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Newsweek: Is Donald Trump Ending American Democracy?
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-ending-american-democracy-742561Disagreement between Republicans and Democrats on the Trump administration’s tax policy is a given. But President Donald Trump’s attacks on the pillars of U.S. democracy is something every American should fight, says Brian Klass, an academic who studies authoritarian regimes.
-snip-
Klass outlines four different scenarios for the future of America.
“The hopeful scenario, the optimistic one, is called 'the Trump vaccine' where he shows the weaknesses in American democracy the same way that a weakened strain of a disease shows the weaknesses in your immune system and allows you to respond to it, like a vaccine,” Klass says.
This could shore up American institutions if citizens become more civically engaged and speak out against Trump’s more despotic tendencies and abuses of democratic institutions, Klass says. But, he adds, that is an unlikely scenario.
“The more likely options are things like democratic decay, where the system slowly erodes over time, day after day, and weakens itself,” Klass says.
Klass calls the third possible scenario "the forerunner, where a Trump 2.0 figure comes along with more charisma, more discipline, but the same authoritarian impulses and is more effective at eroding American democracy.”
The final scenario, which Klass says is unlikely but still possible, is an American version of authoritarianism. This scenario might come to pass if there was a mass-casualty terrorist attack under Trump and his authoritarian impulses—including a clear desire to scapegoat and blame Muslims—took over.
-snip-
-snip-
Klass outlines four different scenarios for the future of America.
“The hopeful scenario, the optimistic one, is called 'the Trump vaccine' where he shows the weaknesses in American democracy the same way that a weakened strain of a disease shows the weaknesses in your immune system and allows you to respond to it, like a vaccine,” Klass says.
This could shore up American institutions if citizens become more civically engaged and speak out against Trump’s more despotic tendencies and abuses of democratic institutions, Klass says. But, he adds, that is an unlikely scenario.
“The more likely options are things like democratic decay, where the system slowly erodes over time, day after day, and weakens itself,” Klass says.
Klass calls the third possible scenario "the forerunner, where a Trump 2.0 figure comes along with more charisma, more discipline, but the same authoritarian impulses and is more effective at eroding American democracy.”
The final scenario, which Klass says is unlikely but still possible, is an American version of authoritarianism. This scenario might come to pass if there was a mass-casualty terrorist attack under Trump and his authoritarian impulses—including a clear desire to scapegoat and blame Muslims—took over.
-snip-