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"We"? Our "we" died in November 2016. While I agree that our institutions are, thank God, showing remarkable resilience, as other commenters have already said the problem is with the citizenry. Too many have succumbed to outright lies and propaganda, resulting in overt racism, hate, paranoia, xenophobia. I sometimes lie awake pondering how, under what conditions, the nation might come together again, and for the life of me the only way I see that happening is through the emergence of an existential threat. In fact, we are currently confronted with just such a threat, climate change, yet we don't even agree on that. Now in my late sixties, I fear that I will not live to see the nation regain its sense of community and common purpose. And yet I pray that I am wrong.
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@Michael I am a couple years older than you with the same first name. I agree completely. I give humanity 25 years. I keep hoping for a Come to Jesus climate moment, even as I know if that happens, the Democrats will be blamed for it, too.
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@Michael
I agree, the country we thought we knew is gone and won't be back in our lifetime. Now we know what 40% of our neighbors had simmering just waiting for someone to give it a voice. If DT , as ignorant as we think he is, can manage to hit on this many cylinders -- press, intelligence agencies, rigged elections, and on and on -- then what will an organized, subtle, smooth operator be able to do and will we be able to move quickly enough? I wish I had more confidence in an answer.
Here in the US, the people who are actually in control of something typically own it. Everything else is subject to persuading and developing a sufficient consensus that people coordinate their actions voluntarily. This is very difficult to do, but it is equally difficult to build a consensus in favor of anarchy,
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Recovery from bad leadership takes a long time even in small organizations, much less a nation. Even if he were to leave today, we will have difficulty setting things right again. We are on a precipice and I am afraid.
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I agree that Trump won't manage a coup, partly because I think that underneath all the bullying and bluster, he is a coward.
What I do anticipate, though, is that he will continue to tweet from NYC (and Florida). He will foment conspiracy theories (which will further undermine his base's belief in government and democracy). Having no integrity and absolutely no filters, he will criticize his successor, brag about his own accomplishments (real and imagined), tweet about what he would do in any crisis which arises, and generally try desperately to hold onto the center of attention.
There will be great challenge in this behavior both for his successor and for the media. The new administration will have to make a concerted effort to ignore him. The media, including the MSM, will have a harder time. Trump is entertainment in his outrageousness. He is also click bate. Media types (and all of us, really) are addicted to his latest lies, outrages, fantasies, and unhinged behavior. The media will have to walk back readers' addiction by providing thoughtful, interesting content and resisting the temptation Trump will provide to keep letting him set their agenda.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop
Exactly what he had planned to do had Clinton won.
The media is hopelessly split. There will remain those who support his every word, those who take the opposite view and those who will, no matter what, attempt to show both sides equally. Unfortunately, the population will continue to listen to which ever group tells them what they want to hear.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop
Once he is no longer President his Twitter account can be suspended for violations like threats and inciting violence, which he currently does on a regular basis. If enough people report him I think he'd be shut down on at least that one platform.
Levi tsk you and Ziblat talked about guardrails and norms that democracy such as those in Hungary, Turkey, and Germany weren’t able to maintain because of autocratic leaders. The weakness in this analysis is that it didn’t also look at the weaknesses in the development of the democracy in the people in these nations. If the people are not thoroughly grounded in their dedication and practice of democracy, the governmental aspect of a democracy is vulnerable to usurpation from power hungry politicians. This country has ignored the learning needed to maintain a people’s understanding and beliefs in the practices needed to sustain our democracy. We are therefore weaker than you think we are.
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@Judith MacLaury,
The most recent ranking of our educational systems among the developed nations of the world is 27th; in 1990 we ranked 6th. This decline is, of course, as much a societal failure as it is the system's fault.
We have three teachers in our immediate family; people might be surprised and chagrined to know how much of their classroom time is spent discipling, or even more often, comforting their young students who are not getting much from home. Too much of their teaching time is sacrificed to "parenting".
So, we'd better see to the entire problem, and soon, if we want an informed public who've been taught critical thinking skills or our "democratic republic" will be unrecognizable before long.
Imagine this scenario: polls show Trump likely to lose in the 2020 election. During the last month he repeatedly rails about a "deep state" coup through vote rigging and illegal aliens voting in states which Democrats control. He make irresponsible comments about the 2nd Amendment and how tyranny must not be allowed to take root in this nation. Following the election there is some violence - maybe only a half-dozen incidents. Trump might say that they are Communists trying to overthrow America. In December 2020 he announces another National Emergency in which he declares the election invalid and refuses to leave office. The House and Senate vote to nullify the declaration, he vetoes the bill, and a small minority of the Senate block the veto override. The Cabinet is split: some want to invoke the 25th Amendment, but they cannot find a majority to use that mechanism. The House impeaches Trump, but again a small minority in the Senate block a conviction.
Resiliency can shatter. I try to be as much of an optimist is Mr. Kristof but some mornings I am not.
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Of course American democracy will survive Trump.
But the policies of his inept and often corrupt administration are doing reparable harm to tens of thousands of lives daily and will once again leave the next Democratic president to spend much of his or her term doing cleanup. This is the constant pattern of recent decades ... two steps back as Republicans explode the deficit and harm citizens, one step forward as Democrats push the country up the hill of progress once again.
19
The larger threat than Trump is the GOP, itself -- it paved the way for Trump. The GOP has gone all-in with a strategy that pits it against American democracy.
Packing the courts with like-minded reactionaries, refusing to do their constitutional duties, actively supporting voter suppression, knowingly engaging in voter fraud -- all of this is part of a pattern of conduct that shows that the GOP is betting its future on less and less democracy as the only way for it to endure.
This will continue, regardless of Trump's eventual fate. In the 21st century, either American democracy will survive, or the GOP will survive -- but both of them won't. For one to thrive, the other must be destroyed. This isn't even hyperbole; it's what is going on.
For the majority of Americans who are pro-democracy, that will increasingly mean being anti-Republican.
59
@Daibhidh
Koch Brothers are following James M. Buchanan's ideas See "Property As A Guarantor of Liberty" written in 1993. Thus the Republican party is really the party of Buchanan.
Remember all of the judgeship's were available to fill under Obama but as with the Supreme Court, McConnell refused to bring them to a vote. Now under Trump, suddenly McConnell is bringing them up to vote to stack all the courts with "Anti-Liberty" Buchanan type of judges, even though most are not worthy or qualified to be Federal Judges.
The real long-term threat to democracy in America is that the legislative branch continues to outsource it's Constitutional powers to the executive branch. On matters of war, trade, and now possibly appropriations -- all of which are explicitly defined as legislative powers in the Constitution -- Congress continues to delegate to presidents of both parties.
That said, the United States also has a defense against tyranny that many other countries do not enjoy -- state's rights. If Trump's Justice Department does not hold him to account, for example, the State of New York might.
24
My Swedish friends are flabbergasted when I state that the Trump presidency demonstrates the strength of the American democratic system. But in fact, despite the constant daily reminder of Trump's inadequacies in European newspapers and news programs, the damage caused by Trump is of a limited scale. Even withdrawing from the Paris Agreement doesn't actually have any tangible meaning.
On one issue, though, I stand apart from many. I do not wish that Trump ends up in prison despite his nefarious past (and present). It would be such a horrid stain on the office of the US presidency. Let Trump be pardoned by the next president and slide into a hopefully brief phase of insignificance, not unlike his role model, Richard Nixon.
11
@Michael
I respectfully disagree. To let trump walk after the dishonor and corruption he has brought to the presidency would not only be a stain on the presidency, it would be a stain on all of us. He, and others, should pay the price for what he has done, and we should insist on it.
3
Trump is already a horrid stain on our democracy. And he is breaking it. I feel that, if the accusations are supported by appropriate evidence, then we MUST apply meaningful penalties
3
@Michael
Oh, no. I disagree. It would be an even greater, more horrid stain on the office of theUS presidency to have a criminal of this magnitude, of this level of utter corruption, who lied, cheated and stole not only throughout his entire life, but to gain this lofty and sacred office, to be able to slink away with a pardon and with no discernible penalties (one cannot shame the shameless). Previous pardon of Nixon was arguably “for the good of the country,” but this one needs to serve prison time. Like a head on a stick in the town square, it just might deter the next bad actor.
1
At 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2021, if the former president refuses to leave the White House, the new president can order the Secret Service to arrest him for criminal trespass and remove him from the White House grounds. No fuss and no violence will there be, except if the cameras manage to capture the sight as he is being led out. As stupid as Trump is, I still don't believe he is stupid enough to allow this to happen.
3
The depth and breadth of this administration's incompetence protects our democracy from any form of a coup---there is afterall a certain level of smarts needed to pull off a government take over. What troubles me, however, is our country, for the next two years, will be on a treadmill---a lot of running in place and going nowhere. In the world we now live in, the dangers of running in place are mounting.
13
I strongly agreed with Kristof. The democracy of America was constituted and has been amended for itself in order to be better. The Rockian ideal and liberal capitalism would sustain the regime. A coup contradicts the democratic fundamental in America, in a practical way that the destruction of the current system will deprive benefits from many, particularly from the ruling classes in different fields, which is actually the usual aim for a coup. Mr. trump himself probably does not desire such a turmoil. The real aim of speaking of the “coup”, if anything effective, seems to intimidate electoral constituencies.
1
Saying that 'Republican like Mitch McConnell have refused to stand up ...' misses the point: their game plan is to tacitly encourage him to make himself president-for-life. And, 'It
ain't over 'til it's over': despite the investigations and free press, Cohen might prove right-> no peaceful (or indeed, any) transition of power. And if so, it'll be lights out for the investigations and the free press. GOP rejoicing for 1000 years. (forget the courts: they have no army).
8
Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s study at Princeton revealed the highest increases in mortality in the U.S. were among middle age to older white males. The three leading causes of death were cirrhosis, opiate overdose and suicide by gun. Trump losing the 2020 election might provoke a fourth leading cause of death - as in suicide by attempted coup.
4
When I teach my students about the Civil War and relate it the Civil Rights era- 1968 in particular- most cannot believe what happened in America (says a lot about High School history). They usually get a laugh when we watch folks- like you- claiming our "Democracy" is in danger with Trump.
Sorry Nick, we've survived worse. Only folks consumed with their hatred of Trump- including "historians" (who also hate Trump)-seriously considers him as the beginning of the fall of America.
You need to get out!! Try this: Visit a college class, not some elite college, but a school that has many first-year college students who commute. In them, you will see the hope their parents put on them, and their desire to succeed in America.
In a word, you will see the future of America. Thankfully, I see it everyday, and unlike you and the folks you interviewed, I see a bright American future.
Trump can't change that. The Civil War didn't. 1968 didn't. America will endure.
7
@profwilliams Maybe you should read the article. Nicholas Kristof isn't arguing that Trump is the beginning of the fall of America. He's as hopeful as your students are. Realistic, but hopeful.
BTW, I teach at an "elite college," and my students are just like yours. Not sure what you're implying, but there's no need to play the class card.
14
@otherprof
I believe profwilliams is talking about the ability of students in his class to be given a chance at upward mobility.
And no, your elite college does not provide the benefits, as you are able to select from a very large pool of applicants: applicants who could probably succeed anyway.
And because of preparation, the majority of your students already come from the top quintile.
I find it interesting to note that those who deploy the term “class war” are those who already possess all the advantages.
Perhaps you should take some time and check out the institutions doing the heavy lifting of preparing people to enter the American dream.
1
@profwilliams
Did you read the article? Your point is similar to Mr. Kristof’s.
1
The creeping tentacles of authoritarianism have been suffocating the lower ranks of our class based system for decades, it’s baked into the justice system, now even more so with the appointment of partisan approved pre-picks from the Federalist Society. Separate but unequal, based on money, is in play. Money will keep you out of jail and money will buy the politician of choice as well.
