Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Even Canadians fear US democracy could end soon
"The United States is coming to an end. The question is how." Those are the jarring opening lines of Canadian author Stephen Marche's new book, "The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future." Released the same week as the anniversary of the January 6 attack on our Capitol that signaled how dangerous our political polarization has become, Marche's book shares different scenarios of how the United States could collapse.
"By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence," "By 2030, if not sooner," he adds, "the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship."
As Americans, the first instinct when a person from outside of the US says something critical of our nation is often to dismiss the comment (or mock their country; be honest!).
For more than 40 years Marche has studied the causes of war, revolution and social breakdown. "Today," he wrote to his countrymen and women, "as I watch the unfolding crisis in the United States, I see a political and social landscape flashing with warning signals."
To those who might view his premonitions as over the top, Homer-Dixon adds, "We mustn't dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine. In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd." (Point taken with that one!)
This scholar of violent conflict highlights the range of factors currently plaguing the US and contributing to our institutions' vulnerability, from growing income inequality to demographic change that has caused some "right-wing ideologues" to inflame "fears that traditional US culture is being erased and Whites are being 'replaced."
"Trumpism increasingly resembles European fascism in its contempt for the rule of law and glorification of violence."
A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that two-thirds of Republicans agree with the demonstrably false statement that "voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election."
President Joe Biden's speech one year following the January 6 attack included the memorable line: "You can't love your country only when you win."
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled, "I fear for our democracy," raising concerns that since the January 6 attack, "promoters of the lie that the election was stolen have taken over one political party and stoked distrust in our electoral systems."
Even Canadians fear US democracy could end soon
"The United States is coming to an end. The question is how." Those are the jarring opening lines of Canadian author Stephen Marche's new book, "The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future." Released the same week as the anniversary of the January 6 attack on our Capitol that signaled how dangerous our political polarization has become, Marche's book shares different scenarios of how the United States could collapse.
"By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence," "By 2030, if not sooner," he adds, "the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship."
As Americans, the first instinct when a person from outside of the US says something critical of our nation is often to dismiss the comment (or mock their country; be honest!).
For more than 40 years Marche has studied the causes of war, revolution and social breakdown. "Today," he wrote to his countrymen and women, "as I watch the unfolding crisis in the United States, I see a political and social landscape flashing with warning signals."
To those who might view his premonitions as over the top, Homer-Dixon adds, "We mustn't dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine. In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd." (Point taken with that one!)
This scholar of violent conflict highlights the range of factors currently plaguing the US and contributing to our institutions' vulnerability, from growing income inequality to demographic change that has caused some "right-wing ideologues" to inflame "fears that traditional US culture is being erased and Whites are being 'replaced."
"Trumpism increasingly resembles European fascism in its contempt for the rule of law and glorification of violence."
A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that two-thirds of Republicans agree with the demonstrably false statement that "voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election."
President Joe Biden's speech one year following the January 6 attack included the memorable line: "You can't love your country only when you win."
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled, "I fear for our democracy," raising concerns that since the January 6 attack, "promoters of the lie that the election was stolen have taken over one political party and stoked distrust in our electoral systems."
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