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   Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 00:21:58 JST Thomas Zimmer

   What does the U.S. look like in five or ten years?
    
   I was asked to reflect on this question, alongside other scholars. In a stable democracy, the range of plausible outcomes should be narrow. But for America, it now includes complete democratic breakdown and full-blown authoritarian rule.
    
   https://wapo.st/44bN4i6

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 00:22:35 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     A serious look at U.S. history would have suggested that there was really no reason to assume some innate democratic national disposition. While it holds no secret key to predict the future, America’s past experience - which includes plenty of state authoritarianism - urges us not to be complacent.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 00:22:36 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     There should not have been any doubt about the intention of the Trumpist Right. They desire to erect some form of plebiscitary autocracy, constantly invoking the true “will of the people” while aggressively narrowing the boundaries of who gets to belong and whose rights are recognized.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 00:22:36 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     At every turn, the response to the rise of Trumpism has been hampered by a lack of political imagination – a lingering sense that “It cannot happen here” (or not anymore, anyways), fueled by a deep-seated mythology of exceptionalism, progress gospel, and willful historical ignorance.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.