And that means not surrendering to the idea that if Donald Trump is re-elected, it will automatically be the end of democracy as we know it.
Those of us who believe in the core tenets of liberal democracy and the American experiment can't prematurely surrender.
I have zero illusions about what Trump, the right, and the entire Republican Party would do to our democracy given the opportunity.
But I also refuse to concede in advance to that worst-case scenario.
It is up to us to say what this society looks like and what democracy looks like.
But if Trump wins another term, we need the Mark Espers of the world to refuse to carry out his worst impulses.
But conceding, in advance, that Trump is now free to end American democracy as a whole is a lot like giving him permission to do it. »
