Donald
Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law. His actions have raised a chilling question.
Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, The New York Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.
Our
country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or
China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march
often continues. I will post each of these markers on 12 consecutive days as an example of the Times warning of how much Americans
have already lost and how much more we still could lose.
NO. 1
An
authoritarian stifles dissent and speech. Trump has started to.
Authoritarian takeovers in the modern era often do not start with a military coup. They instead involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition more difficult, if not impossible. Think of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and, to lesser degrees, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India. These leaders have repressed dissent and speech in heavy-handed ways.
Over the
past year, President Trump and his allies have impinged on free speech to a
degree that the federal government has not since perhaps the Red Scare of the
1940s and 1950s. His administration pressured television
stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show when Mr. Kimmel criticized
Trump supporters after the murder of Charlie Kirk; revoked
the visas of foreign students for their views on the war in Gaza;
and ordered
investigations of liberal nonprofit groups. Mr. Trump so harshly
criticizes people who disagree with him, including federal judges, that they
become targets
of harassment from his supporters.
The Bottom Line
Many forms of speech and dissent remain vibrant in the United States. But the
president has tried to dull them. His evident goal is to cause Americans to
fear they will pay a price for criticizing him, his allies or his agenda.
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