If my posts have one central theme it is this: powerless, financially strapped people are not getting their voices heard. Instead of being part of the conversation, they are talked down to and told everything is just fine. Meanwhile taxes go down for the rich, the minimum wage has remained at a ridiculously low rate for over a decade and deaths of despair are on the rise. Tell me, how does that jibe with a strong democracy?
24
I don't get how some people think there is a "deep state" running things. If it's so "deep," secretive, effective,and hidden, how come we know about it?
3
@Ken Hanig, for openers, there is no way that Trump could instigate everything our government is doing. He is not that bright and he is too busy tweeting. Even when the Dems were in power, the Military/Industrial train just kept on chugging. There is no difference, on core matters, between the Establishment Dems and the GOP. We know about it by paying attention.
3
My problem is determining how many people are involved I the deep state. This implies a vast conspiracy. And you seem to indicate it is the military industrial complex.
I agree there is too much power there, but at the same time I see Trump supporting rather than attacking it. So why are the trump minions so adamant about this particular conspiracy theory?
And where is the evidence?
2
@Dsmith, when Obama was president, we did NOT bring the troops home; did not prosecute bankers or even investigate. We spent more money on the bank bailouts then we did on stimulus. The bailouts paid off the mortgages with our tax dollars but the Dems still allowed the banks to foreclose on mortgages that were rigged, by the banks, to fail. That was one of the biggest transfers of wealth the country has ever seen.More? The only thing that made the affordable Care Act affordable was that taxpayers picked up the bulk of the premiums. More?College loan deb soared. Obama was in favor of the Keystone pipeline and they favored the TPP. Trump is simply a distraction .
1
Again, in terms of leading those who would like to overturn Democracy, Trump is a flash in the pan. Millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump, but Trump got accidentally elected to Office. And had he actually been the office holder he promised he'd be we'd be in a different place right now, but no, he reverted to form and went back to being the Page Six President. It's going to take a much deeper soul to lead any permanent assault on or system than Trump can provide. BTW, that peaceful transfer of power, once he's no longer President the Secret Service will take him by the scruff of the neck and show him to the curb to make way for the real one.
2
@Richard Mclaughlin, I believe the rough transfer of power wil have more to do with the people than the President.
4
The reaction to 9/11 -- spying on citizens, secret courts where only the government appears before the judges, search warrants against libraries, not to mention state and state-sponsored kidnapping and torture -- showed how easily a nation can begin the slide into fascism. Trump's assault on the press, the judiciary, and intelligence and other government agencies, not to mention encouraging racism and right-wing violence, are domestic catalysts for fascism.
And long before 9/11 (and after, Citizens United being an example), the melding of government and corporate power is another of fascism's defining features.
Will democracy survive? It could go either way. And it's not going in the right direction.
14
If Mitch McConnell would do his job, trump would be stopped in his tracks. Yet Mitch has turned the functions and oversight from an independent branch of the government to an annex of trump's presidency.
22
@stan
That's not a bug it's a feature. Mitch McConnell's assertion that his number priority was to make Barack Obama a one term president as America was going with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression tells you everything you need to know about him; party and political agenda over country.
3
Americans are way too comfortable on this subject. My dad, who was born in 1909 and lived through 2 World Wars, overseas in the second one, impoverished during the great Depression, gave me the best of wisdom I carry to this day:
'Nobody really thinks that something truly terrible can happen during THEIR lifetime,..... and then it does." Seems like the older I get, the SMARTER my father becomes.
61
@Mark
I agree, we never thought his country would convert back to racism or allow White Nationalist to march again in our streets, but we have and they are. I think our children are not taught the value of this Democracy and that it is worth fighting and dying for. No one every thought Trump would be elected President, including him.
4
Historical results are not an indicator of future performance.
6
Nick, I agree with your last sentence. A sealed indictment can be unsealed January 2021 or 2025 and by god the sitting president better not pardon 46-1. On a positive note this "presidency" may give a boost to the idea that the electoral college is an anachronism and ready to be dismantled.
22
@Pat I think a pardon might be required. I shudder to think of the backlash from his base if he's put behind bars. And what purpose would that solve, exactly? I doubt he'll be knocking over liquor stores for cash. His humiliation will be complete, and the banks had pretty much stopped doing business with him before he ran for office anyway.
6
What purpose, then, is served by putting any non-violent offenders behind bars? Here's a man who has great power, abusing it in plain sight for his own benefit. The depth and breadth of his corruption and the harm it's done deserve more than humiliation (which he would turn into triumph among his cult followers anyway). It deserves punishment. Why should he be immune?
2
Democracies collapse when the military aligns with a political leader. If there is no sign of that, then there is no cause to worry
13
@michjas the officer corps does not worry me, but lots of these militia are from the ranks. I am not worried...yet.
1
@michjas
Yet.
1
The US did not lose the Great War-, as did Germany- which was the bleeding wound that brought on it's demise in 1933. Our great power and good luck is that as bad as our politics get-we're still 50 old mini states and none of them ready to let afew angry people remake the central government, based on one man's whim-especially a fat, rich New York landlord.
What reporters and writers need to do is not use the language and ideas of badly socialized, loud extremists on either side of politics. We have a government, and governments need people to move the mail, to pay "our" bills, and to maintain itself ready to go to war-or not.
Basically the US must "work" to keep the lights on and the "rent" paid. Trump is now a part of all this government. If he cannot accept that, he ought never to have taken the oath of office to support it.That Includes the forms of election that put him in the White House-which may pull him back out.
Talk of resistance is easy and cheap. It costs no money for bullets, arms, and organization. Anyone with a telephone or internet can now pretend to be an armed resistance fighter-but reality, as long as people want their mail and retirement benefits-hospital and insurance- is that we all must play by the same rules.
9
Great comment. I've rarely heard it put that way: Trump can't remake government to his eternal satisfaction. Moreover, if he can't take the heat, he needs to go. in sick and tired of reading about his " fury" about investigations. public service is an honor--Trump seems to think government should serve him, not the other way around. if he's angry at being investigated, its his own damned fault. He shouldn't have done the things he's done. "Above the law"--makes me sick.
36
@meloop, Trump is not the leader, he is the distraction.
I think the most interesting part of this article is:
“I’ve mentioned it 50 times,” Trump raged, according to Mayer’s account. “And nothing’s happened.”
You can just imagine him speaking in the code Cohen alluded to, knowing exactly what he wanted, but not being overt about it and and expecting a minion to pick up the ball and run with it.
Related to the things that haven't happened despite Trump's desires it suggests staff use his purposely ambiguous orders to also purposely not act on many of them...
25
We really need to stop our Chicken Little like panic that Democracy is falling. Trump was not crowned King and in 2020 we can give him his walking papers and be done with it. Trump is a creation of our own arrogance and we will have to live with him until 2020. In 2016 we were so sure Trump was going to lose that few really thought he had a serious chance of winning even Trump himself was shocked he won.For our own solace we remind ourselves that he didn't win the popular vote but that is crying in our beer after our team lost. Now as we wait for Republican Bob Mueller or Cohen,in Trump's words,The Rat to save us Trump sits at 46 percent approval in recent polls. If all of the upcoming house investigations of Trump led to Trump's impeachment does anyone in the right mind think The Senate is going to hold a trial? The same Senate that would not even give Obama's Supreme Court nominee a hearing? If Mueller does not find collusion, which many now suspect, Trump is going to run to the end zone with that. With all of legal problems Trump is facing he has to win another term just to keep himself and his family out of prison and the poor house. It must feed Trump's fragile Ego to know he strikes so much fear into the hearts of The Left. if we want to make sure American Democracy survives we must field a candidate who can take the fight to Trump.The beauty contest currently going on is disheartening to me. I want a brawler ready to give it back the way Trump is going to give it.
20
Joe Biden. he's too old, and he has his problems, but he's a brawler and how I'd love to see a debate between the two. you can take it to the bank that Trump wouldn't dare "shark" him around the debate stage.
8
@ChristineMcM I think a Biden / Harris ticket would run the table.
1
Where was that “brawler” during the thomas hearings?
1
In 2016, Tump encouraged his followers to monitor the polls. The media then spread rumors of violence even though it was widely known that the threats were empty. A majority of Americans feared violence based on what they had read. But the polls were calm. It appears that the same game is in the works for 2020.
5
Much more often than not, Trump has respected our established institutions. He has sought change through regulations and laws and he has abided by adverse judicial decisions. There are no instances where he defied Congress or the courts without regard for the unconstitution.
The media predicted that Trump would resort to violence at the polls in 2016. It didn’t happen. Nor did he tamper with the 2018 elections. Across the board, when Trump wins he wins and when he loses he loses.
There is no good reason to expect violence in 2020. And suggesting that it is a real threat is irresponsible, and is one reason why Americans distrust the media.
5
@michjas
They cannot separate their emotions from facts. This remains the problem with progressives.
1
Appreciate the balancing effort, but the threat of a man who speaks and acts like a tyrant-wannabe, supported by a political party utterly without democratic principles, is real. That he has not yet entered full-on authoritarian mode does not mean he will not when under stress as his multitude of crimes are exposed or he is faced with losing his shield of presidential immunity. Or if there were another 9/11-level catastrophe which throws ever more power his way and creates an *actual* national emergency. There is nothing preventing Putin from creating such chaos to consolidate his influence over Trump and the Republican minority and further degrade our system and our culture. That the worst had not yet happened (despite the magnitude of evil that Trump has already perpetrated) is no comfort.
2
michjas,
"Much more often than not, Trump has respected our established institutions." I don't think, respected, is the correct word. Trump has been forced by Congress or the courts to step back. What does "unconstitution" mean? "The media predicted that Trump would resort to violence at the polls in 2016." This was not unreasonable, given he encouraged violence at his political rallies. "There is no good reason to expect violence in 2020" Trump still encourages violence and gives it his vocal approval, Saudi prince MBS, Philippine leader Duterte and who can forget the love of his life, Little Rocket Man? "And suggesting that it is a real threat is irresponsible, and is one reason why Americans distrust the media" Trump defends muderous dictators and violent groups like American Nazis, it is not a far streach to envision violence at polling places as a result.
2
Yes, our institutions have shown resilience to Trump. But the threat to American democracy isn't Trump, it's the things that allowed Trump to be elected. Those include concentration of wealth among the super-rich, corresponding economic decline and insecurity among the bottom 80%, corruption of politics by a tsunami of money, and a precipitous decline in social trust in institutions and in each other.
Hard to see a thriving democracy while those destabilising factors remain. Restoring our democracy will require so much more than outlasting one wannabe autocrat.
73
@Chuck Berger
I would argue what's more destabilizing is not recognizing the results of a free and fair election.
2
@AACNY
But was it free and fair? American intelligence agencies seem to be agreed across the board that there was tampering.
4
@AACNY
Oh? When did we have a free and fair election?
4
The system will not collapse but it has already eroded to an unfixable level.
Let's take one simple example. Trump's constant lying. Everyone knows it, half of the country, half of congress and Fox State Television doesn't seem to care.
This simple act of betrayal from an important democratic value (presidents do not lie to the people) has de facto become a new standard. A next president, caught in a lie, can brush this off, pointing to the 10,000 lies of Trump.
And America will be worse off because of this simple norm that has been violated so deeply.
48
Mr Kristof
I do not share your sanguine vision of the resilience and value of US institutions today.
One need not be a Trump supporter to state that the electoral system is rigged in America. The absence of a unified voting method (how can dysfunctional machines not be eliminated before an election?), the manipulation of voter eligibility on a local level, and the anachronism of the electoral college are merely three examples of the sorry state of America's democratic process.
Finally, the US justice system is obviously skewed by money. Perhaps Trump's wealth and swagger will not grant him unlimited protection from prosecution. That said, it is a Hobbesian nightmare for the masses who do not possess either the finances or the savvy about how to defend their rights from a carceral system largely structured to punish the condemned well beyond the extent of crimes committed purely out of the profit motive. So it's really too early to cry 'victory' over the Trump Years yet.
