@emmettmacfarlane.com:
Watching Trump roll over an entire country, it’s impossible to avoid the obvious conclusion: the vast majority of Americans are cowards.
@jinia-ptr.bsky.social:
“The rule of law. Dead. The system of checks and balances. Dead. Human rights. Gone. Naked corruption. In full swing. This is not a democracy in decline. It is, simply, not a democracy.
This is not to deny that people are still fighting…But that is now a generational fight, not a four-year one.”
@DemocraticWins:
In a powerful moment and huge rebuke of Donald Trump, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, admits it is Trump’s tariffs that are now raising Americans prices.
@atrupar:
“More than 600 Iron Range steelworkers out of work as auto industry cuts orders because of tariffs”
@RichardAngwin:
Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices, hitting American wallets hard, just as Fed Chair Powell warned. It’s basic economics: taxing imports raises costs for consumers, not foreign countries. Time to rethink this reckless policy before it tanks the economy.
American Democracy is not in Decline, it’s Dead by Emmett Macfarlane, Mar 21, 2025, Defending Canadian Democracy
One of the reasons the insurrectionist assault at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021 is so infamous is that it marked an attack on one of the hallmarks of a democracy: the peaceful transition of elected power from one government to another.
Political scientists and others around the world took careful note, but because Trump was ‘gone’ (sigh) and the Biden administration assumed power, however horrific the implications of January 6th were as a sign of the fragility of American democracy, few at the time seriously suggested the United States was literally no longer a democracy.
There can no longer be such caution. We need to get beyond our own disbelief at how quickly the Trump regime has dismantled the vestiges of a liberal democratic order and implemented an authoritarian regime. We need to recognize reality for what it is. It is no longer appropriate to speak of the United States as a democracy under assault from within, or in decline.
The United States is no longer a democracy.
Beyond free and fair elections and peaceful transitions of power, there are other fundamental tenets of democracy that no longer exist in America. We have witnessed unbridled executive power and the rule of law brought to its knees.
Yes, there is a vast array of litigation and numerous court rulings, all frantically plugging holes in the dam. But the Trump regime has so attacked the courts and dismissed the legitimacy of their authority that Chief Justice John Roberts – one of the people responsible for this mess, after his Court decided to abandon the rule of law by declaring presidents to be above it – issued a statement against impeaching judges for making lawful decisions.
Meanwhile, the Trump regime ignores the law, the constitution, relevant precedents, and yes, court rulings entirely. The Trump regime is also openly blackmailing major law firms and bringing them to heel.
The United States is now, in a very real sense, ruled by a lawless regime. This is not to say judicial rulings against Trump’s regime won’t continue, or even that the regime won’t suffer future losses at the Supreme Court (a Court, by the way, so dominated by partisans and right-wing ideologues, including at least two who are nakedly corrupt, that anyone clinging to hope it will be a savior here is truly deluded). Trump knows there is nothing that will ultimately hold it accountable. By the Supreme Court’s own ruling, the President could order judges assassinated and not be held legally accountable.
Meanwhile in Congress, too many Democrats have rolled over entirely. Yes, that famed system of ‘checks and balances’ is also dead. The American constitutional framers would be appalled to see the ways Congress has been captured by the MAGA cult, the antithesis of what Congress was supposed to be, it is now beholden to the personality cult of a party leader, the very thing it was meant to check against. It is now little more than a rubber stamp.
Another aspect of American mythology – a land of freedom and rights – also lies in ashes. Along with the mass incarcerations and deportations of non-citizens (a literal election promise, by the way – let’s not ignore that this is what American voters chose), the United States is no longer a safe country to even visit. Authorized, lawful visitors are being unlawfully detained merely on the basis of having criticized Trump. Can there be any more clear sign that the dictatorship is in full swing?
The media? Half the media is cheering Trump on. FOX News is casually talking about the death penalty for people vandalizing Teslas. The other half still don’t seem aware that they are covering a monster, treating every lunacy coming out of the White House as if it’s ordinary politics, or framing stories as if journalistic objectivity requires presenting ‘two sides’, even if one side comprises nothing but baseless lies.
The rule of law. Dead. The system of checks and balances. Dead. Human rights. Gone. Naked corruption. In full swing. This is not a democracy in decline. It is, simply, not a democracy.
