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<div style="color: rgb(23, 43, 77); font-family: Arial, Verdana,
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initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-size: 18px;"><font
color="#000000">Someone here is more likely than I to have
actually read Ziblatt and Levitsky's <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die#:~:text=How%20Democracies%20Die%20is%20a,process%20to%20increase%20their%20power.">How
Democracies Die</a> <br>
</font></span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(23, 43, 77); font-family: Arial, Verdana,
Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal;
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initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-size: 18px;"><font
color="#000000">A recent article (behind a subscribe-wall)
included the following quote:</font></span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(23, 43, 77); font-family: Arial, Verdana,
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color="#000000"></font><br>
</span></div>
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0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-01-20/americas-coming-age-instability">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-01-20/americas-coming-age-instability</a></span></div>
<blockquote>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
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255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;"><br>
</span></i></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;">America may no longer be safe for
democracy, but it remains inhospitable to autocracy.</span></i></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;">Rather than autocracy, the United
States appears headed toward endemic regime instability. <br>
</span></i></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
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255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;"><br>
</span></i></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;">Such a scenario would be marked by
frequent constitutional crises, including contested or
stolen elections and severe conflict between presidents and
Congress (such as impeachments and executive efforts to
bypass Congress), the judiciary (such as efforts to purge or
pack the courts), and state governments (such as intense
battles over voting rights and the administration of
elections). The United States would likely shift back and
forth between periods of dysfunctional democracy and periods
of competitive authoritarian rule during which incumbents
abuse state power, tolerate or encourage violent extremism,
and tilt the electoral playing field against their rivals.</span></i></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
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255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><i><span
style="font-size: 18px;"><br>
</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
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0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;">I found this characterization of our plight very
compelling, if also very disturbing.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;">It seems as if we have "tumbled our gyros" but in a
different mode than the rhetoric about "Civil War" and "Descent
into Autocracy" seem to suggest. It also characterizes a lot
of the aspiring/limping democracies we know of in the world
today up to and including extreme examples such as Russia which
fits the DINO (democracy in name only) label pretty well.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;">This conception of the problem lead me to a very well
written HS student-essay by the same title: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/democracy-in-name-only-2020-01-02">democracy-in-name-only</a>.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
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normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
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initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-size:
18px;">Within this essay was a poignant quote:</span></div>
<blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34,
34); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", SourceSans,
Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;
text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">In the
words of Alexis de Tocqueville,</span></span>
<blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote
graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p" id="c45a"
name="c45a" style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);
font-family: "Source Sans Pro", SourceSans,
Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
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-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255,
255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;
text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial;">“A new science of politics is needed for a new
world. This, however, is what we think of least; launched in
the middle of a rapid stream, we obstinately fix our eyes on
the ruins which may still be descried upon the shore we have
left, while the current sweeps us along, and drives us
backward toward the gulf.”</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 18px;"></span></div>
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