Scott Rhee's Reviews > How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future

“It is the line that forms on the right. It is the “don’t” in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.” ---E.B. White’s response to the question “What is Democracy?”, posed to him by the U.S. Federal Government’s Writers’ War Board


I don’t believe that our democracy (which, technically isn’t really a democracy, it’s a republic, but you get the idea) is dead or even dying, although I’m pretty sure I felt differently last year, before COVID-19 reared its ugly head and before George Floyd’s life was tragically snuffed out by Derek Chauvin’s knee. Indeed, the events of the past several months have been a mixture of horror, anger, and strange optimism.

The horror should be obvious, although an additional sense of confusion and disgust cropped up early when Americans (not all, to be sure) showed their egregious overly-developed sense of “You can’t tell me what to do” independence and entitlement when the government (at least those members of government who listen to doctors and scientists) told them it would be medically beneficial and just plain courteous to wear face masks in public. Holy shit, you would think the government was asking to take their guns away or offering free abortions in elementary schools. Face masks! this weirdly nutso minority (I hope) scream, I ain’t wearin’ no goddamned face masks, ‘cause this ain’t communist China and nobody can tell me what to wear! I ain’t doin’ it! It’s unconstitutional! And, besides, it’s hot and stuffy and does crazy things with my beard!

*(apologies to anybody who has a Southern accent or the awkwardly demeaning attempt at one like the one above.)

The anger came out of the blue, with Floyd’s ridiculously awful death and a clear-cut case of murder-by-psychotic-police-officer, which ramped up entire cities into protests (justifiable and rational and completely understandable). More anger erupted when our full-term abortion of a president immediately tweeted “[W]hen the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Needless to say, it wasn’t helpful. It wasn’t even original. (https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/05/29...) Arguably, it was incitement of violence. Made all the more horrifying by the fact that it emanated from the president of the United States.

Which segues nicely into Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s 2018 book “How Democracies Die”, the perfect book to read during a global pandemic and mass rioting in major American cities. Oh, and a presidential election year, no less. Joy.

Levitsky-Ziblatt’s book has been criticized by some as being anti-Trump. Viciously so. And you know what? I’ve read it, and I disagree whole-heartedly, because simply writing the truth---that our president is a sleazy, fat-filled, jelly-donut-for-brains, tiny-penised, small-handed, clumsy, mouth-breathing, sociopathic, misogynistic, racist, anti-intellectual, annoying, ugly, perverted, toys-in-the-attic-crazy, douche-bag-licking, soulless, piece of shit asshole---isn’t being anti-Trump, it’s simply being honest. Saying that smoking tobacco is bad for your health doesn’t necessarily make one anti-smoking, it simply makes one pro-clean air and pro-health. Smokers may think you’re picking on them, but you’re really just speaking to truth.

That’s what Levitsky-Ziblatt are doing here. They’re not even saying that Trump is a vicious dictator, because he’s not. He’s simply a horrible president (and a deplorable human being) who is symptomatic of a breakdown in our democratic system that has been happening for decades. If Trump is anything, he is a potential precursor for someone to come along who will be even worse, assuming one can even imagine such a thing.

Trump’s blatant disregard for the niceties of civil society, his hatred of the truth (especially any truth that makes him look bad), his constant dismantling of the unspoken partisan rules of governance (what Levitsky-Ziblatt refer to as “the guardrails” of American democracy), his obvious narcissistic self-interest, and his increasingly uncomfortable tolerance of violence and bloodshed are all universal indicators of potential dictators. Every dictator in history, according to the authors, has exhibited these traits.

But what’s stopping Trump from becoming a full-fledged dictator is the system of checks and balances put in place by our constitution and the legislative and judicial branches counteracting the executive. Even this, though, is precarious and in danger of falling apart, and the authors have frighteningly described how this fragile system is slowly eroding.*

Still, the strange optimism and small sense of hope resides, especially if one has bravely stepped out of his or her cave in the past month or so. It has been refreshing to see so many of our neighbors with “Black Lives Matter” signs in their front yards. It has been heartening to hear news stories of Republicans (Mitch McConnell, no less, saying that “obviously we still have a long way to go”) finally admitting that race relations in this country are in need of repair. It has also been nice to see that our Supreme Court, in just the past week, has voted against Trump on important cases involving the LGBTQ community, immigration, and abortion rights.

Our democracy is working. Sure, it’s sputtering a bit and it’s making some weird noises, but it still drives. The current driver is seriously questionable, but we can all hope and pray that he will be replaced in November with a driver who has actually studied the traffic laws and doesn’t take dangerous detours down dead-end alleys.

*9/12/2025 addendum: Yeah, it's fallen apart...