The centrists, institutionalists and other such mainstream voices who continue to naively believe in a version of an eternally democratic and decent America that does not exist and where autocrats and demagogues are anathema to the country’s political traditions and culture were (self- and incorrectly) convinced that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, would be the end of Donald Trump’s political power and the MAGA movement. Instead, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement would endure and grow in power and influence. There is a deep appetite for authoritarianism in America (and other parts of the world).
In all, Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, the certification of the Electoral College votes on Monday, and Jan. 6, 2021, have caused a type of cognitive dissonance and frustration among pro-democracy Americans and other members of the “reality-based community” that none of this should be happening but all of it has and continues to. On this, Heather Cox Richardson writes in her newsletter Letters from an American how, “Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again.”
No comments:
Post a Comment