The Democratic Party’s policies and tactics since Trump’s 2016 nomination are, almost to a letter, right out of leftist Harvard professors' litmus test for detecting assaults on democracy
"Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, professors of government at Harvard University, issued an ominous warning for the United States in 2018 in their book “How Democracies Die.” Today, democracies are more likely to perish due to the insidious erosion of fundamental democratic institutions at the hands of elected leaders than as a result of a dramatic coup. If the United States were to experience a democratic crisis, it would most likely begin at the ballot box.
"While the book clearly displays the left’s obsession with President Donald Trump’s alleged authoritarian tendencies, the authors concede that the president hasn’t really broken any democratic rules. Democracy and its institutions remain intact under Trump.
"The book’s real albeit unintended takeaway is the disturbing extent to which the Democratic Party’s policies and tactics since Trump’s 2016 nomination are, almost to a letter, right out of the authors’ litmus test for detecting assaults on democracy. The use of the pandemic to justify gross violations of civil liberties, threats of a court-packing scheme, the persistent and fanciful Russian collusion narrative, the failure to condemn Antifa and Black Lives Matter violence, and media-tech silence, suppression, and censorship don’t just raise red flags; they sound so fearful an alarm that, at this point, only the willfully deaf are refusing to take heed.
"Levitsky and Ziblatt warn that although America’s institutions are robust, citizens must not take democracy for granted. Political parties should avoid stoking the flames of authoritarianism by making devil’s bargains with radical elements, both within the party or with extremist outsiders, to secure electoral victory.
"The authors propose four indicators for discerning undemocratic trends. Predictably, they argue Trump checks every box. But the claims rely heavily on off-color banter from campaign rallies that never translated into policy, as well as Trump’s allegations of media dishonesty and potential electoral fraud that have ended up being more perspicacious than authoritarian.
"In any case, the authors have admitted Trump has not been much of a dictator. If you apply the behavioral warning signs to the Democratic Party, however, the results are uncanny." . . .
