“Arresting the Deterioration of Democracy”

Dan Tokaji at the Take Care blog:

American democracy is in trouble.  We are deeply divided along lines of race, class, and party. Our political discourse has coarsened as the level of vituperative political rhetoric has intensified. Racism, sexism, and nativism have reappeared at a level that we have not seen in decades. There is not even consensus on basic facts. Our President repeatedly makes statements that are demonstrably false, including claims of widespread vote-rigging that have no evidentiary support, while railing against the press for exposing his mendacity.

Bad as things are, the challenges that our democracy now confronts are bigger than Donald Trump. He did not create the divisions that the 2016 election revealed, though he has surfaced, exploited, and deepened them. The consequence is not only to embitter Americans toward one another during election campaigns, but also to make governance much more difficult after the election is over.

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