Act One, Scene One: At the start of February who will say that the alarm felt by so many on 8 November was exaggerated? Experts in authoritarianism see troubling patterns emerging under Trump administration. Trump's fictional crises and the real threats to American democracy: The president is using the institutional mechanisms designed to preserve democracy to undermine constitutional order. Trump is now attacking all the institutions that could limit his power later. Don't forget George W. Bush had authoritarian tendencies, too: With luck, there will not be an incident like 9/11 during the Trump presidency — that's the authoritarian emergency for which we must all prepare. Jack Balkin on how to tell if you are in a constitutional crisis.
From the Congressional Research Service, a report on constitutional authority statements and the powers of Congress: An overview. How to stop an autocracy: The danger isn't that Trump will build an autocracy — it's that congressional Republicans will let him. Never believe the Republicans' B.S. ever again: Their silence on Trump reveals that their Obama-era sanctimony was fake.
Donald Trump thinks he's a strong leader — but that's an illusion. In Trump's fascist aesthetic, dissenters are losers and the photograph rules. Jack Shafer: "Why I'm not afraid of Baby Donald: President Trump isn't a tyrant in the making. He's just a toddler throwing a tantrum". Our part in the darkness: Members of Donald Trump's Administration might be extremists, but, with a view to American history, they aren't an aberration.