24
Regarding the resilience of American democracy, how resilient is it to our failure to halt climbing emissions driving increased drought and wildfire and storms?
We’ve been seeing numerous impacts catching many scientists by surprise with how soon they are occurring. In 2014 two independent teams of scientists reported that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely irreversibly retreating and energy is going into the net melting of ice all over the planet.
The paleoclimate record indicates that increasing global temperature by just 1.5-2°C above preindustrial temperature commits the system to an eventual 6-9m of sea level rise, a large fraction of which could arrive within the next 100 years.
Corals may not survive this century of warming and acidifying oceans, and droughts and floods linked to global warming—and conflict linked to those droughts—have already caused four countries to face famine.
We are also seeing numerous amplifying feedbacks: loss of albedo (heat reflectivity) from ice melt, permafrost melt, methane release and massive wildfires; the Earth is starting to wrest any possible further human control of the climate away.
We're about out of time on this, if not already, and leaders are not only still acting as if this is not a planetary emergency, but some are acting as if there isn’t a problem at all.
13
Mr. Friedman says,
"Republican leaders ... have also refused to stand up to Trump and have allowed certain authoritarian values to infect a wing of the party".
As far as I can tell it is very nearly the entire Republican party that is infected with authoritarian values, not just a "wing".
Moderate Republicans who support the Constitution and who understand that compromise is crucial to effective politics are the minority these days.
The current Republican party has become the party of greed and self-interest; its members consistently put party ahead of country.
37
We may not survive Trump's policies on climate.
A population of a few million human hunter-gatherers was apparently beyond the carrying capacity of the planet as many places where we showed up the megafauna disappeared.
Around 10-12,000 years ago, when large climate oscillations settled down, we developed agriculture which allowed us to double our population many times into the billions.
But agriculture faces big challenges if we don’t change our ways soon (1), as do our fisheries, and if they both decline significantly, forcing us back to being largely hunter-gatherers, history tells us that out of every 1000 people you see maybe one survives.
Except this time it won’t be meat on the hoof with Mastadons and large, flightless birds and picking up lobsters off of New England beaches.
Going back to hunting and gathering during the current 6th mass extinction is poor timing, so the one in a thousand could prove wildly optimistic.
1 IPCC Western N America drought 1900-2100
http://icons.wxug.com/hurricane/2013/drought-western-us-1900-2100.png
6
I wouldn't be suggest we are out of the woods by a long shot.
While I don't think that Trump has the where withal to personally pull a false-flag operation that shakes the society (imagine an attack on the scale of 911 engineered by a group of Saudi zealots or Russian mobsters.) What would the nation, bamboozled into believing such an attack is an extension of existing terrorism, do anything other than rally around the prez?
America's home-grown oligarchs, if the testimony of General Smedley Butler is credible, sought to engineer a coup in 1933 to replace FDR, who was bringing "socialism" to America.
Is it unreasonable to think that some of today's billionaires are not as dedicated to their 'cause' when faced with the challenge of stopping 'the green new deal' as they were the original New Deal?
Those who align with the militant right literally pine for a race war or revolution. We've seen prosecutions of folks who have sought to spark rebellion by plotting to blow up government buildings.
We know that a key to Trump's support is the roughly 20 percent of folks who hold reactionary political opinions. One group, mentioned because of their moniker, are the three-percenter's whose name choice is based on the notion that the 1776 Revolution involved only three-percent of the 'colonies' population under arms.
Hate and fear are emotions that have been stoked by many more than just Trump over the past 40 years. Our ordeal is far from over.
18
One option to strenghten the Republic is to give political parties the "option" to run two candidates in the general election, rather than just one. Both of the main parties would have to run the same number of candidates in the general election -either two for each party or one candidate for each party. The exact number - either two or one - can be put up for a vote in a referendum shortly before the first national convention.
I don't believe this an extreme burden on the free speech of the parties; if, say, ten viable candidates started out why would it be unreasonable for voters to tell the parties ok you need to choose two for the general election? There will be frontrunners; Consider this: if all but one candidate are ultimately "illegitimate" then the legitimacy of the state primaries themselves is in question.
It is not at all clear that the Constitution and the country are resilient enough to survive poor choices in the face of 50+ years of warning about excess emissions and climate change.
Thus far, every attempt to use both the apparatus of the Presidency, from LBJ and beyond, and the Congress, have abysmally failed, despite input from both the scientific community and the national security organizations.
It may be that the United States Constitution is irrelevant on these matters, with its disinterest in "foreign entanglements". Whether it is the U.S. Constitution or a polity which is SO comfortable and wallowing in its successes that it does not see the risk to its own future, children, and grandchildren, physically and economically, the outcome will be decided by rules which cannot be assuaged by a clever presentation on Fox News or MSNBC.
You have been warned, as you collectively have been for 50 years or more. People who have tried to warn, have done their best. It is no longer their responsibility. It's up to you to realize the problem and do something. And if you don't, you own the consequences.
10
@Jan Galkowski
Regarding 50 years, it's been 51 years since 1968, when the glaciologist John Mercer warned that West Antarctica would be a problem for sea level rise in 50 years if we continued with "industrial pollution of the atmosphere".
He missed it by 4 years because in 2014 we got the news that ice sheet was very likely irreversibly retreating.
11
Why is it so hard to believe the FBI, CIA, Department of Justice and the courts are trying to seek the truth while president is lying...versus a conspiracy in which thousands of career law enforcement people and civil servants sworn to be non-partisan are all working against one very honest man?
Is it the president's past history of truthfulness and integrity that makes people think he's an innocent victim? He certainly behaves like a man with nothing to hide. Why, just look at his taxes.
25
@JR
How about a little truthfulness on the FBI and CIA's actions? To seek to undermine a presidential candidate on the basis of a false "dossier" is much more potentially destabilizing than all other events combined.
This vendetta against Trump has blinded people to the egregious behavior of the CIA and FBI. Shame on anyone who looks the other way because it's Trump.
@JR
Many a truth is spoken in jest.
My wife and I are sick with worry for children and grandchildren living in America.
We have lived in Red America and the people that vote are as bright as the people that vote in country's elections. I can't believe that anyone who thinks rationally believes that Donald Trump will make America great.
I can only surmise the America so beloved by the media and the politicians is causing the GOP base to able to say at the ballot box that America does not work for me.'
There may be someone out there who believes that Donald J Trump is good for America but it seems to me that most anyone who can fill out a ballot knows Donald J Trump is not someone who will help in making your country the United States of America.
I don't understand the flag, and the prayers and the false patriotism of a political party whose goal seems to be to destroy your country.
4
@JR - Because it would require people who supported Trump to admit that they were wrong. People don't like admitting their own faults. It is compounded further when their decision has disastrous consequences. People deep in their hearts may understand that it was a very poor choice to vote for Trump. Now, as the truth sinks in, they don't want to face the reality that they contributed to this disaster.
Then there is the other group who have no morals. They believe as long as they get pro-life supreme court justices and get "lower taxes" they will simply ignore Trump's transgressions.
Ultimately, you are trying to understand Trump's base using logic. It's like the faith his base likes to cling to. It's not based on science or fact. It's based on just sheer belief. So, if you've already turned your life over to a diety that has no manifestation in this world other than your sheer belief, it is not at all a hard jump to accept other fairy tales like all of the lies Trump tells.
It's truly a shame when Trump supporters genuinely believe he's Christian when he is no more Christian than Mohammed the Prophet ever was, yet they excoriate President Obama who actually was a Christian.
2
Thank you, Mr. Kristof....Your opinion piece gives me a ray of hope and helps calm my nerves a bit. I spend too much time watching MSNBC and reading articles about Trump which can cause me anxiety, and then leads me to take a step back and try to chill. I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s and do not hold a favorable opinion of the Putin Regime, nor anything else Trump.
16
Just first and foremost, what Trump “will” or “will not” do in terms of abuse of power while in office remains to be seen. I will admit I don’t know, but... neither does the author.
But the thing that gets glossed over is that we look at what’s on the surface (leaks, reports, testimony, etc.) and imagine we have a whole picture; almost certainly underestimating the amount of things that will almost certainly only be discovered after the fact. Just imagine a stranger who has rummaged through your home for 4 years without interruption. You’ll never truly know what they’ve gotten up to and can only hope there’s no bodies in the walls.
So even when Trump leaves office, it will be far too soon to say “whew, we made it!” We will have irresponsibly allowed a child to play at length with an X-ray machine pointed at our body politic without shielding. The scope of the damage may not be immediately apparent, but time will tell what the butcher’s bill will be on this little folly of ours.
40
The concern that Trump may "undermine" or even "overturn" American democracy is not limited to "liberal circles." The concern and worry and urgency has leapt over the boundaries imagined by Mr. Kristof
10
Mr, Kristof, exactly how was the rule of law strengthened after Watergate by Ford’s pardon of Nixon and Reagan’s escape from impeachment over Iran Contra?
40
I agree with Levitsky, the new majority in the House, preserved our system. The system is being put to the test but unless there is a major real crisis, I am not concerned that a divided government can't get anything done.
I was concerned after we learned that Russia had tampered with social media to defeat Mrs. Clinton that in the two months between the Election and the Inauguration, that the Congress, the independent Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department did not bring the evidence forward in support of a suit for the Supreme Court to decide on the validity of the Election. I certainly think the Russian interference was more significant than the "hanging chad" in Florida which was referred to the Supreme Court. So somehow our system did not respond as well as it should have after the last election.
Which leads me to the time interval between November 6, 2020 and Inauguration of a President other than President Trump, which I believe will be a very sensitive period for our Republic with the potential for weakening the social, political and economic systems that could tip the United States into economic decline.
So I am pleased that your column may have provoked some thinking about what the government should do to prevent a very destabilizing situation after the next election.
Keep thinking.
15
@james jordan
A gentle assessment of our current situation. Interesting to maintain, given the horrendous and burgeoning pile of mounting evidence of massive, appalling, wide-spread criminality.
Indeed, this is far more significant than any hanging chad. And that election was stolen, too. So....
1
Trump chastised Republicans who plan to vote against his emergency wall telling them, "This isn't about constitutionality." Translated, that means Trump doesn't care about the Constitution of the United States of America, he only cares about senators following his orders. Trump and all Senators take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Today, Trump told them to ignore Constitutionality and bow to his will.
36
Of course we’ll survive. We probably will survive climate change as well, but we’ve been set back so far and in so many ways that our prospects are seriously diminished.
Our descendants will not be thanking us for building well, as our ancestors did for us.
12
@RjW But, hey, the streaming video is great! And look what she's wearing! And Praise!
@RjW
What "ancestors"? Are you referring to the republic's founders? If so, please note our present predicament. This is because the founder's layered approach to checking power ultimately can be gamed. It's all a gentleman's agreement (please excuse "gentleman's" on several accounts), a handshake that we all assume can always hold all this together.
People, including Mr. Kristof (who is chronically and historically compromised at best), need to really "get" that there is no deus ex machina that will prove the permanence and durability of the United States of America and sweep away this menace. "trump" has cracked the code, or rather through malfeasant lazy mobsterism he is merrily sailing along that path, with a parry to every riposte, and a riposte at every parry. So far we have no guarantee he is not succeeding. And what he intends to succeed at is sad for the republic.
And it's sad the eighteenth century cobble those founders came up with is not a guarantee of permanence. "A republic, if you can keep it." - B. Franklin.
2
While I agree with Nicholas that US institutions seem to be weathering the storm of current right-wing authoritarianism, he fails to mention that the rest of the world is now seeing an upsurge of demagogues and a decrease in democracy...something that a strong US and its allies worked hard to counter. But not any more...how will the world fair after 2 more years (or in my nightmares 6 more years) of Trump?
18
@Brian Turner Yes. In the last decades, look at the countries that have drifted or gone right or further right: US, UK, Australia, BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), Indonesia, Philippines, Hungary, Israel, Saudi, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Egypt, many of the former SSRs/stans.
