… Many of us in the media have portrayed Trump as a uniquely dangerous threat to democracy, an aspiring strongman with little regard for checks on executive power by other branches of government, the media or the Constitution. And many of us are shocked that Trump, through charisma alone, has managed to sell so many voters on this vision of an all-powerful presidency.
But truth is, voters didn’t require much convincing.
As documented by scholars Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk in a recent article in the Journal of Democracy, Americans had become steadily more open to anti-democratic, autocratic ideas long before Trump tossed his red hat in the ring. CONT.
Catherine Rampell, Washington Post