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Practice What You Preach
The Trumpian Democracy Measurement Test
Subjugation of people, rights, and institutions by force is no way to run a democracy, but it is a good way to run an autocracy. When media analysts talk about democracy being on the brink of collapse, I often wonder if they are educated, given thought to this issue, or live solely by considering ideas and generalizations rather than a lived-in history and experience.
We are nowhere near returning autocracy in America as compared to other countries.
Let’s look at this through the example of Trump as an abstract entity, not as a human being. Let’s say we can agree he is horrible white supremacist who loves to demean our fellow Americans racially on a constant basis. (Or, if you happen to be a Trump supporter than he’s a wonderful and powerful man doing right for our country.) Instead, in this current New York Criminal case he has been charged, we must consider how the treatment of him represents democracy. We can use some the treatment of him as a measurement of the health of our system.
If we are worried about the state of our democracy and we hope to move forward in America, we must look at Trump as a “threat” to the system. We could do that for any president really. No doubt Trump is posing one though outwardly, but is he an…