That's a great majority of world power and population. Does not bode well. Fear. And fearmongering. Stress. Globalization. Pace of change. Looming climate disaster.
Mr. Kristof, I wouldn't sweat the "divided government can't get anything done" bit, The other name for that is "checks and balances"; the Founders built that into the Constitution because sometimes it's better to do nothing than to do something really bad.
7
As an 80 aged optimist, I wish I could agree. However,
Capt. Kaos has no problem accelerating the most detrimental effect of climate change, no interest is improving health care, or maintaining strategic alliances, the law, honesty, decency, democracy, or even gun laws.
I have no doubt that even unelected, he will do everything to prevent the peaceful transition of power
47
@Denis E Coughlin
Yes -- false flag attacks, anyone ? A country which allowed the opiate and obesity epidemics to develop to the detriment of MILLIONS of American lives will have no compunction to engineer an attack sacrificing countless innocents to advance certain sinister agendas. There are many examples in the past, such as the acknowledged MK-ULTRA experiments conducted on unwitting members of the US military and civilians as well.
I continue to believe that the default defense agains a fascist takeover, either precipitous or gradual, would be 10s of millions of people going out on a general strike and simultaneously carrying out a massive boycott of all but critical purchasing. We have our work and we have our consumerism as the two things, maybe the only two things, that those in power cannot afford to lose. The pressure would be so great that those two efforts would be short-lived. But it would take just about all of us.
14
When we stop pretending that all is well and right with our president, we can probably move forward as a Nation and Democracy again. America can do better than just Survive.
Earlier a young friend called, and we had an uplifting weather exchange about the progress of her family, the children, her parents, and plans for the year to come. It is the first time that she placed a political note in our conversation, and mentioned The Hearings. Which ones, I asked on a light note, it seems that there have been so many.
To sum it up and from a strong Republican family, she does not understand why there appear to be no responsible, decent politicians surrounding Trump, taking action. Her children are reaching their teen years, and I wondered how they view the role of the presidency under Trump.
Americans are far more resilient than they realize and we are not all planning to move to New Zealand. Somewhere along the way, we got sloppy and complacent in our social ways and thinking.
Democracy in America is being placed to the test, as once warned a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, and we are being challenged to rise, as one Nation under the sun; one country with a richness of culture, a multifaceted rainbow of people across the globe.
Orwell was not quite right in forecasting that it would take an alien evil staring at us in the face to turn us around, and put an end to Fascism.
The Democrats to unite and help the ailing Republican Party. Two Wings are needed to soar.
6
@Miss Ley
2 things:
1) Orwell was a Brit, born in India. He wasn't pondering us, necessarily. In any case,
2) "trump" if about as alien as you can possibly get.
1
It is overly simplistic to think of Trump as the only problem. Bigger questions include...can the 60% diminish the power of Fox propaganda enough to extract some of the 40% from that Trump cult? Can the US revert to a country with 2 political parties who base policies on a common set of facts? (right now we have only one such party). Can the Republican party ever revert to a party that cares more about the rule of law than wielding power at all costs? The answer must be yes to all three of these questions if the US is to remain a world power, or even a civilized country. Nothing that's happened in the last 2 years ensures that the answer will be yes. Overturning Citizens United, and abolishing the electoral college and the current format of the US Senate would help.
41
It's nice to be optimistic but Trump is literally the tip of the political iceberg. He is the physical manifestation of the darker side of the human psyche which has been expressed by tens of millions of Americans. They are intoxicated by their daily fix of Fox Make Believe and are literally addicted to fake information which nurtures their assorted hatreds and fuels their ongoing anger. They are eager to see the country fail, in part to justify and commiserate in their own sense of personal failure. Trump is the active symptom of the underlying problem and hopefully "our" institutions will hold him in check for two more years. Whether the Dems can offer a program and or candidate to reverse the current course of events is anyone's guess, but to underestimate Trump's ongoing support, despite what the polls may suggest, would be foolhardy.
45
"Almost a quarter of Republicans said in a poll last year that “President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.”"
Let him try---this old lady will march in the streets, as long and as often as I have to.
As to institutions holding, well, OK, but barely. Morale is low, resources are limited, and the president's likely strategy is to so starve his bete noirs that they can't rear their ugly heads and do him any more damage.
Next stop Executive stonewalling, yet another example of setting himself above the law. I hope the committee chairs fight tooth and nail to stop this latest abuse of power.
I fear I'm not as sanguine as you, Nicholas, but I'm hearing what you say. When you think of it, our problem is less Trump and more the overall levels of ignorance aided and abetted by Trump propaganda machine, FOX News.
Trump will go eventually--age has a way of catching up. But we'll still be left with plenty of Republicans, just ready to continue attacking the country they profess to love so much.
139
@ChristineMcM
Just marching in the streets doesn't really cut it anymore.
3
@ChristineMcM
The American people need to channel the resilience that has got them this far. An honest analysis will reveal that is all any of us has that we can rely on, our personal resilience. Keep on keeping on with your comments and insights.
5
If Donald Trump loses re-election and attempts a coup, he'll be foiled.
But what if Trump wins re-election? What if the liberal opposition affirms its destiny of pitching its big tent in the smallest political space it can find, and Trump wins in spite of himself? We'll then face something far more dangerous than a coup attempt by a man who has no real allies other than a mob.
Let us Democrats hope for a Republican primary challenge that takes the wind out of Trump's sails, a possibility that could grow rapidly as his legal troubles mount. Let's also work for a resounding repudiation of Trumpism across the electoral board, and not just an ideologically gratifying squeaker in the presidential race.
Over the longer term, let's try to make sure that American democracy is sturdy enough to withstand repeated onslaughts from the plutocratic Right, led by champions cleverer than Donald Trump.
26
@Longestaffe -- "What if the liberal opposition affirms its destiny of pitching its big tent in the smallest political space it can find"
Closely related is the problem of it pitching its tent in the political space of the less crazy Republicans, thinking it can win them over, and that its own base has nowhere to go but to vote Republican-Lite. That too produced defeat.
8
@Mark Thomason
Thanks for your reply.
The problem you mention is closely related in the sense that it's hard to suggest that Democrats are in danger of becoming too narrow in their appeal without having it taken to mean that they should try to win over Republicans. What I mean, as I'm sure you appreciate, is that they should not give up their appeal to people who are less than heavily invested in progressive aims and attitudes. Especially the attitudes.
I read your comments. If you read mine, you understand that I don't advocate Republican-Lite objectives.
3
Kristoff states “reporters have not been intimidated.” I seem to recall 5 news people murdered in Annapolis and others receiving pipe bombs just months ago. Certainly individual reporters might not feel or act intimidated. But these are chilling acts against a free press, and a sad tragedy for those killed and their families.
45
Yes, so let's be proud of weathering four years of Trump, and let's use the power of the vote to do something about it! I'm all for that.
Hooray for American democracy! In the end, it really was the best system, just as we were taught! Our Founders were right all along!
For sure, Mother Nature will witness all this, breathe a sigh of relief, and postpone the flooding of our coastlines, the death of the oceans, the failure of our crops, and the resulting mass migration and turmoil that forces the collapse of modern civilization.
I just hope she isn't watching Fox News.
10
I’ll vote for the Presidential candidate that is so strong and honest that they commit to writing into law the things which were known for 240 years as the norms which ruled our government’s conduct.
2
@DRS Thank you for expressing what I've been thinking! All of the "norms" we keep hearing about that Trump ignores MUST be codified into law. We can't go through this again.
6
It’s worth remembering that when Jefferson was elected President, the Federalists almost took up arms against the Republicans. Yes we will survive. Let’s remember that we have been here before and we will come through as one nation.
1
@Jason
The Republican party did not emerge until the mid 1850's.
To my knowledge, no sitting President has ever refused to accept the outcome of a national election. Trump likes to be the first to brake norms, however, so it certainly is a concern I have for the wanna-be dictator.
I think Mr. Kristof has a good read here, and his international experience no doubt makes him a credible expert in terms of nations and the institutions that hold them together. But if Mr. Kristof is wrong, what is the procedure for congress and the courts to remove a POTUS who is not re-elected but refuses to accept the outcome?
I hope they are formulating their plan, because I believe that is where we are headed. The US military will need to have their own plan as well, especially if Trump loses re-election (he will) and orders the military to protect his power. They should refuse any such orders, and their justification would be simple - their oath to protect the US constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
41
@PJ And make no mistake, Dump is an enemy -- both foreign and domestic.
3
We will survive Trump. We won't survive the decay of democratic institutions caused by other factors.
Money in politics, thanks to the Supreme Court, is a cancer that has metastasized in our system.
Gerrymandering, of which both parties are guilty but which has been elevated to a high art by Republican state legislatures since 2010, is making voting increasingly irrelevant.
Congress is a gridlocked, partisan swamp, leaving existential issues like immigration, climate change, and economic inequality unsolved for decades.
Voting rights are under systemic attack since the Voting Rights Act was gutted.
Our Imperfect Union needs major repair, even after Trump is gone.
290
You'll excuse me if I hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Starting with the assumption that Trump could never win the election, the last 2 years has seen one assumption about the strength of our institutions after another being overturned. Deviancy has been defined so far down, it may never see daylight again.
What Trump has done has revealed decades of rot in American politics, driven by ever more money in politics, the disinformation warfare of Fox News and Talk radio, and the collapse of any intellectual integrity or morality within the conservative movement.
From Nixon on, every Republican administration has pushed the boundaries of corruption that much farther, along with the incompetence, and the greed. The modern GOP exists only to pass tax cuts for the rich, and has only fear and anger to motivate its base.
It is perhaps a kind of karma that the breakdown in our institutions here and abroad comes when we must act to face the existential threat of climate change. It would be a huge challenge for a functioning world order - but that's not what we have.
Vague assurances we can get through this are not enough. It's going to take everything we have, and the sooner we commit to it, the better.
48
@Larry Roth A common joke in México since 2016 has been - well the USA just has to outdo us in everything - with this regime they have outdone us 100x in systematic corruption!
2
You omit a couple of significant problems:
1) foreign policy: Trump has broken alliances, curtailed treaties, abdicated influence, alienated trading partners.
2) the judiciary: not just the Supreme Court but also the lower courts, stacked with Conservative activists.
Both of these may derail any recovery.
79
Here’s the coup that very few people are noticing: Mitch McConnell is fast tracking a whole ton of ideologues to the courts. These nominees are unqualified but young and incredibly zealous. In 10-15 years there will be very few bulwarks against the authoritarian tendencies of the next republican president. The GOP is playing the long game here. Sure, democrats took the house. But the reactionaries are slowly and quietly seizing our future.
524
@Chad - So when the Democrats get the trifecta (House, Senate, and Presidency) they must immediately increase the number of federal judges at all levels. Increase the number of Justices on the Supreme Court, and have five (not three) on a Court of Appeals Panel.
42
@John Graybeard
And a simple majority vote for statehood for Puerto Rico and DC.
14
@Chad
This comment should be on the front page above the fold. We have been relying on the courts to save us but 45 and his enablers have been packing the courts with unqualified people who reflect the red-eyed anti-democratic views of the kool-aid base. We better pay attention before it’s too late!!
27
A significant portion of the media seems intent on acting as if the Trump presidency will be the downfall of American democracy. Although Trump has eroded the strength and credibility of numerous democratic institutions and elements—such as the Supreme Court, the presidential office, and freedom of the press—Kristof is right in that the Constitution was designed to protect American democracy from instances such as this. In another couple years, though our country's reputation may be tarnished on the international stage, we will recover and move on.
Progress is not always linear. Although it's easy to work ourselves into a frenzy over each negative news story, we forget that the human condition is mainly improving. At the end of the day, I think it will be harder to heal the schisms and animosity in the American public than the country's democratic institutions.
8
I have to agree. The midterms showed that the opposition is powerful. McConnell and Paul have slowly pushed back. Paul came out against the border wall emergency declaration because it usurped the Constitutional spending role of Congress. While the danger to democracy in the US is strong, the GOP has plenty of members who are willing to leave Trump whenever they find that he is a political liability. Thankfully, the federal system is alive and well, as the southern district of New York brings suit against Trump.
