The Americans who wrote the original Constitution trusted no one to obey the laws or protect the laws or the rights and protections they include. So, they tried to write a Constitution that forced all the members of government to do precisely these things. And to prevent government from being sabotaged or overthrown from parties outside the government. But it seems their precautions weren’t enough. Democracy is inherently unstable, even the indirect sort in the US. Over the years there have been many attempts to use that instability to establish totalitarian rule in the US, both politically and economically. Right now, the country is amid the latest of these attempts. Most others failed. Some never even began, like the plot to overthrown FDR and establish a fascist ally for Nazi Germany. Or, the assassination of JFK in hopes of stopping new foreign policy and the expansion of voting and civil rights. But the remaining succeeded. This means the US has been gradually moving toward fascism, neoliberalism, or just simple dictatorship for over 200 years. There have been slow downs and even pauses in the movement. But, like the Earth’s rising temperature the trend line to authoritarianism never changes. I don’t have a formula to stop it. But I think we can learn from looking at those periods of slow down or pause. When the US was threatened for real, not from propaganda the trend slows. When citizens forced their will on the government via threats, even physical threats, the trend pauses. When voter turn-out is high, the trend slows. When public trumps private, the trend slows. From this we may find some way out of our current predicament.
