Factionalism and electoral authoritarianism are the biggest threats to American democracy today
The ultimate course to curbing the power of nefarious, anti-democratic factions runs through a radical revision of our founding documents
Democratic decline starts when one party refuses to play by the agreed-upon rules. Accelerating downturn ends either when forces for good reform institutions and cut off illiberalism at its roots, or when authoritarians succeed in overthrowing the government without the consent of all the nation’s people.
America has begun its decline. The people must now choose the ending.
Given this newsletter’s ongoing focus on governing institutions and electoral reform, I thought it was only fitting to send along two articles that were published this week and discuss the subject quite well. This can all be pegged to the news yesterday that the Republican-led partisan election “audit” in Arizona reaffirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the state — and the calls from Donald Trump and his supporters for a do-over.
So here’s the first article: an essay by Robert Kagan, the well-known foreign policy thinker, titled “Our constitutional crisis is already here.” His argument is that the Const…