4
I know for a fact that Trump will not ever win the popular vote in this country. Everyone who has an opinion is pretty much set, and his approval ratings aren't going any higher or lower, and he's already lost the popular vote once by a huge margin.
With that being said, when Trump loses in 2020 he will not leave office. He laid the groundwork in 2016, before he was president by saying that he wouldn't accept the results unless he won. Now, he has the power of the presidency, and he has the backing of virtually the entire republican party in congress, who will go to great lengths to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He never backs down ever... and with the multiple investigations nipping at his heels its either the presidency or jail. He's smart enough to realize that.
When he loses, he'll call a national emergency, and tell us that he lost due to illegal immigrants voting. We are in trouble.
31
"One of the most troubling elements of Trump’s presidency has been his systematic assault on our institutions: the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the intelligence community, the news media, the courts. Yet for the most part, they have stood up to his bullying."
Let's include the core institution of the right to vote and the majority of the population that would never vote for Individual-1, under any circumstances!
There will undoubtedly be the republican bag of tricks in full play for 2020. Everyone that actually values our country and our shard future need to vote BLUE. END OF LINE!
11
The ongoing focus on Trump as the prime threat to our democracy ignores the support he continues to receive from the Republican Party and Fox News, both of which represent the values and ends of the American oligarchy. Trump has been a far more useful tool than they imagined, but should Trump lose popular support, they will trot out another horse to get on and ride. The threat to our nation is from a bought government and that threat will continue whether or not Trump manages to accomplish his goal of lifetime rule.
82
@Eric Caine We have the best government money can buy. We have to vote. Throw out those who are beholden to big money. Yes, that is most of them. Then we have to go after the monied interests and somehow make our government one that works for people, not corporations.
Put The USA back to work. Fill all the potholes now.
9
@Eric Caine
Trump is a petty grifter and no threat at all. It's the Republicans that are an existential threat.
2
While Trump is unpredictable, and even he doesn’t know if he’ll refuse to leave office if he loses the 2020 election, there are only two institutions that can forcibly remove him from power for violating the Constitution, both with huge loopholes. The Justice Department can order the FBI to arrest him, but they answer to Trump. The U.S. military officer corps led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff pledge loyalty to the Constitution not the President, but they have historically stayed out of domestic politics. Congress, the Supreme Court, and State governments have no law enforcement power over a President. Trump’s 38% base and most of the Republican Party would support him. This may never happen, but we can’t have magical thinking about the Constitution. If the institutions of the republic all fail, only the power of the people to occupy Washington nonviolently can force Trump out of office.
14
Honestly, if Trump loses in 2020, I think more likely than refusing to leave early, he'll leave early. He'll pull a Sarah Palin and refuse to finish his term. If he's not a winner, he'll take his toys and go home.
18
I hope you're right but then we'll have to contend with Pence who is a true believer. We need a complete electoral turnaround in 2020 which might not be in the cards. It might take a while to get out of this pickle but one can only hope.
6
The danger is real. It may be true that democracy currently is stronger in the U.S. than it was in Weimar Germany, but the moment Americans start relying on that contrast instead of worrying about maintaining it will be the moment when the contrast collapses. Panic is not helpful, but neither is false confidence. The evolutionary purpose of fear is survival. Let it not be said by future historians that the institutions of American democracy were strong enough—until they weren’t.
67
If nothing else, Trump has made the legitimate press stronger, envigorated the federal courts, brought back the meaning of Article 1 to the legislative branch and continues to make citizens think about what it means to be part of our country.
Naturally, Trump isn’t doing anything like this of his own volition. But his personality magnifies his abuse of power and obstruction of justice while leading a signicant portion of the American people into Trumpism; a disjointed philosophy denying norms and values inherent to American government.
It really can’t be said what will happen in this critical election of 2020 except that the outcome will make a very large portion of the U.S. population extremely angry.
24
@JT FLORIDA - "invigorated" the federal courts? More like packed them with arch-conservatives who will be in place long after he leaves office. That will be his most lasting and shameful legacy.
3
The notion that Trump will not peacefully exit stage right when he loses the 2020 election is absurd.
Neither the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, the United States military, the Secret Service nor the majority of the American people would support Trump clinging baselessly to power when he is roundly defeated.
How's Trump going to overpower the Capitol Police and the Secret Service who will be serving the newly elected and inaugurated Democratic President ?
Will all of Trumpistan and the neo-Confederacy rise up from Fox News and Hate Radio Nation and haul their 393 million guns into the nation's capital with the United States Army for a massive shootout on the Washington Mall ?
Sure you'll always have a few PizzaGate wingnuts and alt-right psychopaths who will head to DC to protect their fraudulent Whites R Us Knight, but we're just not a South American tin pot dictatorship, regardless of how much people are fearing Trump Nation.
It's true that much of Trumpistan is largely a spite-filled universe, but are they really going to wage a modern day Pickett's Charge for their Cheeto-In-Chief whose fraudulence grows with each passing day ?
By the time the Trump Slump and November 2020 rolls around, even some of the hard-core Trumpers will be discovering that their Trump University degrees are worthless and will peel away.
Trump will be exiting Jan 20 2021 or before, either willfully or by United States Marshall, and he will finally have Made America Great Again.
Amen.
568
@Socrates
I hope you are right, but I do wonder just where the loyalties of a lot of our police, DOJ members, and armed forces would actually lie if Le Grand Orange did not go gently into the goodnight.
There seems to be at least some degree of support for him among the rank and file if not among the supervisory cohort.
64
@Socrates
You didn't mention dozens (if not more) of right wing militias that are well organized and well armed.
53
@Socrates I generally like your posts and think you hit the nail on the head (with oodles of sarcasm and pseudo-nihilism to boot) but I think you may be missing the mark on this one...
Trump's greatest "accomplishment" as "President" has been to completely upend the very foundations of our democracy: rule of law, opinions and viewpoints based on facts and reason, etc. Which means, come January 20th, 2021, we have no idea where we'll be as a country.
Since the 2016 election, I routinely think about a "Talk of the Town" piece I read in The New Yorker in 2015 about how Trump would not become president. At the time, it was a no-brainer. Now, it only reminds me how common sense, sanity, and, yes, democracy are quickly dissolving right before our eyes.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch, my friend.
104
If we are to learn anything from the Trump Experience, it is that retreat into closed camps with no interaction between parties is bad for our nation. BOTH the Democrats and Republicans are guilty of this.
It is time for a return to the idea of the Common Good. To the idea that Compromise is part of governance and not a cuss word. To the idea of Respect for those with whom you disagree. To the idea that Truth is important. To the idea that Manners matter. To the idea of Servant Leadership. To the idea that the most successful person is the one who has lifted the most other people to success, not the one with the most toys. That Equal Opportunity is what is important, not forcing equal outcomes. At the same time if success is to have any meaning, they must also help those who are less fortunate. There is no reason for a country as rich as us to have hungry and homeless people. We know how to solve these problems, we just don't care enough to do so.
As James Taylor sang years ago "Shower the people you love with love," and The Beatles "All there is, is love, love." These are not syrupy lyrics, they are literally survival requirements. If they are ignored you get Trump.
14
@Bruce1253: "As James Taylor sang years ago "Shower the people you love with love," and The Beatles "All there is, is love, love." These are not syrupy lyrics, they are literally survival requirements. If they are ignored you get Trump."
If they are ignored you get our current state of affairs with both parties in our nation's capital.
2
I admire and respect Mr Kristof, and agree with the main thrust of this article. Where I depart is around the notion that Trump is the problem. The conservative movement (plus the Koch libertarians), Rove, Norquist, ALEC, oil and gas, corporate power, etc etc has made a huge power move: witness the tax cuts, the pro-corporate agenda, management over labor, Perpetual warfare,vote tampering, stacking the courts, and so on. It's not about who's President: it undergirds and transcends the various "presidencies". And it won't go away when Trump is ousted.
The meta -issue (in my view) is that high-quality leaders stay way from governance, and, the old patrician public-service life path is gone--we are left to following the antics of unimpressive and/or corrupt persons (with some exceptions of course).
104
@Eric Diamond -- While Republicans are worse, we have not had vast improvements presented by Democrats either, to forever war or to neoliberal economics.
Some don't want to, and the rest have not been able to make them. I count Obama as someone who wanted to, and Hillary as one who couldn't be made to.
6
I don't believe that US democracy is dead or even dying. But it has been considerably weakened. The rise of (anti-)social media and the 24 hour new cycle has created an ocean of disinformation that political parties can now use to distort the truth. As a nation we no longer drink from the same cup of "truth." This pre-empts a healthy, skeptical political discourse, and if it worsens, a new civil war may indeed be in the offing. At the very least, we are facing a long, precipitous decline into irrelevancy on the international stage.
31
I was talking that "resilient" talk as well...a year or so ago. But now, look what he's done or not done during his 2 years. Backing out and under-cutting international deals to improve address Global Warming and welcome Iran into the international community, and selecting supreme court justices that were selected out of the backrooms of Fox News that are sure to imperil women's right to choose and push this country back to the 1950's and beyond. Not to mention under-cutting Obama's financial structure, repairing W's damage, that got the country out of the biggest recession since the Great Depression. If Trump found some more souls to sell to acquire another 4 years...we're through.
22
@David: "But now, look what he's done or not done during his 2 years. Backing out and under-cutting international deals to improve address Global Warming and welcome Iran into the international community..."
These "deals" were not treaties, which requires Senate approval. Obama did this deliberately, bypassing checks and balances. And yet the Left remained pretty much silent and the Right cried executive overreach. Now that Trump wants to pull out of these agreements, the Left goes nuts and the Right praises Trump. Both sides are full of hypocrites, but this is nothing new.
As Friedrich Nietzsche observed: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
Trump's life will serve as a dire warning to others. That will be his legacy. I assign that outcome a probability of 100 percent.
Trump will lose in 2020 and the Secret Service will escort him to the door. The American people will not make the same mistake twice. And the next election will see record voter turnout.
I have faith in the younger generation. They're not fools. And they know that it's their future that's on the line.
112
@Blue Moon -- "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
Yes, I hope so. But the only problem pushing us to this margin was not just Trump. It was also the DNC-Hillary capture of Democrats, taking them hard right.
If we get stronger, it will start with having a better choice, and only then with electing that better choice.
11
@Mark Thomason
We are facing serious global threats from climate change and nuclear war. Trump has been playing with fire on both of these fronts.
The eventual Democratic presidential nominee will come through for us. We will be counting on that person. We will be staking our lives on that person.
Because we have no one else.
I hope that will prove as good a reason as any.
10
That's what I thought after W left office. That people wouldn't make the same mistake again. Now we have Trump. I expect the next Republican president to be even worse.
7
Because of the excessive inflow of anonymous money into the political process, this nation increasingly has a ruling and media elite that is completely out-of-touch with the needs of its citizens. Not just out-of-touch, but as it relates to the Republican Party, those with money and power aggressively oppose any real efforts to reverse widening income inequality, reckless capitalism, a rapidly eroding environment and an abominable health care system plagued by obscene costs, declining care quality, and domination by insurance mega-companies.
Despite all that, the 202 Presidential race is being covered just like previous contests, with a focus on personality, likability and the "it" factor, and sketchy, at best, treatment of the critical issues confronting our society.
So, no, Nick, I'm not so sanguine about the resiliency of the country.
28
In the near short term, sure, we’ll probably survive. But, this administration and the GOP have not only done nothing about anthropogenic global warming, but have worked to dangerously roll back what little progress previous administrations set in motion.
We are headed for 4 degrees of warming in 60 years. Will we survive, really? Let’s be honest with ourselves, 4 or more degrees of warming will not be conducive to the preservation of democracy.
