Thomas Zimmer
It Could Definitely Happen Here
Many Americans struggle to accept that democracy is young, fragile, and could actually collapse – a lack of imagination that dangerously blunts the response to the Trumpist Right.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/it-could-definitely-happen-here
Thomas Zimmer
The political system that was stable for most of U.S. history was a white man’s democracy, or racial caste democracy. There is absolutely nothing old or consolidated about *multiracial, pluralistic democracy* in America. It only started less than 60 years ago. 7/
Thomas Zimmer
And because the anti-egalitarian, anti-pluralistic ideas didn’t just vanish into thin air with the passage of civil rights legislation of 1964/65, the conflict over whether or not democracy should be allowed to endure and prosper has been the central fault line in U.S. politics ever since. 8/
Thomas Zimmer
We must not assume directionality in history at all. There is no arc, and there definitely is no ironclad law of the universe that says “We” can’t slide back – or slide forward into a new kind of authoritarianism. 9/
Thomas Zimmer
There is a lot of evidence that this election may be decided by a sizable group of people who strongly dislike Trump and his plans, but simply cannot imagine he would actually dare / manage to implement any of his promises and therefore aren’t mobilizing to vote. 3/
Thomas Zimmer
Such notions build on the pervasive idea that in a country like the United States, with a supposedly centuries-long tradition of stable, consolidated democracy, authoritarianism simply has not realistic chance to succeed, that “We” have never experienced authoritarianism. 4/
Thomas Zimmer
Who is “We”? Because for most of America’s existence, and until quite recently, those who lived within the nation’s borders and happened not to be white men had plenty of experience with state authoritarianism. 5/
Thomas Zimmer
It is certainly true that even before the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, the American political system was fairly democratic, at least by contemporaneous international comparison, if a person happened to be a white Christian man – but it was something else entirely if they were not. 6/
Thomas Zimmer
I wrote about the disastrous mix of a deep-seated mythology of American exceptionalism, progress gospel, lack of political understanding, and (willful) historical ignorance that has created a situation in which a lot of people simple refuse to take the Trumpist threat seriously. 2/
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