Trump Is Working Harder Than Ever to Undermine Democracy

[Nevilledog]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/trump-working-harder-than-ever-undermine-democracy.html

On Wednesday, two dozen House Republicans flocked to Texas to show their support for Donald Trump. They joined the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, in applauding the former president as he toured the border, denounced the U.S. government, and repeated the lie that he had been removed from office illegally. “Biden is destroying our country, and it all started with a fake election,” Trump declared as the lawmakers looked on in silence or approval. He accused the United States of “phony elections,” called it a “sick country,” and bragged that as president, he had seized military funds—against the will of Congress, and in defiance of the Constitution—to fund his border wall.

For many Americans, Trump’s disappearance from Facebook, Twitter, and the mainstream media has left the impression that he has gone away. That impression is false and dangerous. Trump has tightened his grip on the GOP, and he has escalated his campaign to undermine American institutions. His authoritarian movement is a direct challenge not just to President Joe Biden but to the larger alliance of democracies. The fundamental political conflict in our country is no longer between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between people who believe in a democratic republic and people who don’t.

Biden understands the gravity of the threat. Since the day he took office, he has pledged to confront China and Russia, rebuild “democratic alliances,” and “rally the nations of the world to defend democracy globally, to push back [against] authoritarianism’s advance.” In February, Biden said he had made clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin, “in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions—interfering with our elections, cyberattacks, poisoning its citizens—are over.”

The authoritarian menace extends into our country. In his inaugural address, Biden noted that he was taking office “just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy.” He described his inauguration, in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, as “the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause: the cause of democracy.” A month later, in a conference with European allies, Biden implicitly connected Putin’s propaganda to Trump’s attacks on NATO and the American electoral system. “Russian leaders want people to think that our system is more corrupt or as corrupt as theirs,” said Biden.

*snip*

[padah513]

1. Sad to say, but he has a lot of help

Some from people in high places.

[uponit7771]

2. McCarthy and McConnell are the people leading this charge, without them Trump has no power

[llashram]

3. trump is their

frontman. IF they could overthrow our democracy, he would just be their puppet. Our democracy is stronger than these clowns and the media sycophants allowing him air time and glorifying the orange devil's dump.