39
If you make a serious study of the overthrows of Democracy one very strong key is the military. If Trump can order the Joint Chiefs of Staff to preserve his power in the event of a loss of an election, then we will have a coup d'etat. This is probably unlikely. Lets hope so.
One other factor is the quality of the opposition. The focus on Illan Omar and AIPAC shows at the least the weakness of the democratic leadership. The democrats in Congress act with a wannabe totalitarian President as if its business as usual and Congress dallies with side issues like Omar's possibly anti-Semitic tropes. The democrats need a coherent plan to prevent a possible Coup which is a possibility even if unlikely. The need a plan to win a massive victory. It seems unlike the Republicans, they are not generally capable of coherent action. . Heaven help us if the U.S. needs such an opposition. The U.S. can become a dictatorship soon, possible if not likely. Lets hope we muddle through.
13
Which US institutions of governance are actually fully staffed and led by competent non-partisan civil servants whose first thought upon awakening and last thought before sleep is the well being and prosperity of the citizenry?
Your system of governance elects absolutely everyone from the potus to the dogcatcher.
The whole shebang depends utterly on partisanship. People's livelihoods depend on toeing party lines . And plenty of them know full well that the well being and prosperity of the citizenry isn't really part of their job.
Political parties will be the death of democracy.
7
Taking the long view, whether American democracy survives Trump will ultimately be irrelevant. Democracy is not going to survive the awful global affects of climate change. In 50-75 years from now, our current government will morph into some sort of totalitarian control simply because of the unrelenting stresses on the economy, population and environment. Massive, continuous wildfires in the west, nonstop droughts in the central plains, unliveable heat waves in the southwest, category 4 hurricanes monthly in the southeast and the rise of the ocean everywhere will be to much to overcome without resorting to authoritarian control to maintain some semblance of order. It is tragic but we will have only ourselves to blame. And the greedy wealthy individuals and corporations of course.
25
I enjoyed both books mentioned. “How Democracies Die” explains how there is more unwritten in the Constitution then what is written, explaining how decency by societal customs are the “soft guardrails” of Democracy. George Washington could have run for a third term according to the Constitution but didn’t think it decent to create another monarchy just after they fought a rebellion to rid themselves of that form of governance. The authors likened a democracy to a pick up basketball game. The players continue the game by calling their own fouls, double- dribbles and out of bounds. Everyone needs to respect others by unwritten decent customs. If there is an elbow to the teeth and a brawl - the game ends and the fun is over.
20
@Tim Shaw -- "George Washington could have run for a third term according to the Constitution but didn’t think it decent to create another monarchy just after they fought a rebellion to rid themselves of that form of governance."
True, and great credit is due him for that.
There is also another lesson there. George Washington was the sort of man who did not WANT to be a king, nor even President for too long. He wanted to go back to his life.
Our politicians have come to be people who have no other life, and no other desires, than their ambition for power.
The other lesson then is that we have the wrong sort of candidates.
5
Citizens United and big corporate payola
Super PACs
Lobbying as legalised bribery
Gerrymandering
Voter Suppression
Self-financed campaigns only afforded by the uber rich
Negative campaigns as status quo (destruction rather than idea-focused)
When victory is purchased and swindled rather than earned, how is this a democracy?
129
@Sheila Ray
To your list I would add: the persistence of racism in all its forms and tolerance of an absurdly weak public educational system.
Long ago I started to think voting in America had largely become a meaningless contrivance akin to simply going through the motions of pointless civic responsibility. Careers are made and wealth is accumulated by office holders, but the nation can show no tangible gain from their presence. I'm 83 and can report with confidence that no nation-wide social problem has ever been solved during my lifetime.
And our educational system will guarantee that average citizens will never understand what's really going on, how their own society really works - at least not the way the greedy elite do (and enjoy). We are a people adrift, yet we call those who want to change that "unpatriotic."
23
@Sheila Ray we are a plutocracy not a democracy and thanks to Citizens United we will never recover. It was a good run while it lasted. Too many Trump like voters to ever think this through and fix it.
7
@BF
So why do we keep asking and empowering our government to futily attempt to solve nation-wide social problems? It wasn’t designed to do that. It was designed to obstruct tyranny.
If you want to solve a social problem, commit to a family or a church. Leave the rest of us to freely drift.
I concur with Mr. Kristof that American democracy will prevail, largely because it is resilient.
Yet our democracy will also prevail precisely because of Trump, whose 2-year-old hijack of America (his disregard for the law and civility) has actually Bolstered our system of checks and balances -- most significantly by moving our lawful representatives to enact legislation that will make it difficult (indeed, we hope, will Prevent) future rogues like Trump from graining the presidency.
5
Will democracy in this country survive? Better said, will the institutions that are the foundation blocks of a democracy survive?
Too little attention is given to the not-new shift occurring in the federal court system through judicial appointments (not just the Supreme Court); to voter suppression, to gerrymandering, to the elimination of regulations that address the environment, education, discrimination, to corporate media — you name it.
Democracies don't always die with a bang. Democracy has many pieces, and it is hard to keep track of all of them, to see how those parts fit together, to assess what is "normal." A slow process to chip away at those foundation blocks can be effective, and that can be easily missed in the rush to report "today's" news.
Democracy In Chains (2017), by Nancy MacLean, a professor of history and public policy at Duke, offers a history leading up to these past two years, and shows it has a history that stretches back — way back.
20
Not circular reasoning, but Trump's election is to a degree proof that democracy, (American Style) is alive and well.
People are not created equal. That, is equal in judgement, morality and other qualities. The worst of us vote.
they're not all locked in prison.
Wealth is the great obfuscator. Fortunately, many wealthy people do not like the, "Great Pretender".
5
"American democracy is too resilient for Trump to destroy."
As long as we honor the Constitution, our republic can survive most of the junk both parties throw at us every day.
"Still, Levitsky and Ziblatt caution that an underlying polarization and erosion of norms made Trump’s election possible..."
The polarization didn't start with Trump coming down the escalator.
"Moreover, while the Democratic victory in the House is good news for accountability, it also results in a divided government that can’t get anything done."
Neither party nor any politician wants to be held accountable for anything - just look at the news. Our federal government is divided because we have two major political parties and their media sycophants that want to keep it that way. In their mind, division and conflict keeps them in power. The federal government was never designed to be this big and powerful. We can start "draining the swamp" ourselves by demanding term limits for members of Congress.
11
And things have been really bad before. Read up on what it was like during World War 1 under Wilson. Tremendous censorship, abridgment of rights, loyalty tests, secret denouncements, and arrest for "sedition". Trump wants to take us back to things our democracy has already survived. But that's no comfort. Trump is a great leap backwards.
34
Kristof’s optimism is weirdly undermined by what he actually wrote. And all of it is unarguably true.
Can’t say I’m much reassured.
6
Bread and circuses may have been a winning formula in ancient Rome, but here today, the circus element outweighs the bread. Sports have been captured by the corporate sector--this year the Spring Training season of MLB went quickly into the monetized phase. Golf, soccer, tennis--and even bean-bag tossing--are major TV events. Meanwhile the budget deficit and associated national debt are exploding and the trade deficit is ballooning. The point is that I question the nature of a democracy that exists to fleece its citizens by providing 24/7 entertainment--even including the mild prostitution that goes by the name of The Bachelor--while amassing great debt for future generations. Democracy in America may survive Trump, but the expansion of liberal democracy will not survive him or the shoddy business practices he and his ilk thrive on. Entertainment is not happiness. GDP is not justice.
23
America has many freedoms which make its republic (it’s not a direct democracy most of the time) healthy enough to withstand the likes of Donald T. Our freedom of speech, for one, permits me to write this and not be whisked off to an unknown prison or death.
But we are not a democracy, and except for a brief period in the middle of the 20th century, we never were. We are and have generally always been, an oligarchy. The big decisions- whether we go to war, and with whom; control of markets; and military research (which gave us most of the great innovations of the past hundred years), are all solidly under the control of a small group of extremely wealthy men, and the people have little power to affect their decisions.
These powerful few take great care to see that our attention is distracted from what they do, and much of it is hidden in black budgets, subject to no congressional oversight. (See Catherine Austin Fitts on the 22 trillion dollars of unaccounted expenditures by the Defense Department since 1998 - yes, that’s TRILLION).
Donald T. Is nothing to this power structure, and hence our current mode of life will be safe.
11
@Mr. Little: "(See Catherine Austin Fitts on the 22 trillion dollars of unaccounted expenditures by the Defense Department since 1998 - yes, that’s TRILLION)."
I take it as axiom that government, especially the federal government, wastes our money. But our government was never designed this big. I'm curious if Ms. Fitts also mentioned unaccounted expenditures in each Cabinet department since 1998 or the unfunded liabilities that exist in Social Security and Medicare.
1
@Mr. Little
I made the same basic statement in my comment a couple hours ago; it has not yet been posted.
It is shameful and unbelievable that the bloated so-called defense industry continues to hungrily gulp and gobble away trillions of our tax dollars while leaving next to nothing for education, roads, trains, govt funded jobs, health care, the "safety net", etc.
In the pages of this newspaper, this white collar thievery is never questioned. Even among the NYT commentators, this trillion dollar a year sham only sporadically comes up.
Liberal democracy is the most fragile of systems because it is founded upon the trust of the citizens in each other. The current divide is a real danger with 40% of the electorate preferring Trump’s dishonest presentation of reality to confirmed facts. It reflects s mistrust in the other 60% of the electorate in favor of a charismatic leader who will impose the will of the minority against the majority. Mistrust.
17
A prominent conservative columnist says "I do two things-I vote and I buy guns." Perhaps Michael Cohen overheard conversations about mobilizing right wing militants in the event of a Trump loss in 2020. It should be obvious by now that the 2nd amendment is only for use by the right to kill those they oppose if deemed necessary. We must stop trembling at this prospect. We surrender at the threat of gunfire. If we believe this is likely -then we also must buy guns. It's the American way
2
@usedmg -- no, honest citizens who honor the constitution need not go out and buy guns to defend themselves from right-wing "2nd amendment remedies" insurrectionists.
First of all, mostly they are just big-talking old men. Mr. DiGenova was born in 1945 ... do the math.
But the second thing is the constitution ... and the militia. These days the militia is the national guard. The idea that a pack of old white men armed with Glocks and AR-15s will fight the national guard is "Bambi meets Godzilla."
The nation is safe until the military (including the guard) revolts. I see no indication that they will, and I have many contacts among them.
13
Kristof's point unfortunately rests on a fallacy -- that we live in a democracy. We don't. We live in a plutocracy. I realize that the act of voting gives the facade of democracy, Big Money controls who is actually on the ballot in the vast majority of cases.
It's possible that the small-donor strategy pioneered by Bernie Sanders may continue to spread, but it's no match for the limitless dollars the wealthy can give to PACs. They could afford to give billions of dollars for just a fraction of the gargantuan tax cut they just received.
25
@Ross Kahn: "We live in a plutocracy. I realize that the act of voting gives the facade of democracy, Big Money controls who is actually on the ballot in the vast majority of cases."
Agreed. All the more reason to impose term limits on members of Congress.
13
Nicholas, maybe you did not vote for Trump - that's okay. But remember that are large share of the US electorate did vote for him in a system designed to enforce democracy. And Trump enjoys 46% approval in latest US News polls, whereas Congress - think Adam Schiff - enjoys approval in the high teens. That is Democracy! Let the people speak.
3
@Dan
The obverse of that 46% approval is that 54% do not. That would be the will of the people - elsewhere.
28
@Dan
If we let the people speak, then they would be heard by 3,000,000 more voices. That didn't happen, and this administration was voted in by less than 77,000 over 3 states.
Since taking office, this President has governed for the base, which in reality is a sliver of a sliver of the overall potential electorate. His approval rating is ALWAYS below 50% and usually around 40, His disapproval rate is usually around 60%.
He is not popular by any stretch of the imagination, and if you ask further questions, then his negatives are considerable.
