So the Former US President and Current GOP Candidate for the Presidency Calls for a Coup and the End of US Democracy — And?

President Donald J. Trump 2 March 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; official White House photo by Tia Dufour, at Wikimedia Commons

Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American: December 3, 2002":

The leader of the Republican Party has just called for the overthrow of our fundamental law and the installation of a dictator. 

Salient Warnings Against Celebrating Results of Recent U.S. Elections Prematurely

Gabriela Ruellan, Nine different shades of red to illustrate the look and scope of the color red, at Wikimedia Commons

Two sobering assessments of the results of the recent U.S. elections that call on us who may be tempted to celebrate the vindication of democracy not to do that prematurely:

In News: Win for Democracy; Role of Media; Kari Lake's Election Denialists; Abortion; Herschel Walker; Russian Genocide in Ukraine

Tim Miller, "Democracy was on the ballot. And attempts to end it were met with universal scorn," insists, pace pundits who want to downplay the role concern about embattled democracy played in the recent U.S. elections, democracy was, indeed, on the ballot — and it performed well: 

As Election Day Arrives, Warnings, Predictions, Alarm Bells

Alarm bell mechanism, from "Electric Burglar Alarm," The Popular Science Monthly 18,1 (November 1880), p. 59 

As Joyce Vance says, it has become conventional to say that democracy is on the ballot at when elections are held in the US at this point in history, but this conventional wisdom may be true a fortiori this election cycle: 

When Many Citizens Embrace a Politics of Cruelty and Malice, the Future...

Photo of wounded eagle uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Gillfoto of Juneau, Alaska 

Jamelle Bouie notes that the American system of democratic governance depends on at least the pretense that citizens and leaders care about civic virtue. But one of the nation's two major parties has now given up that pretense, and the Republican party's politics of cruelty and malice is just what many of us applaud and want:

More on Pre-Election Dread: "There is a sizable movement in this country that seeks to literally vote out democracy"

Greg Olear says a mouthful when he states, 

This has been a week of profound unease.

And as he notes, the primary source of our anxiety is, for many of us, at least, Tuesday's election.  

"With Nationalists Topping the Polls in Two of Europe's Three Main Founding Nations, It's Hard to See How Any of This Is Worth Celebrating"

The same politicians who claim they are for life fight living wages, want to cut food stamps & don’t want people to have health insurance. There’s a lie going on somewhere. https://t.co/AHgy1kefOH

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) May 28, 2019

It's very foolish for us to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that what is unfolding around us is not actually happening, and that the recent European elections give us reason to breathe a sigh of relief and say that the hard fascist right is not making inroads in very many places in the world now — when this is simply untrue, and this development should intently concern us:

Why I Continue to Insist That It's About Racism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Homophobia: A Footnote to My Recent Response to Responses

It's certainly true that every society or nation is different, and what applies to one won't necessarily apply to another. But I'm pointing out that there's a wave of manufactured right-wing rage across societies today, and asking why that wave is roiling society after society. It's entirely unhelpful to respond to such a sounding by saying, "Ah, but they're all different from each other, and you're not seeing the difference." This is to ask us to see only trees and pretend a forest is not growing there.

Why I Continue to Insist That It's About Racism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Homophobia: My Response to Your Responses

Thank you all for your thoughtful and valuable responses to my reflections about the wave of manufactured rage (racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic) now driving political movements in many places, in my view. I've read and considered them. My thoughts:

The Wave of Manufactured Rage Sweeping Across Societies Now, and Silliness of the "Economic Alienation" Explanation: It's About Racism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Homophobia

Shorn of any ideological hue, this is populism distilled into its purest form: a pared-back rage over an apparently corrupt political establishment's failure to abide by the democratic will of the people. 

~ Paul Lewis, "Rage, rapture and pure populism: on the road with Nigel Farage" 

Farage and Brexiters are now riding a wave in England. Hard-right fascist-leaning movements are gaining strength globally, including across Europe. India's far-right groups just won a major victory in that nation. What Trump and his supporters represent in the American context is cloned again and again across nations now. My reading:

"Good, Conservative People Who Reject Liberalism": White Southern Evangelical Attack on Social Contract & Why We Are Where We Are Now

John Sharp, "Alabama just elected 'one of the most conservative governments we've ever had'":

The Sole — Crucial — Lesson the GOP Takes from Orwell: Boot Stamping on a Human Face — Forever

The sole — crucial — lesson the GOP takes from Orwell:

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

For Orwell, this was a cautionary tale about fascist abuse of power. For the GOP, it's a blueprint for the party's triumph.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 5, 2018

My new pinned tweet on Twitter….

Christopher Douglas and Kurt Anderson on How America Lost Its Mind (or How the Christian Right Broke America)

Christian extremists took over @GOP and broke America with their #ChristianAltFacts.https://t.co/uD2dhuyI7K#YouDontKnowEvangelicals https://t.co/AUexPHAyEQ

— Christopher Stroop (@C_Stroop) June 6, 2017

Christopher Douglas responds to Kurt Anderson on how America lost its mind, with a statment entitled "How America Really Lost Its Mind: Hint, It Wasn't Entirely the Fault of Hippie New Agers and Postmodern Academics":

Twitter on Mitch McConnell's Silencing of Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King: "We Are Losing Our Democracy"

I will not be silent about a nominee for AG who has made derogatory & racist comments that have no place in our justice system.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 8, 2017

People United Will Never Be Divided: Huge Turnout As People March Everywhere Against Trump — Twitter Documentation As History Is Made

It's OFFICIAL #WomensMarchOnWashington is biggest inaugural protest in HISTORY. Sorry Mr. Trump, THIS is what a populist movement looks like pic.twitter.com/mREzlQnUAy

— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) January 21, 2017

The People United Will Never Be Divided: Arkansas Marches for Democracy and Against Trump

Clip from Women's March, Little Rock, Arkansas, today #WomensMarch. pic.twitter.com/UicFdn6ibb

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) January 21, 2017

Who's Dismantling Liberal Democracy and Why? The Conversation We Need to Have

We talk these days about the grand shift in liberal democracy — about the dismantling of the liberal democratic project worldwide — as if we're talking at a purely theoretical level. About ideas. That's my takeaway as I read Andrew O'Hehir's recent Salon essay about Trump, Assange, and the enemies of liberal democracy.

Trump and Dismantling of U.S. Democracy: "Movement of White Evangelical Southerners into Republican Ranks Was Fueled Initially by Civil Rights"

This should not escape our attention, though the mainstream media persistently and conveniently choose to play games about this matter: a noteworthy  percentage of our fellow citizens are perfectly willing — let's be honest: they're deliriously happy — to cast their votes for a man whose stated objective is to dismantle the American democratic system as it now exists. Which must mean that this is precisely what these citizens want . . . .

Donald Trump and the Attempt to Dismantle American Democracy: "Running Against Our Democracy Itself"

Trump saying he won't accept election results is a slap in the face of heroes like John Lewis, who nearly died fighting for right to vote pic.twitter.com/CfvvLf3yd4

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 20, 2016

Commentary on the "revelation" (not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention) from last night's debates, that Donald Trump and his supporters and the political party that has put him forward want to dismantle the American democratic system as it is now configured: 

Treasury Department Announces Harriet Tubman Will Depose Andrew Jackson from Front of Twenty-Dollar Bills: Knickers Become Atwist

As Amy Goodman and Dennis Moynihan state, legendary abolitionist Harriet Tubman would seem to many of us to be the quintessence of what American democracy is all about, at its best: