🦜 Democracy Americana
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A newsletter on U.S. politics and history - and the ongoing struggle over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America
  
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      Escalation, Authoritarian “Normalization,” or a Democratic Turnaround?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/21880233-f204-4b87-9733-54d91cbcf247
      Published: November 4, 2025 00:13
      One year after the election: What we can say with certainty about the state of the Trumpist assault, where uncertainty lies, and where America might go from here
    
  
    
      A Constant Torrent of Authoritarian Arrogance, Corruption, Complicity
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/fe5acc52-4f95-444f-9a11-f3cd6d72cfc2
      Published: October 26, 2025 17:47
      American politics is an exasperating, frenzied, and acutely dangerous mess. Let’s sort through the events of the past week to separate what matters from what does not.
    
  
    
      America As No-Longer-Democracy and Not-Yet-Dictatorship
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/a40ac673-b42b-4108-9756-feeae62ca5e8
      Published: October 20, 2025 12:28
      Where does the country stand after the largest day of protest in U.S. history? Putting “No Kings” in perspective
    
  
    
      We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/08ca53da-bb0f-4eb4-aa08-c0648d2d9477
      Published: October 9, 2025 10:55
      Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy
    
  
    
      Where Is the Line?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/c5d02496-98ac-4eac-a1dd-b8109b3e26c5
      Published: October 5, 2025 13:22
      On Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the struggle to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in America
    
  
    
      Is Trump Winning? Is He Losing?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/8fd1d2c2-6733-424c-9547-8ebd132b6f54
      Published: September 28, 2025 22:53
      Kimmel uncanceled, a terrifying “domestic terrorism” directive, and troops to Portland: Where does America stand in the struggle against encroaching authoritarianism?
    
  
    
      Onward. Forward. Steady.
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/ab02af47-9e87-4143-ba51-afa2d1804c1c
      Published: September 24, 2025 10:12
      Things have really changed. Now I need your help.
    
  
    
      The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/e1939bd0-39f0-4bcc-8764-30742a3c7d02
      Published: September 14, 2025 22:01
      The military patrolling in the streets, an assassination, and a movement longing for escalation. America is teetering on the brink
    
  
    
      Why the Extremists Took over on the Right
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/1fa94cc4-1d69-4c7b-820d-aab7dd5837d6
      Published: September 14, 2025 22:00
      Fear of a pluralizing America is fueling a radicalization out of a sense of weakness and besiegement
    
  
    
      What is America, and for Whom?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/ee2e090b-2857-4ff6-b296-073fd13a463c
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:59
      A white Christian ethno-state or a pluralistic democracy with egalitarian aspirations? American society has always been divided over what this country should strive to be
    
  
    
      The American Government Sides with the Party of German Neo-Nazis
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/770fc317-db2c-4148-b9c4-a3b7e5747510
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:58
      The MAGA-AfD alliance of extremists is not surprising, but it remains outrageous. If democracy is to prevail, America needs to establish a robust anti-fascist consensus
    
  
    
      How the Republic Falls
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/7d093680-c6ba-47eb-b5d6-fca9b16a6ff6
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:58
      Constitutional protections suspended. The government purging “alien enemies” and the “enemy within.” Three months into Trumpist rule, despotism is rising in America
    
  
    
      What Authoritarianism Means
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/0c39122d-246d-4b3c-a3c3-e0bcb0731018
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:57
      Even critical observers underestimated the speed and scope of the Trumpist assault, they overestimated democratic resilience. What is America now, and what comes next?
    
  
    
      MAGA, the German Far Right, and the Transnational Assault on Democracy
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/0e7f7745-1136-42ad-837e-72f9c32d18d2
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:56
      A reflection on the German far right, Musk’s interference in the German election, and why the MAGA-AfD alliance isn’t nearly as irresistible as they want us to believe
    
  
    
      MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/ec5a38aa-486a-44fe-99d3-b3ed36e33dd0
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:55
      The assault is coming from different angles: Project 2025. The feudal tech barons. The America First nativists. It’s not a single master plan – it’s comprehensive chaos
    
  
    
      Navigating the Nonsense and Propaganda of Clownish Authoritarianism
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/b251cfc6-43fc-41a2-bb6d-81e5203bb0d9
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:51
      Ignoring what Trump says won’t work. Constant outrage is not a viable strategy either. We must find a more productive way to engage Trump’s dangerous outlandishness
    
  
    
      The Modern Conservative Tradition and the Origins of Trumpism
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/8836df02-0af8-4c6f-97d7-951793898934
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:50
      Today’s Trumpist radicals are not (small-c) conservatives – but they stand in the continuity of Modern Conservatism’s defining political project
    
  
    
      Meet the Ideologue of the “Post-Constitutional” Right
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/754b715c-48b7-4419-9b63-dbc5691fdd56
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:49
      Russell Vought, one of the architects behind Project 2025, believes there is nothing left to conserve. He desires revolution – and to burn down the system
    
  
    
      Elite Acquiescence and Treacherous “Normalcy” All Around Us
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/72cf11bd-5673-4018-940a-5b640f2a03dc
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:49
      What are the reasons behind the pervasive tendency among ostensibly anti-MAGA elites to accommodate authoritarian power and preemptively signal compliance with Trumpism?
    
