Has Trump Done Permanent Damage to American Democracy
Here’s an excellent, albeit terribly pessimistic article presenting the case that American democracy may be terminal at this point.
Though this may sound like a strange conclusion to draw, we need to admit that all the main points are true. Trump continues his shameless abuse of his power, desperately trying to jam the electoral system and its courts with baseless accusations, sham lawsuits, and pressuring elected officials to violate the oaths they took to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Failing in court, this most authoritarian of presidents is pressuring Little Trumpers everywhere to overturn an election that Trump’s own cybersecurity chief, Christopher Krebs, said was “the most secure in American history.” He’s trying to force canvassers, certifiers, election board referees and state legislators to create enough chaos so that he can steal a win…. The good news is that a decent majority of Americans think the election was conducted freely and fairly, a belief that has the added benefit of being true. Krebs, a Trump appointee who oversaw defense of the election for the Department of Homeland Security, issued a statement saying, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” That assessment got him fired by the president on Tuesday.
Given that all of this has gotten Trump essentially nowhere, why the long face?
Even with all the corruption, the U.S. government, the legislative branch in particular, will be under immense pressure to pass laws that make this type of coup attempt impossible in the future. There is no evidence that the horrific experience that this nation has had with Trump these last four years has any real chance of recurring. Most likely, it will go the way of the Salem witch trials of 1692, where a year later few people could explain how such a thing could have possibly happened.
