A year to protect democracy
There should be no mistaking the dangers democracy confronts. The rise of far-right parties in Europe, the authoritarian behavior of governments in Turkey, Hungary and Poland, and the ebbing of center-left and center-right parties that were part of the postwar democratic consensus would be troubling even without the rise of Donald Trump. His emergence should sharpen our concern. “A right-wing demagogue in charge of the world’s most influential repository of democratic values,” wrote Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, “is a devastating fact.”
.. “I alone can fix it” might serve as the title of a management book for autocrats.
.. Trump spoke of using government instruments (including antitrust laws) to punish media companies he regards as hostile. Even if he never follows through, the threats speak to his cast of mind.
.. closeness of many of Trump’s top aides, including national security adviser Michael T. Flynn and chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, to extreme movements in Europe that have brought back themes buried since the 1930s and early 1940s.
.. the rise of populist parties, including authoritarian ones, signals that “the prevailing political ideology isn’t working and needs repair, and the standard worldview is breaking down.”