And So, U.S. Democracy is Dying
Will the January 6 House Committee‘s primetime crime showdown change the outcome?
U.S. democracy is nearly dead. At this point, it doesn’t look salvageable.
The Path to Authoritarianism
“The American system isn’t just dysfunctional. It’s dying,” political scientist Brian Klaas writes in The Atlantic today. That’s because “one of the two major parties in the U.S. — the Trumpified Republican Party — has become authoritarian to its core.”
For the United States to avoid the outcome of authoritarianism, either the Republicans have to become not-authoritarian or else never win power again. The Republicans aren’t going to change, and in fact they’re likely to gain power in the November elections. So it doesn’t look like the US will avoid this outcome. Former democracies “end up as authoritarian states,” Klaas explains, “with zombified democratic institutions: rigged elections in place of legitimate ones, corrupt courts rather than independent judges, and propagandists replacing the press.”
‘Irrevocably Divided’
Joe Walsh, formerly a “Tea Party” conservative Republican congressman who declared himself independent in 2020, was interviewed by Chauncey DeVega a few days ago. Walsh said…
