Source: The UnPopulist
by Jonathan Rauch
“As advocates of liberal democracy — this publication’s constituency — dig our way out of the rubble of Tuesday’s electoral earthquake, we wonder: How much policy mayhem may the second Trump administration bring? How much corruption and incompetence? How many persecutions and pardons, deportations and internments? How many trade wars, ruptured alliances, and calls to civic violence? How many more threats to prosecute and imprison his political rivals? There is no telling, except to say that the damage will be considerable for all the reasons that have been well rehearsed in these pages. At this gloomy time, I’m afraid I need to deepen the gloom. Those of us who believe in, and fight for, liberal democracy need to consider the possibility that the greatest damage Trump’s victory will do is not in the sphere of economics or foreign policy or the rule of law. We need to view the election as a moral defeat.” (11/07/24)