There are multiple investigations concerning multiple legal fronts - especially whether this President was within a conspiracy with a foreign power to defraud the American electorate.
Will you accept the results if he is to be impeached, or indicted and found guilty in a state court of law ?
86
@FunkyIrishman: "If we let the people speak, then they would be heard by 3,000,000 more voices. That didn't happen, and this administration was voted in by less than 77,000 over 3 states."
That's not how our Constitution is set up for presidential elections. I don't see the Democratic Party pushing for an amendment to change the electoral college.
"He is not popular by any stretch of the imagination, and if you ask further questions, then his negatives are considerable."
I agree we could have done better. But look at who the Democrats nominated. Talk about a "no-win" scenario...
"There are multiple investigations concerning multiple legal fronts - especially whether this President was within a conspiracy with a foreign power to defraud the American electorate."
Despite all the convictions thus far by Mueller and SDNY, what evidence has ever been produced that even hints that Trump or his campaign actively conspired with a foreign power to alter the election?
"Will you accept the results if he is to be impeached, or indicted and found guilty in a state court of law?"
The better question is how far will Democrats go in order to get Trump removed from office or so damaged that his chances of re-election is almost nil? From what I see, there is no limit.
2
Mitch McConnell has run his course. He won't be back. The question is how much damage has he done to the institution? Was this his plan? Can't help but wonder these days.
44
@Sue Thompson
McConnell's plan was to pack the Federal courts at all levels with the most right-wing, reactionary "judges" he could possibly foist upon us, in order to return the U.S. to the "good old days" of the early 1800s, when no one except white men had a voice.
He has been wildly successful, so far, although many of the "judges" he has been able to force onto the courts are wildly unqualified, or racist, misogynistic bigots.
I hope--no doubt vainly--that the Democrats will start impeaching the worst of these judges, starting with Kavanaugh. Either that, or, when next we have a Democratic president and Senate, I hope they will increase the number of Justices on SCOTUS to 15, and fill every new seat with a liberal, to off set McConnell's reactionaries.
3
@Sue Thompson
When I think of McConnell I keep thinking of all those other nasty old men, who did so much damage, on their deathbeds regretting what they did. Like Lee Atwater when he was dying of a brain tumor sorry for what he let loose. McConnell is going to regret how he weaken and debased the Senate and will be asking for forgiveness. I'm not going to give it to him.
4
The problem lies with the voters that gave Trump, and his toadies, the majority of electoral votes. No, we do not live in a democracy, when the White House can be claimed by someone who trailed his chief opponent by 3 million popular votes on a national basis. We also do not live in democracy if the Senate, which allows only two votes per state regardless of population, can -- on its own -- block any proposed new legislation. We do not live in a democracy when House of Representive districts can be so gerrymandered by political bosses that the majority of Representatives sent to Congress by any state can be at variance with the actual vote count in that state by party.
357
@Penseur: The problem lies with the voters that gave Trump, and his toadies, the majority of electoral votes."
No, the problem lies with 48 state legislatures. Both Democrats and Republicans in those states passed legislation where the candidate who received the most votes gets ALL of that states electoral votes. "Winner take all" is not mentioned in the Constitution nor was it intended.
"We also do not live in democracy if the Senate, which allows only two votes per state regardless of population, can -- on its own -- block any proposed new legislation."
Please read your history as to the purpose of the Senate. Simply put, it is the legislative body that provides equal representation to each state. In that way Rhode Island has the same political voice as California. That aspect of state representation is why senators were to selected by state legislatures. You want California to have more of a voice than Rhode Island? That's what the House of Representatives is for.
"We do not live in a democracy when House of Representive districts can be so gerrymandered ..."
Agreed, and both parties play that game.
8
@Penseur
House districts are drawn by state legislatures who are filled by people who also won their elections—and in smaller districts closer to the voters than can be provided for the national legislature.
@KBronson State legislatures and the Senate have been filled by fiscal conservatives and rightwing individuals who overwhelmed their moderate and liberal opponents through massive donations from rightwing PACs.
12
It would seem that democracy is still functioning in the face of so much hyperbole, but largely due to the courts being the sanity check. This administration hasn't yet been able to inject radicals into the upper benches to disrupt that check on power.
I'm under no illusions though. We've long been pulled into a oligarchical system under the guise of 'two parties' and our current situation has taken the scrutiny off of that reality with much bluster, smoke and mirrors.
So it's ironic that, immediately after the election, I thought to myself that it was really up to corporate America on what was going to be acceptable behavior (ya know... like racism & sexism) considering the behavior of the president elect. So far on that front, I'd say the republic is strong-ish.
4
I'm an optimist by nature, nurture and experience. But we are in uncharted and untested waters here, facing an ugly new set of threats to our democratic experiment.
First, we have an administration that traffics in wholesale lying on every subject.
And, we have well-entrenched media outlets who both generate and amplify those deceptions.
Next, one of the two parties in our two party system has decided they will not defend or practice key aspects of the Constitution (such as oversight of the Executive), have thrown sound fiscal and economic policies to the wind, abetted attacks to undermine our legal, law enforcement and intelligence professionals, and etc. In short, they are complicit in the intentional degradation of our government.
As a result, a significant portion of the electorate is immovably locked in an Orwellian worldview, where border fencing (as a surrogate for 'brown skinned immigrants') is considered a national emergency of the 'call up the military' scale, while climate change is dismissed as a socialist fairy tale concocted by thousands of corrupt scientists.
How democracy survives Orwell's nightmare remains to be seen.
68
@Neander
I also worry about agent orange, his admin and his court appointees making women and transgender folks second class citizens. You could probably add American Indians
too.
1
If only it were merely a matter of surviving trump; but he is as much a symptom as a cause. The assaults on our democracy didn't start with trump and they won't end until the Republican Party has its attitude adjusted by a massive electoral defeat
529
@mancuroc - and there you have it.
We have not had truly Progressive policies enacted in generations, so it is indeed time. (before it is too late)
As well, as soon as people see that those policies are working for them (quite well actually) then a true majority can be built upon. It is always going to come down to the Senate and 60+ votes.
I think we can get there - keep the faith.
42
@mancuroc it's not just elections, and who's elected. The underlying polarization in the general population is of greatest concern in the long term. This, particularly in light of our various media outlets helping the extremes entrench, reinforcing each side's seemingly dogmatic views and even shading reality to align to these views.
10
@mancuroc It will end when enough progressive-minded voters say enough! How bad will it have to be to make that happen? Good question.
7
"It is worse, much worse, than you think."
-The Uninhabitable Earth-David Wallace-Wells
What is not mentioned in the column is the environment and the negative impact the administration is having on accelerating climate change. The EPA is deregulating the fossil industry adding more CO2 to the atmosphere.
So will we survive Trump, sure. But what is the future because of him? Not good I'm afraid.
231
@cherrylog754 Exactly - and when people say "well, we survived x & y & z and those were worse," there is the difference that in our past crises we were not about to slam - HARD - into the catastrophic effects of climate change. A wounded and damaged republic might recover in less perilous circumstances, but what we are bringing upon ourselves would stress even the healthiest government and society to or past their breaking points. Dark days.
35
@cherrylog754
Because of him?
PLEASE!
We, all of us together, all over the planet are the ones reproducing non stop, revering growth on a limited planet, and spewing all kinds of byproducts into the air, land and oceans for at least 150 years!
3
Would that the American electorate defies conventional wisdom and historical precedent by delivering this very far out of his depth individual a pink slip 11-3-20 regardless of the perceived strength of the economy. There are far too many glaring, neon warning signs that warrant limiting this aberrant administration to a single term, and for the most part I believe our voters are woke to them. We know this is wrong, and we know it will likely be up to us to fix it at the ballot box. The key is to remain vigilant and not back down until it's done. We also know that every one of us is better than the current denizen of 1900 Pennsylvania Ave. He knows it too, as only someone with such deep-seated, incurable insecurities would find it necessary to fulminate against the push back from a highly skeptical public that has rightly kept their approval where it deserves to be - underwater. We can and will rise above.
27
As long as we don’t turn our backs on people who disagree
@Michael Your post is prophetic, I hope.
If the purpose of our democracy is to thwart a portion of the President's worst excesses I guess it has proved modestly effective. But if its purpose is to govern the country well and do the people's work it's a dismal failure.
59
@617to416
It was indeed created to provide a minimum necessary government to hold the states together while thwarting tyranny. It left the people’s work to the states and you. If you don’t think the people’s work is being done, join Rotary.
Just like a TV show, President Trump will eventually get boring and ultimately be replaced by something newer and fresher to the American voter.
8
Well, Mr Kristof, thanks for some reassurance. Recognizing a demagogue when he first came down the escalator and spewed his hatred, many of us have lived in fear of both his winning elections and of his losing elections ever since.
Maybe we have made it to the midpoint. We still have an FBI, a functional government, a free press, and so on. The House flipped and life went on. Let’s just hold on and take good care of each other. We are all in this together.
314
I haven't seen evidence of s functioning government in over 14 years, certainly 10 years.
5
I disagree. This democracy and our Constitution are in tatters.
3
I think there will be some resistance or unrest should Trump not win the election or should he otherwise leave by impeachment or resignation. His desire to protect American heritage in his speech at CPAC was a huge dog whistle imo. There are so called preppers, end of civilization preparedness and self defence promoters already YouTubing out there predicting unrest in the event of a Trump election loss or removal. The U.S. may survive but is/will be beaten up quite a bit whether there is unrest of not. Much healing will be needed. And hopefully targeted legislation enacted to prevent any such future situation to occur again.
8
@Karena
Personally I can't get too frightened over preppers and the like. They are mostly morons. Trump supporters in general may like to run around waving guns, but if it came to doing anything organized and, you know, competent - I don't think so.
I don't think the threat we are facing is that Trump will refuse to leave. The man is a physical coward - and he wouldn't want to appear on television with his hair mussed, so he wouldn't resist if physically removed from the White House.
The real threat is more insidious - it's the damage he has done and is doing to our institutions. It's questionable whether we'll fully recover. I surely hope Nicholas Kristof is right.
A healthy society, Mr. Kristof, can survive a catastrophe. We did so during the Civil War. We did so during the Great Depression. We did so during World War II. We did so following the Kennedy assassination. We did so following the upheavals of 1968. We did so following Watergate. We did so following 9/11. But we are not in the same place today, as a country, as we were during other severe tests.
We have never had, as a president, a person who was so undemocratic in his worldview. His personal history closely channels the dishonest and the dishonorable. Yet, some 35% of the American citizenry approve of his performance. The Republican Party long ago yielded anything like a check or a balance or any oversight on No. 45's runaway conduct. They know full-well that they would not have tolerated anything like what he has said and done while in office had a Democrat been in the Oval Office. Donald Trump is now the standard-bearer of the Republican Party and those in the House and Senate are behind him four-square. Even the Supreme Court is no certainty in this thrumming drama. Who is confident that the John Roberts Court will not grant to this president powers that they would have refused any Democratic president?
The strength of our institutions will be tested as never before but a presidential refusal to relinquish power would find many adherents on The Hill. The definition of "patriotism" would, at last, find its most complete--and maybe final--reality.
I am not confident.
132
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18 I have a little more hope in SCOTUS since Justice Roberts has, to the surprise of all but especially conservatives, voted for the liberal side of the Court (e.g., to find the ACA constitutional if the mandate is interpreted as a tax). Perhaps he, unlike his fellow conservative justices, has regained his religious conscience and realized the truth (and the evil) of what the Republican party (and the billionaires that support it) has been doing in recent history. For the sake of this country, I hope I'm right about Justice Roberts.
28
@JediProf So do I. However, the appointment of Kavanaugh has scared the heck out of me and I fear that RBG may not last long enough and will give 45 another conservative judge.
8
I share the optimism of Mr. Kristof. The presidency of Donald Trump has evidently played a vital role in large numbers of Americans lifting up their heads from daily life and (perhaps for the first time?) spending large amounts of time riveted to the daily antics and dismaying behaviors of our 45th president.
