https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... source=fbb
Elsewhere, RJ asked for parallels for what Trump might bring. David Frum has come up with a set that are similar to what I would have given - Hungary and Poland I had thought of, anyway.
The US has has 200 years of democracy (or 50 of full suffrage), and a long tradition of institutions. Most other examples do not have that, or did not, before sliding into to a form or tyranny. On the other hand, institutional strength relies on the will to retain it. And checks and balances rely on people to activate them. The length of time that the US has been able to avoid tyranny may just lead to complacency.
There have been times when Presidents have over reached - Lincoln and FDR did it - but had the cover of real crisis, wartime or major economic crisis. The US is engaged in hostilities and there are threats, but not perhaps enough to justify suspension of habeus corpus, or internment as the Japanese-Americans were subject to. And the economy is not in crisis, nowhere nearly where it was 9 years ago or in the 1930s at any rate.
My concern, I guess, is that the partisanship that has grown and deepened will mean that Democrat reaction will give Republicans an excuse to forgive or demur over Trumpian overreach, and weaken some of the checks on the Executive.
Elsewhere, RJ asked for parallels for what Trump might bring. David Frum has come up with a set that are similar to what I would have given - Hungary and Poland I had thought of, anyway.
The US has has 200 years of democracy (or 50 of full suffrage), and a long tradition of institutions. Most other examples do not have that, or did not, before sliding into to a form or tyranny. On the other hand, institutional strength relies on the will to retain it. And checks and balances rely on people to activate them. The length of time that the US has been able to avoid tyranny may just lead to complacency.
There have been times when Presidents have over reached - Lincoln and FDR did it - but had the cover of real crisis, wartime or major economic crisis. The US is engaged in hostilities and there are threats, but not perhaps enough to justify suspension of habeus corpus, or internment as the Japanese-Americans were subject to. And the economy is not in crisis, nowhere nearly where it was 9 years ago or in the 1930s at any rate.
My concern, I guess, is that the partisanship that has grown and deepened will mean that Democrat reaction will give Republicans an excuse to forgive or demur over Trumpian overreach, and weaken some of the checks on the Executive.