With Trump, the water's only warm--until it isn't

When it comes to our democracy, many of us are just like the frog in a gradually-heating pot of water—oblivious to the final danger that awaits once the boiling begins.

So, how, exactly, do we frogs know when we’re in trouble?

In How Democracies Die (Crown Publishing, 2018), respected Harvard political scientists Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky outline basically four warning signs that democracy is simmering toward authoritarianism.

1.     Rejection of democratic rules of the game

2.     Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents

3.     Toleration or encouragement of violence

4.      Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media.

And since their book, Trump has continued turning up the heat. (Each of the following examples has been documented by bipartisan officials, federal agencies, and mainstream media outlets. The simmering decay isn’t hypothetical—it’s historical)

Here are just a couple examples:

1.      The biggest turn of the stove dial, obviously, has been Trump's slate of 2020 election lies—DOMINION! DEAD VOTERS! ILLEGALS VOTING! BALLOT DUMPS! All which were proven untrue. His continual lie that the election was illegitimate greatly undermines the nation’s conviction that democratic elections are, in fact, reliable. Which they are. Since then, his admonitions to his Attorney General to go after political foes,  and his apparent willingness to disregard tenets of the Constitution have raised the flame further.

2.      He berates his political opponents with demeaning “nicknames” or tying their fathers to the Kennedy assassination. Trump, in trying to get Georgia to overturn its 2020 election in his favor, literally wrote them: “Our nation is systematically being destroyed by an illegitimate president.” He questioned if Kamala Harris (whose name he purposely and racistly mispronounced) was even eligible to run because her parents were immigrants.

3.      Trump famously has encouraged violence against protestors at his rallies. He told the heinous “Proud

Metro Police Officer
Daniel Hodges, Jan. 6, 2021

Boys” to “Stand back and stand by.” He pardoned 1500 people cited/convicted for overrunning the Capitol to stop an election certification, including those that had vandalized federal grounds and pummeled police, as well as those convicted of trying to topple the government by force.

4.      Trump has openly encouraged GOP-run states to redistrict to maintain a Congressional majority. He’s directed arrests and deportations without due process. His administration threatens media outlets and personalities.  

As all this happens—as the water heats up—we just get accustomed to it, just another day, just another authoritarian action by Trump—just as it was for those in Orban’s Hungary or Erdogan’s Turkey or Putin’s Russia.

So, where does it end? My cut is that Trump sending troops into Democratic strongholds is meant to intimidate those that live (and vote) there, maybe making them think twice about their voting choices. And, possibly, by normalizing troops in US cities, there will be little concern when he has them start seizing ballot boxes he claims are invalid (which he already considered in 2020). It may be the final temperature rise before Trump tries his hand at an unconstitutional third term.

My cut: By then, it will all be accepted. Just another day in a gradually warming pot.

And we may not even realize that it’s starting to boil.