Within the comment section of numerous articles of The New York Times, I've seen writer after writer expressing solidly informed opinions about matters having to do with our democratic process. Additionally, there is a huge amount of intelligent, dedicated perspective being expressed all across the spectrum of social media, newsprint, streamed programs, and the like--this is engagement as I've not seen it since the 1970s--perhaps even more so. And this is active democracy because people are watching, thinking, and speaking to one another about vital political concerns.
If anything, I believe that Mr. Trump's being in the White House has awakened many more of us to pay very close attention to political processes and outcomes. That's powerful, and that is a force that would quell any of Mr. Trump's attempts at remaining where he no longer legitimately belongs.
52
@Cate
Great comment. It is yet to be seen if that will translate to even MORE Progressive candidates sweeping into office. I believe it will, and certainly if a fraction of the 100,000,000 that sits on the electoral sideline any given election might wake up, then we will be in good shape.
It's always going to be how the other side reacts - with a republican recalcitrant Senate that will block anything and everything - with a radical right wing media that amplifies every single small thing into a massive distortion - with a rabid populace that hangs onto every word of said media.
At some point, we have to break the fever.
21
@FunkyIrishman
You know the saying "use it or lose it" when referring to your physical health, the same maxim applies to your democracy. the encouraging thing is that more people are hearing that and doing something about. Failure to do that will result in us and our democracies passing away.
2
they've packed the court system so don't be surprised to see Trump ignore the House subpoenas with immunity. That's probably just for starters.
Every few months it seems there's another line that Trump wouldn't cross (so the pundits say) that he dances past without consequences. At this point he can ignore Congress and spend money as he sees fit. Everything he says is a lie but his base eats it up.
24
@Mike T.
But it isn't true that he can ignore Congress and spend money as he likes. A very bitter court fight over his "emergency declaration" is just beginning. He will not get his money.
Anyway, he doesn't want the money. He wants one thing: attention. He has no principles and no ideology, he's just a giant quivering infantile id. His message is: LOOK AT ME.
The real thing to fear is his supporters - again, not because they are going to stage some kind of literal coup; it is their ignorance and uncouthness and brutishness that is undermining our society, more than Trump the man himself.
1
Very good column. Trump's first two years have been an important test of our democratic institutions and they have responded impressively and reassuringly. But Trump is the effect of our political dysfunction, not the cause of it. The best interests of the American people stopped being represented by our federal government decades before Trump came along.
15
May you be right that the system will survive! But what concerns me most is the fact that neither party's leadership appears interested in providing what the polls show a significant majority of Americans want: universal healthcare, higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy, a living wage for all workers, less scope for the wealthy to buy the kind of laws they want. "That's socialism!" say the Republicans. "That's too radical!" say the so-called centrists who control the Democratic Party. If the Democrats offer working people as little as they did in 2016, when the electoral turn-out was very low by European standards, then why should people who didn't vote last time because they felt ignored suddenly decide to vote this time? And if they don't vote, what will be the result? Quite possibly the same outcome we got last time.
If the system is refusing to provide what a significant majority of voters want, then it already isn't working.
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No disrespect, but DUH. Of course, we will survive. Despite the Trump base refusing to believe all the evidence against Trump and his cohorts, son, son-in-law, friends, etc., this country has a Constitution and Trump will get the boot either through impeachment of as the loser in the next election, and he will go into the night, not gently, but he will go, and we will hopefully never see him or his family again. This is America and I have incredible faith in the system of government. Even when it goes awry at times, it always balances out. That is why this country will continue to work. That marvelous document, the Constitution, is deeply respected by most Americans, and I would say it is even respected by those who still follow Trump. That is what makes America great, a document that gave people, over 200 years ago, rights that had never been had by the common citizen before. Of course, the rights had to fought for by many, African Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Native Americans and women of every ethnicity too, and other groups even today fight for their rights of equality, but keep in mind: we have a court system, a federal court system, that works hard to keep people like Trump in abatement, for despite his executive orders, his emergency declarations, he will not win in the end. He can't, for the Constitution always will. I am deeply saddened that a president of the U.S. has so mistreated that incredible document.
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@Mallory If the Constitution were really as wonderful document as you say, wouldn't its framers have foreseen potential flaws in a system that locked in the chief executive for four years, and devised a provision for a no-confidence vote --- as is done in parliamentary democracies --- paving the way for new elections? Sadly, the inability to enact long overdue and badly needed changes to the "incredible" U.S. Constitution is largely due to the same gridlock between political parties that stifles the daily operation of the government.
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The question is not whether the "democracy" of America will change hands to another cardboard cut-out in time for middle-class boomers to feel comfortable again. The question is whether the planet will be habitable when their children are as old as they are. The status quo of bipartisan neoliberal, imperial capitalism that led to Trump was not functional (obviously, it gave us Trump) and Trump is only an aesthetic deviation from the core ideals of one major party (and half of the other). The system you're praying to resuscitate is wildly unjust, undemocratic, punitive, violent, and ecologically unsustainable. Using your platform to say that everything is "probably fine" is irresponsible and shows how deeply your worldview is distorted by privilege.
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I am operating on two fronts simultaneously. On one, I'm an activist working with Indivisible and other "opposition groups" like the ACLU and the better angels of the Dem party. On the other, I'm researching places to live in exile if it comes to that. Just returned from Portugal on a scouting mission. Wonderful country, friendly people, good wine and weather and a thriving democracy with a free press and a center-left government. Oh, and universal health care. I refuse to be like those who didn't leave Europe in time. Meanwhile, fight for justice and American democracy! We need all hands on deck!
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@Progressive Christian . Interesting. I'm doing the same - working with Indivisible, trying to help change the debacle we're in, and, at the same time, researching places to live outside of America.
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@Progressive Christian You will have a problem moving to any country in the EU. It is called a Resident Visa that would allow you to live there.
They are for sale in places like Malta and Cyprus for more money than most of us have amassed in our total savings for retirement. I'm talking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in cash. Buying a house doesn't cut it.
So forget all that single-payer health care and social safety net available to citizens in the EU. They do not want any American refugees of Trump invading their country.
There are exceptions if you have recent ancestors that are natives of these countries.
But you really need to research the visa situation before you fly to the EU and fall in love with their clearly superior quality of life.
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@Norm
My brother & his wife and their three adult children went to Europe last summer, where his wife & their three kids got EU citizenship through their having some ancestors from Luxembourg. (Unfortunately, my brother didn't share that heritage.)
They have no immediate plans to relocate to Europe, but it was done as expanding their options, should either the need or an opportunity arise. (Seeing Trump get elected was part of the "need" possibly arising.)
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I am inclined toward the post-Watergate scenario, where greater transparency and greater constraints on unilateral Presidential power are imposed by a future post-apocalyptic Congress surveying the ashes of the Trump Administration.
The National Emergency Act needs to be tightened up, and the National Security Section 232 declaration of national security as justification for damaging sanctions like the steel tariffs must require justification.
It is hard for me to understand how national security can be used to justify steel tariffs to protect US open hearth steel mills built in the buggy whip era. National security is better served by not protecting such monuments to bad management in the private sector.
In fact, this looks to me like a major fissure in the GOP base, where the business community rejects Trumpism and the weak laws that enable it.
But then, we have to survive the next two years first.
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Mmmmmm - maybe. The way that the President is actually put into office through the Electoral College isn't democratic.
If you mean 'democracy" to be the will of the people and how a majority votes to elect the head of Government.
The contrast is the Westminster system, where the head of Government is the leader of the party (or parties) which receives at the least 51% of the popular vote.
Your President has been intending the subvert the democratic will of the people, expressed through the actions of Congress, by declaring an emergency and appropriating moneys.
In the Westminster system, with Government Budgets approved by the Parliament, this would result in such a government probably losing office.
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@Peter Graves
Actually 50% + 1 of the seats in the House of Representatives Peter. That could readily mean winning less than 50% of the two-party preferred vote nation-wide (actually it's happened five times in Australian federal elections in the past) - and well less than 50% of the popular vote on first preferences. Only the seat count matters in our system.
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@GRW
Thanks - I was aware of the subtleties of seats versus votes, much less the additional ones of preferential voting and two-party preferred allocations of those initial votes.
Our current situation where the Government of the day doesn't have a majority of the seats is a slight puzzler. Though PM Julia Gillard managed it.
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@Peter Graves: "Your President has been intending the subvert the democratic will of the people, expressed through the actions of Congress, by declaring an emergency and appropriating moneys."
We would not be in this position if Congress had not passed legislation in 1976 allowing the President to do just that. The law, as I see it, is unconstitutional - Congress has ceded money appropriating power to the President. Maybe this situation will cause this law (and not just Trump's actions) to be challenged in the courts.
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We'll see. The bigger they are, the harder they tend to fall. This article is like saying: "you can totally survive a car crash at 90mph. You may be a vegetable hooked up to machines the rest of your 'life', but you'll be alive!"
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The question is, are we a "common" people or are we a corporation? If a people, we are, in effect, a family. All belong, all matter, and all own equally the rights and responsibilities, and own the wealth of the country.
If we are a corporation, then only the investors actually own anything, and the rest of us are workers in the land of the bosses.
I do wring my hands as I see the corporate takeover of our political system and our lives, and I fear for the future.
Perhaps the coup has already occurred, and we are not willing to see that the poor and powerless are strangers in someone else's land.
Have you tried to find a place to live on minimum wage?
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
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@Hugh Massengill~
"Have you tried to find a place to live on minimum wage?"
I don't think there is a place to live on minimum wage!
Always enjoy reading your comments Mr. Massengill.
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@Hugh Massengill
Kudos, sir. I believe you've gotten it exactly right.
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@Hugh Massengill
You can live in minimum wage in parts of Louisiana. Plenty do. We don’t impose land use policies that restrict the building of housing the way you do in Oregon. It isn’t “nice” and pretty but poor people can live without begging.
BTW, if we are family, can I prevail on you to come help me get my garden turned next week? That is what families do here.
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Trump has shown his hand with how he's talked about his border crisis.
All things about the government will be given to fear and hatred as to the democrats, the news media and the justice system, no change from what he's been doing just more of it to scare the people that he's suppose to be working for.
Our democracy will probably survive but it has yet to face it's toughest test, the 2020 election.
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As soon as the Democratic candidate is certified as having won the electoral college in a massive landslide on December 3rd, 2020, there will be a bottleneck of power, whereas the President can defer to the election results, or not.
If not, I am not sure what happens, and to whom the authority will rest upon to physically remove the President. Does the secret service comply, or do they become confused by counter orders? It is scary to think about, but also fascinating to think about.
Do prosecutors from several states, have indictments ready as well? I think they will, the way things are going.
I too am not necessarily worried about there changing over of civilian power (and the military to follow), but I am concerned about militant followers within the base.
If they believe anything now, then what will they believe then and how far will they go after that, which is the question?
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@FunkyIrishman
I wouldn't give them nearly so much credit for being able to pull off such a thing. They might be enraged, but a coup is not actually something easy to pull off, it takes smarts, and the MAGA crowd hasn't got 'em.
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@FunkyIrishman: Let us hope that it never comes to that in this country, but the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Services could and I expect would effect that presidential transition -- backed up by tanks that appear on the streets of DC and aerial exhibition of fighter aircraft in the skies above. I doubt that our higher military professionals, having been reared to believe in our system of changing presidents, would allow it to be denied. I doubt that radicals who spout nonsense would have the courage to challenge that show of force.
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Dear FunkyIrishman,
Small correction, it's going to be November 3rd, but also I don't think it's going to be a landslide. Trump's supporters are fanatical, unswerving, and often bigoted to the core. He'll get plenty of votes, though I hope and pray he will lose.
He'll accept the results too. He'll do it with no dignity, tweeting and crying about it for weeks, but he will leave office when he's voted out. If he didn't, all the career government people who understand the law would remove him, it's not like he has super powers.
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