Hanging By A Thread

DEMOCRACY in the United States is, as they say, is "hanging by a thread", is in great peril, and could be destroyed by the election of twenty twenty four. This is not wild eyed baseless speculation being promulgated by a ranting alarmist on social media, some conspiracy theory merely of the mind. Rather, it is a sober assessment derived from astute analysis which is shared by many of America's leading political scholars, academicians, and analysts. This widely shared concern derives directly from president Trump's "big election lie", which the former chief executive fabricated well before the election, as if grooming the country for a post election claim of election fraud, and, shockingly, embraced by millions of his followers to this day. The strategy comes straight from the playbook of Adolph Hitler as he outlined in his lengthy boring book "Mein Kampf", and implemented by his propaganda miister Joseph Goebbels. Invent and tell a big lie, inventing imaginary enemies, accusing them of doing what you are in fact doing, repeating the lie endlessly until it gains widespread acceptance among your followers and the general public. Thus the demagogue becomes the victim, defending righteous justice from enemmies of his own manufacture, his followers a cult, their mission a holy crusade, in defense of which any action is justified, no matter how immoral or violent. This is how tyrants operate. Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch" in nineteen twenty became a dress rehearsal. The insurrection at the Capitol of January 6, 2021, fomented, orchestrated, and led by Donald Trump and carried out by his followers is seen by many as a dress rehearsal for further attempts later, probably in the 2024 election, in which, many believe, Trump will became a candidate. A holy crusade to restore the presidency to its rightful owner, and to overthrow the illegitimate goverment of the enemy, Biden and the Democrats. In Trump's world of fabrication, the Democrats are the usurpers. In reality, Trump and his supporters are the criminals, having already staged an attempted a coup. They are quite likely to make another attempt. Democracy has failed to endure almost everywhere its ever been tried, starting in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and failing also in modern France and Russia, among other places. In fact the American system of govenment is a "plutocracy", governance by the weathy powerful few, and always has been. But at least we have maintained a thin veneer of popular soverrighty, in our electoral system. It is that thin veneer which is now imperiled. Our first order of business is to preserve what democratic institutions we have, including our system of free and fair elections. We can deal with the plutocracy later, or at least try to.