Most American liberals believe in the inexorable pull of social progress and trust that human beings are basically reasonable and rational. These character traits are both a strength and a weakness.
At its best, this tradition is exemplified by the struggle and sacrifice of American freedom fighters such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his soaring words: "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
At its worst, this tradition can mean American liberals become hamstrung by overweening faith in the country's democratic institutions. They believe that progress is a status quo ante, or a social force akin to gravity, that exists separate and apart from the radical acts needed to sustain it. Here a belief in progress is faith without acts, and ultimately hollow.
It is this timidity, laziness and naiveté which left so many liberals -- policy-makers, journalists, politicians and members of the public en masse -- unprepared and naked in the face of Donald Trump and the Republican Party's assault on American democracy. Instead of being roused to action by first acknowledging just how imperiled our democracy and society are under Trumpian rule, too many still feel a profound desire to find stability and a sense of normalcy in a time of crisis. They implore the American people to somehow "muddle through" this perilous moment and find hope where, in reality, the circumstances do not merit it.
In his recent essay "The Public Has Trump's Number," John Stoehr insists that the "American people are doing fine," adding: "So is the press. Seriously."
Trump remains unpopular and will likely become more so the more we know. The opposing party is gathering strength. The rule of law still prevails. Our institutions, though straining, have not yet broken. Even if Trump were to hold on, to win reelection, I don’t see reason to despair. Not yet. Like [John] Dewey, I still have hope. ...
This is not [to] say we won’t have a coup or something equally bad (though I doubt it). This is to say that journalism has its problems, just as the public does, but all things considered, we’re doing OK. Indeed, better than OK. In the past, elites marginalized the insane from the center of power. They failed. Now it’s the people’s turn.
Writing at Vox, Matthew Yglesias largely echoes Stoehr's sentiments:
To be fair to Trump and to the surreal nightmare he’s made [of] American politics, the other thing that happens if you step away from the news cycle is you see that things are basically fine. During the election, I saw two possible scenarios for a Trump administration. Down one road lay cataclysm, whereas down another road Trump would pleasantly surprise us with his job performance.
Reality has confounded both expectations, with Trump displaying no hidden depths whatsoever, even as life continues to be basically fine for most people.
Stoehr and Yglesias are correct...from a certain point of view. President Trump has not tried to suspend elections (so far), nor has he imprisoned his political foes and other rivals. Trump and his allies have not torn up the Constitution and thrown the Bill of Rights into a political funeral pyre. There are no tanks in the street. Journalists have not been disappeared, as in some countries in Latin America. While the intensity may have changed, long-standing debates about public policy and the distribution of public goods and resources continue on.
However, the context of those facts -- and how they are located relative to other facts and data -- matter as well. When viewed in total, the condition of American democracy under Donald Trump looks dire.
Authoritarian and anti-democratic attitudes and beliefs have been increasing in America for almost two decades. This is especially true among Republicans and other self-identified conservatives. Depending on the scenario offered, as many as 30 percent of Americans say they might support a military coup. Other research shows that Republicans are contemptuous of democracy and believe that winning at all costs -- even if the rule of law is violated -- is all that matters.
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, more than 50 percent of Republicans believe that a free press is the enemy of the people. Nine percent of Americans (approximately 22 million people) support extreme right-wing ideologies such as Nazism. Negative partisanship and other manifestations of extreme political polarization are making consensus politics, where different groups work together to advance the common good, difficult or impossible.
Donald Trump has created his own reality by telling at least 3,000 lies since taking office. This is unprecedented in modern American political history. He has a de facto state propaganda machine in the form of Fox News and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as well as right-wing talk radio and internet sites, eager to disseminate his falsehoods to a base of supporters who accept everything he says as true.
The Republican Party has abandoned any pretense of holding Trump accountable for what the public evidence suggests may be conspiracy with a foreign power, obstruction of justice and the litany of other alleged crimes such as money laundering, influence peddling and financial fraud. As demonstrated by a blatant disregard for transparency (see the the recent congressional "debates" around health care and tax reform) and other standing norms and procedures of just governance, Republicans have clearly lost all respect for democracy.