This is not to deny that people are still fighting, or to suggest they should give up. The rump of Democrats, like AOC, still giving people hope. The litigants and judges pushing for the rule of law. My claim is not that everyone has given up, or that they should (indeed, things can still get much worse). Nor is my claim that the United States can’t transition back to a democracy. But that is now a generational fight, not a four-year one. It’s far easier to tear things down than to build them.
The most terrifying aspect of all this is that too many people, including leaders in Canada and in other democracies, do not seem to have fully internalized this fact. As I’ve written, Doug Ford is still mindlessly talking about us getting closer to the US. That is not an option. We must adopt a war-like effort to shifting away from America, on all fronts, militarily, diplomatically, economically, and towards closer relations with democratic allies. Canada is in the most precarious position because our geography seemingly entrenches us in a deep relationship with America along all of these dimensions. There are signs the work has started, but we desperately need an all-hands-on-deck attitude.
And we need to renounce Canadian politicians like Danielle Smith who would rather attack Canada than defend it.
That gargantuan effort, of existential importance, begins by recognizing the basic fact: American democracy is dead. Let’s start acting like it.
There is talk right now that the UK will enter a defence pact with the EU so that the UK’s defence industry can take full part in the European arming up. Maybe Canada could do that, too.
I think the NATO contract stipulates that when one member is attacked, the other members defend it. I can’t imagine that they provisioned for the unlikely case that one member is attacked by another member… so one could argue that the other members are free in how to interpret the NATO contract. Their basic duty is definitely to defend an attacked member.
Another major problem is the lack of adequate Canadian national defence against the rogue USA in the event the Americans decide to have a special military training exercise in Canada.
You are absolutely right! Not only is the USA no longer a democracy, but it is aligned if not outright allied with an enemy – Putin’s Russia. That is bad enough for Europeans, but for Canada it is terrifying. We are expressly in the crosshairs of the USA, and for all we know Russia and the USA are prepared to treat us like Poland in 1939 – basically, steak to be shared between them as we are geographically sandwiched by these powers.
In short we, and our European and Pacific allies, are all on a war footing. Unfortunately, these countries – Canada included – seem to understand this fact only intermittently. We shouldn’t buy defence materiel from the US (correct) – but we agreed, so we should (no agreements are valid after a country threatens to annex/invade you, surely!). These tariffs are killing our economy, but we need to understand that the USA has to raise a lot of money (to pay for tax cuts for billionaires no less). No we don’t! We are at war! ‘If we could just TALK or NEGOTIATE with the Americans, surely this could all be sorted, we’ve been such good friends…’ No it couldn’t be sorted! 1) You cannot use rational means to address a despot. Case in point: talking and contractual agreements NEVER succeed with Putin (vide – Invasion of Ukraine!!!) anymore than with Hitler (Munich); and 2) Despots NEVER tolerate democracies on their borders; it’s too threatening to their coercive regimes. 3) We aren’t friends now, and we won’t be again until we share a political ideology.
So either Russia is defeated (and the USA scared away from Canada very effectively), or… seriously, Ukraine will fall, and Europe will be attacked and likely Canada as well and it’ll be a very brutal WWIII.
I cannot imagine why people aren’t preparing for the worst and working on trying for a really good outcome starting YESTERDAY! For Ukraine – it should WIN. For Canada and the EU, it means rapid and thorough re-armament WITHOUT American involvement..
Oddly, there are many many people who don’t see it. Smart educated people I know who winter in Florida, both doctors and Trump supporters. It will take time but I hope we can really pivot away as much as we possibly can in trade and military dependence from the US. And I hope we can avoid the kind of polarization that exists there in the face of the current declines in Canadian media.
I think, from posts I have seen based on NYT, that we are in advanced talks with the EU on defence. I don’t think we are obligated in any way be membership in the Commonwealth to follow the UK lead – we would hardly be an independent nation, which we are since, I think, the Statute of Westminster and subsequently the establishment of our Constitution. That said, I think it is likely we seriously consider UK actions, since they have been a good ally, mostly.
Doug:
Excellent take, Emmet. Thank you for such a succint, yet comprehensive account of what is happened. The American empire as we know it is imploding.
@rsmaharaj.bsky.social:
Observation by a Russian recently: Trump is doing in weeks what it took Putin a decade to do.
@stephaniemlee.bsky.social:
“On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired.“
