This Is How Democracies Die

[Dill]

(01-25-2018, 07:59 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is not all Trumps fault but I see three major threats to democracy.

1.  De-legitimizing the press.  I feel that a robust free press is essential to a democracy.  If the press has no power then that allows the government to run roughshod over citizens.

2.  Elevating corporations over government.  One of the biggest roles of government is to protect the people from the power of corporations.  The individual players may not be evil in their hearts, but capitalism at its very core values profit over human lives.  Unchecked corporate power can produce the same fascist results as unchecked government power.  The people just get exploited by corporations instead of dictators.

3.  De-legitimizing all government agencies other than the executive branch.  Our system of checks and balances does not work if the the executive branch has all of the power.  If the Department of Justice can not investigate the President then who will? 

Well said. That is why electing Trump doesn't signal a healthy democracy, but one heading for authoritarian decline, as Levitsky describes.