Indeed, long before the rise of Trump, the Republican Party engaged in a decades-long effort to use gerrymandering, voter suppression and outright intimidation to limit the voting rights nonwhites, younger people and any other group it deemed likely to oppose its right-wing agenda
Trump has used the office of the presidency to threaten private citizens who disagree with him. He has also threatened to take control over the Department of Justice in order to immunize himself from the rule of law. Trump has publicly stated that he wants to limit freedom of the press. He appears to be using the office of the presidency as a personal ATM for himself and his family, in direct opposition to the public interest.
Trump, other Republicans and their media followers routinely deploy eliminationist rhetoric against nonwhite immigrants, Muslims, and other groups. At a recent rally Donald Trump even went so far as to mention "Hispanics" by name in disparaging fashion, as if identifying the country's largest nonwhite ethnic group as an enemy. To that end, Trump and his administration have encouraged enforcers from ICE to target, harass and deport immigrants on an unprecedented scale, often in cruel and brutal fashion. Trump's administration is also removing even modest protections for black and brown Americans from police abuse.
Donald Trump has suggested that some neo-Nazis and white supremacists are "very fine people," and they in turn have embraced him as their champion. Inspired by Trump, hate crimes against nonwhites, Jews, and Muslims have spiked to much higher levels than in previous years.
These are but a few examples of how the traditions and norms of American are under assault by Trumpism. Alarmism in response to this dire emergency is not mindless panic. It is reasonable and necessary for survival.
Why are so many members of the news media and other opinion leaders, especially centrist Democrats and liberals, still in denial about the profound threat posed by Trump and his enablers?
Some of them are still shell-shocked by the result of the 2016 election, and what that suggested about the true character of the American people. Many "moderates" or liberals have not fully worked through the stages of grief for a political order that has been upended, if not shattered. They are stuck somewhere between denial and acceptance.
American exceptionalism has also blinded many people to the threat posed by Trumpism: Fascism and authoritarianism are incorrectly believed to be problems that only occur "over there," rather than ideologies with a long and deep tradition in American politics and culture.
The color line is part of this story as well. There is an assumption, held by many white Americans across the ideological spectrum, that whiteness is inherently benign. Thus they cling to incorrect narratives, such as how "economic anxiety" among the white working class supposedly put Trump into office, rather than facing the harsh truth that it was racism, nativism, sexism and a need to maintain social dominance and white privilege which produced that outcome.
The social pathologies that birthed Trump's authoritarian movement are still misdiagnosed, if not ignored, by too many white American liberals. The result is an inability (or unwillingness) to take a full and proper account of how he was able to win the White House and what this portends for America's future.
What can be done?
Too many American liberals and centrists still have faith in normal politics: There will be a "blue wave" in the 2018 midterms, Democrats will take control of the House and Senate, Trump will be impeached and American politics will return to some semblance of normality. There is also the hope that Robert Mueller's investigation will produce findings so damning that Trump will be forced to to resign or face impeachment by Democrats and Republicans working together in the national interest.
Those outcomes are individually unlikely, and collectively all but impossible. Even so, they will not be enough to fix the fundamental problems afflicting America's political institutions and culture.
What is actually needed is a more radical vision that emphasizes social democracy across all areas of American life. Liberals and Democrats need to be forced out of their complacency. Writing at The Week, Ryan Cooper makes this case:
Many self-righteously sober-minded liberals scoff at activist calls for political revolution. They focus instead on incremental reforms and tiddlywink improvements that, they insistently tut-tut, are moderate and thus achievable.
However, if the Democratic Party wants to stave off political collapse, liberals would do well to consider reform that is so aggressive that it makes drastic and fundamental changes to the structure of society — what we might call revolutionary reform. ...
Muddling along, by contrast, is mostly what Democrats under President Obama did from 2009 through 2016. Some positive changes were made, to be sure, but mainly it was a restoration of the status quo. The result was President Trump.
The worst predictions of the Trump presidency have not come true. And Democrats will probably win back power in 2020 or later. But if a future person or group does overthrow American democracy, I fear it will be because the coming cohort of Democrats could not overcome their traditional cringing timidity (or corruption) and match their program to the size of the problems besetting the nation.
Those Americans who are holding their breath in anticipation of Mueller's findings and a redemptive "blue wave" that will force Trump and the Republicans from office are playing a dangerous game.
To borrow from George Miller's genius film and dystopian masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road: "You know, hope is a mistake. If you can't fix what's broken, you'll go insane."
Which world leaders does Trump most resemble?
Harvard professior Daniel Ziblatt explains that it's usually the voters who kill democracy.
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