What can reverse democratic decline?

“To navigate this moment, Americans must sustain a kind of double vision, recognizing that their country is confronting authoritarianism while not forgetting that avenues for democratic contestation remain open. Losing sight of either truth invites defeat: complacency if the danger is underestimated, fatalism if it is overestimated. The outcome of this struggle remains open.”

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    15·
    1 day ago

    Reversing the United States’ slide into authoritarianism will require democracy’s defenders to recognize the twin dangers of complacency and fatalism. On the one hand, underestimating the threat posed to democracy—believing that the Trump administration’s behavior is simply politics as usual—enables authoritarianism by encouraging inaction in the face of systematic abuse of power. On the other hand, overestimating the impact of authoritarianism—believing the country has reached a point of no return—discourages the citizen actions required to defeat autocrats at the ballot box.

    This puts succinctly the complex thoughts in my head about the US’s fate. On Lemmy there are arguments where people accuse each other of being fatalistic or apathetic with no in between.

    In November 2024 my heart sunk hearing the news of Trump’s win from Canada, I don’t know how Americans were feeling okay with it. Yes it is worse than I expected but I knew at least some bad would happen.

    • Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip
      11·
      1 day ago

      I remember when the news came in, there was a lot of fear and there was nothing I could say to people to make it okay.

      We were not okay then and one year later it’s worse than I predicted.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        Coincidentally I’ve noticed a shift in the bots and propaganda on Reddit lately (no account, whatever appears on the redlib front page), attempting to downplay and normalise the abject corruption and criminality with hot takes like “it’s nowhere near as bad as the media makes it seem for the average American”. Like yeah… 1930’s Europe was decent for 95% of Europeans… Right up until it wasn’t, after fascism was normalised and caused the deaths of 100 million people.