Saving Democracy Through Ideas
Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on day one, and he seems dead set on keeping his promise. With reckless speed, he has announced wildly unqualified nominees to his administration, whose only apparent merit is unswerving fealty to their master combined with a bloodlust for retribution against their perceived liberal enemies.
But the fact that these men (and they are almost all men) want to destroy democracy and do untold harm to civil society doesn’t mean they can. People organized in unflinching resistance can stop them. Developed democracies only succumb to authoritarian backsliding with the consent of a cowering public.
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South Korea provided an inspiring example last week. The institutions bent but did not break. When embattled right-wing president Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to establish military rule over South Korea’s vibrant democracy, every institution resisted his authoritarian advance. Citizens blocked access to government buildings, shaming the perpetrators. Lawmakers rushed back to the legislature to overturn the martial law decree, even climbing barricades. Crucially, the military entered parliament but refused to fire on protesters and legislators during the intense standoff. The media fearlessly voiced their outrage.
The would-be tyrant backed down because civil society stood up.
Americans may have elected Trump by the slimmest of margins, often for the pettiest or most ill-informed reasons. But most people did not vote to make him King.
Trump will try to make himself King but cannot do so as long as Americans act in concert to stop him.
This includes the press. The far-right movement has captured much of the information environment in the U.S., from old media like AM radio to short-form social media videos on TikTok. The nation’s most prominent newspapers have not covered themselves in glory. The New York Times is maddening in its “both sides” coverage; Jeff Bezos prevented his Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris; and the Los Angeles Times is lurching rightward under its billionaire owner who has considerable business before the federal government as does Bezos.
Liberal donors and organizations, including the Democratic Party, will need to finance and support reality-based media across all formats. As Trump and his lackeys attack journalists, citizens will need to defend outlets and writers that stand up for the truth.
The Washington Monthly will need your help to survive in the coming years. We, in turn, will do everything we can to help the country pierce the veil of lies and inform the public about what the far right is doing to loot and undermine the government. We will not mince words about it, and will remain a font of ideas for making America democratic and prosperous.
Democracy can and will survive if we band together to protect it. Please help us help one another by supporting the Monthly today. Thank you.
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