Paul Krugman: Future Historians Could Say That ‘American Democracy Died In May 2017’

It’s been a disturbing and at times surreal week in Washington, D.C. From the sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey to the endless lying emanating from both the so-called president and his spokespeople, it’s enough to make you wonder if indeed American democracy is in peril.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman thinks we could indeed be entering uncharted territory with Donald Trump as head of state, and this week he offered a few thoughts on where the American experiment with government might be headed:

“Item: Trump demanded loyalty–not to his office, but to the person of the president–from James Comey. 

“Item: Trump admitted on live TV that he fired Comey to stop the ongoing investigation into Russia’s connections with his campaign.

“Item: Republicans in Congress show absolutely no inclination to do anything about any of this.”

What might all of this mean for us as a country if it continues? That’s when Krugman suggests that our future may not be bright if that future includes Donald Trump:

“So, has America already become an authoritarian regime where law enforcement serves the supreme leader, not the Constitution, where questioning or even ridiculing the regime’s officials has become a crime, and in which the legislature is just a rubber-stamping operation? We don’t know the answer yet; we’ll have to see how things unfold in the next few weeks. But future historians may well record that American democracy died in May 2017.”

If we value the American system of representative democracy and the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, and if we intend to pass these ideals along to our children and grandchildren, each of us must speak out, must resist, must refuse to be silenced. We must demand that the madness end.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *