Is This It? Is American Democracy Over?
Wrestling with our fears as Election Day arrives
“No, no, no, [I wouldn’t be a dictator], other than Day One.”
Just about a year ago, as former president (or, as author and activist Jessica Valenti so accurately calls him, “disgraced former president”) Donald Trump made this statement after Fox News host Sean Hannity asked whether or not he would act as a dictator if re-elected as president. The question, it seems, was meant to reassure the American people.
Incredibly, I think Trump’s answer, one Hannity probably didn’t expect, was reassuring — though for the wrong reason. As we’ve come to realize, half of Americans want a Trump dictatorship.
And because of that, the America we’ve been living in might be about to end.
It’s the night before Election Day and I’m scared. I’ve been scared for months, with the fear escalating a little bit each day. And I know I’m not alone in this. Many of my friends feel the same way.
It feels surreal to find ourselves facing an election in which one of the candidates has promised to be a dictator, and has already listed all the authoritarian acts he would take in his next (and indefinite) term. For the party that promises to “make America great again,” I can’t fathom how they came to…