  
    
      Why the Second Trump Regime Will Be Far More Dangerous
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/57862474-a2af-4cd5-8e93-dc183725451c
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:47
      This will be a much more radical regime – and it will operate under conditions that are vastly more favorable to its extremist cause
    
  
    
      Why the Stakes in this Election Are So Enormously High
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/e734532a-5e61-4fe2-a50f-709e7ea0a2b9
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:45
      Democracy itself is on the ballot. If Trump wins, the extreme Right will be in a much better position than ever before to abolish it
    
  
    
      It Could Definitely Happen Here
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/26ac0ca8-f361-4878-838c-6bde6e5cd6e2
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:44
      Many Americans struggle to accept that democracy is young, fragile, and could collapse – a lack of imagination that dangerously blunts the response to the Trumpist Right
    
  
    
      Donald Trump, American Fascist
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/62f51e74-3cc7-4646-8fb3-4137b9006689
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:43
      Trumpism is what a specifically American, twenty-first century version of fascism looks like. And in November, fascism is on the ballot
    
  
    
      How Project 2025 Became Toxic and Exposed the Right’s Toxicity
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/c9eee98c-4ce5-42c6-8dcc-5e973934fb42
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:42
      The public history of Project 2025 reveals a lot about how Trump understands power - and how the mainstream discourse (mis-) understands the extreme Right
    
  
    
      Blood and Soil
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/fd6042ca-dfa6-4693-85a1-b9552e6488f5
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:42
      The Right is committed to an idea of America as a white Christian homeland. They are determined to purge the nation and redraw the boundaries of the body politic
    
  
    
      Liz Cheney and the Problem of the Anti-Trump Republican
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/6314b827-af11-40c9-abce-9388878635b1
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:41
      Republicans who hold the line against Trump deserve respect. But champions of egalitarian, pluralistic democracy they are not - and that also matters
    
  
    
      What is “weird” and what is “normal” in America?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/a66b1b57-4f3f-4384-9aa4-4531dc1ba29d
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:40
      Democrats are, finally, asserting a right to define the boundaries of normalcy – and their claim to be defending the nation’s true ideals against the reactionary assault
    
  
    
      MAGA of the Beach Redux
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/d4c4d387-4138-477a-966f-3c8c937890d3
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:39
      On an encounter with enraged Trumpers - and the road ahead for a society in which conspiracies, extremist iconography, and political violence have become ubiquitous
    
  
    
      Kamala Harris May Force a Reckoning
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/1211329b-c452-421c-b04e-a255f6581fe1
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:38
      Harris emerged as VP in the summer of 2020 when it seemed the country might finally deal with its defining demons. She was sidelined thereafter - until now.
    
  
    
      Allies Against Demoracy: Trump and Project 2025
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/8bb4b059-0a44-414b-a587-84b4032c9c1f
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:37
      Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025. It’s worse: The rightwing establishment has radicalized so much that their plans are in line with his vengeful desires
    
  
    
      The Origins of Trumpism and the Birth of the Present
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/5b95f96f-b63f-47b5-ae39-60bcc67c54bd
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:36
      Reflections on the pre-history of Trump’s rise, the nature of Trumpism, and the radical politics of white despair – based on John Ganz’s masterful "When the Clock Broke"
    
  
    
      The Right’s Politics of Revenge
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/b5a166d2-72e1-4bf4-9bc2-7321b475b31d
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:36
      The responses to the Trump verdict offer a reminder of what defines the American Right today: They are out for bloody retaliation, all dressed up as patriotism
    
  
    
      The “Originalist” Supreme Court vs Democracy
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/e7481e1a-5442-4d70-8ddd-bb30f071c599
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:34
      As the Right is using “originalism” to re-impose a reactionary order on the country, I exchange letters with Madiba Dennie about the dangers of judicial supremacy
    
  
    
      The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problem
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/b5cf6f1e-8418-47a5-b770-3bc595008ebc
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:33
      Prominent leftwing intellectuals are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right
    
  
    
      Fascism in America?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/c9eadb82-003d-4aaf-a75d-a9e5259e5402
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:33
      The fascism debate: Why it matters, what the main contentions are, and why the arguments of the Skeptics are increasingly untethered from what is happening on the Right
    
