I’m a little behind on my reading, and just got around to an issue of Modern Reformation from July of 2019.
In it is a review of a book called How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, published in 2018.
The reviewer summarizes what the authors describe as a subversive overthrow of democracy, contrasted with radical overthrows such as the coup d’etats in Argentina, Brazil, and other states.
This subversive overthrow occurs in a series of steps:
- “the leaders of established parties fail to serve as effective gatekeepers”
- the subversive candidate “succeeds in rejecting many of the unwritten rules” and transgresses those rules “without consequence”
- the subversive candidate “denies the legitimacy of their [sic] opponents”
- the candidate takes over party apparatus and state apparatus
- “violence is tolerated or encouraged against opponents in order to harden views of opponents as enemies”
- “civil liberties are curtailed in terms of movement and freedom of the press”
- “courts are packed with justices who are partisan loyalists”
- “constitutional restrictions” are used to tilt the field in favor of the candidate”
What occurred to me, and probably to you, as well, is that when you read these descriptions you see these things occurring in the other party’s actions.
That is, Democrats, Progressives, and Left-Liberals read this and say “Aha! That was Trump!”
Yet Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians read it and say “Aha! This is right now, under Biden!”
Once we get past the schoolyard “No, You Are!” method of debate so frequently promoted in government and media, we should all recognize that it should tell us something that all of us see this happening in each other’s government.
As an exercise, put aside, for a moment, your party loyalty and political orientation and assess, honestly, whether you think any of these things should be standard operating procedure in a healthy “democracy” (I prefer constitutional republic, but, another article):
- political opponents branded as “evil,” with no right at the table of political discourse
- violence tolerated, or even encouraged and arranged, against political opponents to “de-humanize” them and justify further alienation
- civil liberties are curtailed, including freedom of movement and of the press
- courts being packed with partisan loyalists (see my other articles about this issue on the Court here and here)
- constitutional restraints lifted to favor one candidate, governor, or party
The ends don’t justify the means, regardless what your favorite politico or talking head tells you.