The problem we have with democracy in the United States isn’t the kind that’s going to lead to a headline one of these days that it has finally keeled over and died. It won’t happen like that — it is much more like a patient suffering from a malignant, terminal disease that is spreading throughout, slowly eating away at its systemic integrity.
Yesterday I wrote about the right-wing extremist legal doctrine known as the independent-state-legislature-theory (ISLT) that is currently being considered by the Supreme Court, but that is only one small part of the deep-set threat our country faces.
There are the numerous state laws popping up everywhere restricting voting rights, as well as the discriminatory laws undermining the human rights that are a cornerstone of any democracy, not to mention the multiple armed groups capable of January 6th-style insurrections.
Meanwhile, anyone paying attention sees that the former President and current leading GOP candidate Donald J. Trump has blatant authoritarian tendencies, but if Trump were the only political leader in that category, the danger could be minimized by preventing him from returning to office.
(Hopefully, the many criminal cases against him will eventually accomplish that worthy purpose.)
More dangerous than Trump himself is the large demographic that fervently supports him — people willing to send him money, vote for him at the ballot box and welcome his lies no matter how outrageous they become.
The main driver of this support is white resentment. Millions of Americans feel angry and left out of the new diverse, progressive society emerging around them. They are vulnerable to manipulation by a despot like Trump because he speaks directly to their fears.
He gives them a voice.
Sadly, there are plenty of Trump imitators willing to take his place once he fades from the scene. So the issue is if we can’t somehow eliminate this cancerous growth of authoritarianism it may metastasize.
That is the problem we have with democracy in America. The prognosis remains uncertain.
LINKS:
Supreme Court Upholds Native American Adoption Law (NYT)
Supreme Court could soon rule on Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. (CNN)
Why Mitch McConnell won’t speak out on Trump’s indictment (The Hill)
Judge in Trump Documents Case Has Scant Criminal Trial Experience (NYT)
Trump rejected lawyers’ efforts to avoid classified documents indictment (WP)
Lindsey Graham insists he’s not ‘inconsistent’ for backing Trump as he’s dismissed as ‘a spineless coward’ (Independent)
John Kelly: Trump is ‘scared s—less’ (The Hill)
Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans in Congress had his back. (AP)
Fears of hottest year on record as global temperatures spike (Guardian)
What We Can Learn From the Canadian Wildfires (The Nation)
A GOP-led attempt to censure Rep. Adam Schiff failed in the House after the California Democrat was targeted for his criticism of Trump while heading a committee dealing with intelligence. Twenty Republicans crossed party lines to vote against the resolution. [HuffPost]
Documents show how conservative doctors influenced abortion, trans rights (WP)
Hoping to Avert Nuclear Crisis, U.S. Seeks Informal Agreement With Iran (NYT)
Pentagon predicts Ukraine offensive will be long and ‘very violent’ (WP)
Tensions rise between Russian mercenaries and Kremlin (CNBC)
Ukraine's Counteroffensive Pushes in Three Directions–Kyiv (Newsweek)
Cash-strapped Taliban selling tickets to ruins of Buddhas it blew up (WP)
Fiscal policy in the rich world is mind-bogglingly reckless (Economist)
Grand jury indicts Daniel Penny in chokehold death of NYC subway rider Jordan Neely (NPR)
Abbott Sends Migrants From Texas to Los Angeles for the First Time (NYT)
What the Pentagon Thinks About Artificial Intelligence (Politico Mag)
The singularity is here, again (Axios)
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini: AI will unleash productivity in a way we haven't seen (Yahoo)
AI is coming for jobs, but it might be San Francisco’s best hope (WP)
AI will ‘stir the pot,’ but won’t change the game for decades: Mark Zandi (CNBC)
Meta and Microsoft join AI standards group on "synthetic media" (Axios)
Generative AI is disrupting its own investment case (Financial Times)
Alphabet is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world. (Reuters)
How third graders got hit especially hard by the pandemic (AP)
New clues about origin of complex life trace roots to common ancestor (Phys.org)
Gen Xers and older millennials really just want to go back in time to before the internet existed (Fast Company)
What the Teen-Smartphone Panic Says About Adults (Atlantic)
Casablanca | An Unlikely Classic: Behind The Scenes (YouTube)
Rookie Forest Ranger Not Getting Hopes Up About Seeing Tree On First Day (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment