The major consequence, most likely the intended one, is the alienation of Muslims at home and abroad. Everywhere the first executive order on refugees and immigrants was understood as directed against Muslims. The one consistent policy of the Trump administration thus far has been to encourage a Muslim terrorist attack within or upon the United States. Right-wing authoritarians today use the threat or the reality of terrorism to seek and hold power. This has been the pattern in recent authoritarian regime changes around the world. If legislators do not support the judiciary, then their turn for humiliation will come, and the laws they pass will be unenforceable. Once the courts are tamed, the legislature cannot defend itself, and we have authoritarianism. Trump attacks the geometry of the system. The idea of checks and balances is enshrined in our constitution, but of course also in theirs, is that none of the three branches of government can dominate the others. In recent authoritarian regime changes, in Poland and Hungary as well as Russia, the executive power has been able to sideline the judiciary and then humble the legislature. Indeed, not recognizing election results and moving to take power anyway is what authoritarians do. His one major comment on democracy was that he would contest the outcome of elections if they were not in his favor. He has said almost nothing in favor of democracy or, for that matter, civil and human rights. If there is a common thread that links American political rhetoric from the 18th century to today, through the confrontations with fascist and communist rivals and into the 21st century it is the word “democracy.” Our practice has been imperfect, but the endorsement of the idea of rule by the people has been consistent, until now. Russians and Ukrainians have been quick to notice a familiar pattern. This president has not revealed the basic financial information about himself, but we know that he has business interests at home and abroad. The emoluments clause of the constitution confirms our common sense: no one can be trusted to defend the interests of citizens if his policy choices can make him richer. The Founders, opponents of a British monarchy, were alert to the danger that government might serve to enrich a single family. Since the end of the cold war, the new authoritarian regimes that have emerged in eastern Europe have taken the form of authoritarian kleptocracies: Russia is the most enduring example of this model a revolution halted the development of a similar regime in Ukraine in 2014. Trump calls journalists “enemies of the people,” he is quoting Joseph Stalin. Trump calls journalists “enemies,” they are expressing their support for the demolition of the historical, ethical, and intellectual bases of the political life we take for granted. When Steve Bannon refers to the press as the “opposition,” or Mr. Whether from the far right or the far left, the regime changers of the twentieth century understood that the media had to be bullied and deprived of importance. The function of the press, as the Founding Fathers understood, was to generate the common knowledge on which citizens could understand and debate policy, and to prevent rulers from behaving tyrannically. Indeed, absent a truly decisive revolution, which is a rare event, a regime change depends upon such people - regime changers - emerging in one system and transforming it into another. This was true in the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as during the spread of communism in the 1940s, and indeed in the new wave of authoritarian regime changes of the 21st century. Politicians who emerge from democratic practices can then work to undo democratic institutions. But a broader look at the history of democratic republics established since our own revolution reveals that most of them have failed. We might imagine that the American system must somehow always sustain itself. Alert to the classical examples they knew, the decline of ancient Greece and Rome into oligarchy and empire, they established the rule of law, checks and balances, and regular elections as the means of preserving the new republic. The Founding Fathers designed the constitution to prevent some Americans from exercising tyranny.
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