I have been reading Levitsky and Siblatt’s 2018 book with the above title. I am only 22 pages into it and it is all too clear that what I have intuitively feeling for the last three years is well justified by the historical record–the US is sliding towards the death of our democracy. All of the elements that the authors point to having occurred around the world are happening right here. Perhaps most poignant, they note that political elites and parties are “democracy’s gatekeepers–they are the ones who must take action when authoritarian tendencies emerge in the executive, when the signs of erosion begin occurring. What we have is the utter abdication of the Republican Party, and its elites, to take any affirmative steps of meaning to safeguard our democratic institutions. Instead, virtually every day sees new outrages occurring. McConnell will go down in history as one of the assassins of the democracy–besides not allowing the Senate to function as intended by our Founding Fathers, he is doing whatever he can to place Federalist society adherents on the federal bench whether or not they have ever even seen an actual trial or have been judged competent by the ABA. Both parties have always tried to fill the federal bench with people of certain ideological bent but never have so many unqualified individuals been pushed through–and certainly not as the only legislative actions of the Senate.
I have over 200 more pages to go in the book and I, perversely, look forward to reading every one. The overarching question I have is how far down the slope towards death of democracy do we have to go before elected Republican officials finally step up and do their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution. Obviously, its pretty far down because we are already glimpsing the bottom of the run.
Searching for the Full Moon 