Viewpoint: Watching for the coup by a thousand cuts
By Ken Hughes / For The Conversation
Now that a full year has passed since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the 2020 election and the republic, it’s evident that the attack never really ended. Instead, it spread out to other, less visible, more vulnerable targets.
Donald Trump had hoped to reverse his election loss in a single, decisive, dramatic confrontation between his supporters and the republic’s, broadcast live around the world. His plan backfired, filling our screens with vivid illustrations of authoritarianism’s most repugnant ills: chaos, lawlessness, violence, racism, fascism and all manner of hatred run amok. The blatancy of the subversion provoked an immediate backlash, even among some Republicans.
Had he studied democratic erosion before becoming a practitioner, Trump would know that effective authoritarians tighten their grips on government gradually, stealthily undermining courts, legislatures, election officials, news organizations, political opposition and other institutions strong enough to check them.
The coup by a thousand cuts is the stuff of nightmares for democracy’s defenders and the dream of authoritarian politicians.
“The story of democratic erosion in other countries is that it happens invisibly, you don’t have this tanks-in-the-streets moment,” Brendan Nyhan told The New Yorker. Nyhan is a Dartmouth political scientist and co-director of Bright Line Watch, a group of political scientists who “monitor democratic practices, their resilience, and potential threats.”
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/viewpoint-watching-for-the-coup-by-a-thousand-cuts/