The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose.
The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living under threat of future democratic breakdown; we are living inside the aftermath of one that has already occurred.
They are symptoms of one that eroded – if it ever existed – long ago.
Why, then, does American political discourse remain fixated on a catastrophe that always seems imminent but never quite arrives?.
What returns later is the echo of that unlived event in the guise of a future threat.
These efforts are emerging not because the Democratic party has suddenly discovered courage and principle, but precisely because it has not.
Following that instinct – to build the care and protection we need ourselves rather than defer to a thoroughly corrupted two-party system – is essential for broader democratic renewal. »