  
    
      The Students Have Never Been the Enemy
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/2f892acd-b13e-4d53-83a8-67299b7d8693
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:32
      Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about
    
  
    
      America’s Elites Fear the Ghost of 1968
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/608d88cf-b350-4b57-9e91-356fd1f14910
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:31
      Mainstream elites are adopting a reactionary tale about “leftist” indoctrination that verges on the conspiratorial and is destined to give the Right a major boost
    
  
    
      Student revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/d222de14-57cf-4687-9446-1039176ac85c
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:30
      The violent crackdown on campus protests reveals an alliance between the Right and mainstream elites who are driven by reactionary impulses and status anxieties
    
  
    
      Anti-Anti-Trump Conservatives Are Paving the Way for Authoritanism
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/5e214505-ebcb-4767-ac2e-f6c48943da3d
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:29
      Highbrow conservative commentators are giving themselves permission to support Trump by portraying “liberal hysteria” as the real threat: A case study of National Review
    
  
    
      What Makes “Project 2025” So Dangerous
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/8e0c4a81-4dc6-4a69-8aeb-4a3649173bd3
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:27
      Will the Right be able to implement its plans? Is Trump on board? What happened to traditional conservatism? Let’s tackle the key questions surrounding "Project 2025"
    
  
    
      What Does “Defend Democracy” Actually Mean?
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/be9e14a5-9eff-4c47-bff7-93e237abe7f3
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:26
      Biden’s State of the Union hinted at a key shift in the liberal imagination: From a merely restorative to a potentially more transformative vision for America
    
  
    
      The Much Vaunted Guardrails Are Failing
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/4121d9ed-3b23-438d-97c9-ed3bddc63447
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:25
      Unless America’s leading institutions start acting accordingly, how can we expect enough people to believe the danger to democracy is really all that severe?
    
  
    
      What “Project 2025” Would Do to America
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/2afb3c7a-3885-4cff-8607-90eadc17493c
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:25
      The Right has developed concrete plans to make America into a much nastier place for anyone who dares to deviate from the white Christian patriarchal order
    
  
    
      “Project 2025” Promises Revenge, Oppression, and Autocratic Rule
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/2c4b309c-9d68-4419-ac0b-39efe2f8adfc
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:24
      The Right’s plans for a return to power are driven by a radicalizing siege mentality and a desperate desire to restore dominance
    
  
    
      What the “Biden Too Old” Discourse Is Really About
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/7901b686-5b41-4f0f-af9f-ea066a241c7e
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:23
      Let’s evaluate the arguments of those who describe Biden as manifestly unfit
    
  
    
      Domination or Dissolution, Rule or Ruin
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/8ed86f69-9b6e-4eac-a0f5-ce486a4117b9
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:22
      The Right is fantasizing about secession, “national divorce,” and civil war – because they will not, under any circumstance, accept pluralism
    
  
    
      The Texas Border Standoff Is an Acute Crisis with Terrifying…
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/89386fa0-38b9-4580-9799-0e87348275c4
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:22
      Is this how America ends? Echoes of nullification crises and Civil War, and the dissolution of the Union
    
  
    
      MLK’s Legacy and the Quest for a Racial Reckoning
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/64b94dde-b8c6-4c34-b5e8-06c74c1d8079
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:19
      A reflection on our distorted, sanitized version of the civil rights struggle, reactionary “backlash,” and the eternal objection of the white moderate
    
  
    
      January 6 in History
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/653e87bc-1625-42e1-8f00-141ca9602b91
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:19
      Was it a key moment in the republic’s eventual demise or a milestone on the road to democracy’s ultimate triumph? The meaning of January 6 is yet to be determined
    
  
    
      On Substack’s Nazi Problem, and Ours
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/27925ac2-b1e2-4f58-9551-05abf24fcd3c
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:18
      The year is off to a depressing start with a reflection on how to navigate the moral quandaries of social media extremism – and a plea to my readers to stick with me
    
  
    
      Things Seem Really Bad Right Now. But Let’s Put 2023 Into Perspective
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/fe1fc2da-cb5d-437f-b79f-1f3a55b4af4d
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:18
      It feels like an eternity since the year started with a palpable sense of optimism… A reflection on where democracy stands at the end of 2023 – and what lies ahead
    
  
    
      Militant Democracy vs Donald Trump
      https://steady.page/592d8a22-bf28-437e-8fcc-2ae8772d4bb9/posts/91c8b6cb-8b26-4b4c-8a9e-a7e11879acd9
      Published: September 14, 2025 21:17
      Democracy is fated to fight those who assault it with one hand tied behind its back, lest it become that which it seeks to defeat. But fight it must – or it will perish