A Warning From Justice Souter: Democracy Is in Peril (1 Viewer)

[NWRatCon]

A Warning From Justice Souter: Democracy Is in Peril​

New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/us/justice-david-souter-democracy-warning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HU8.SuKS.uIyUMmiPnNjC&smid=url-share

(Gifted article.)

"He said he was worried that public ignorance about how American government works would allow an authoritarian leader to emerge and claim total power. “That is the way democracy dies,” he said.

“An ignorant people can never remain a free people,” the justice said. “Democracy cannot survive too much ignorance.”

Not understanding how power is allocated among the three branches of government, he said, leaves a void that invites a strongman. After a crisis, he said, “one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power, and I will solve this problem.’”

That was four years before Donald J. Trump, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination for the first time, said something strikingly similar: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
____
“I’ll start with the bottom line,” he said. “I don’t believe there is any problem of American politics and American public life which is more significant today than the pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the structure of government.”

He remembered his high school days, in Concord. “There were two required civics courses,” he said. “When we got out of high school, we may not have known a lot, but we at least had a basic understanding of the structure of American government.”

Justice Souter, a Rhodes scholar with a deep knowledge of history, sensed a parallel.

“That is how the Roman Republic fell,” he said, with Augustus becoming an autocratic emperor by promising to restore old values.
____
As the event neared its end, Ms. Warner asked Justice Souter to say more about the threat to democracy.

“I don’t think we have lost it,” the justice said. “I think it is in jeopardy. I am not a pessimist, but I am not an optimist about the future of American democracy.”

“We’re still in the game,” he added, “but we have serious work to do, and serious work is being neglected.”

 

[bomberfox]

A Warning From Justice Souter: Democracy Is in Peril​

New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/us/justice-david-souter-democracy-warning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HU8.SuKS.uIyUMmiPnNjC&smid=url-share

(Gifted article.)

"He said he was worried that public ignorance about how American government works would allow an authoritarian leader to emerge and claim total power. “That is the way democracy dies,” he said.

“An ignorant people can never remain a free people,” the justice said. “Democracy cannot survive too much ignorance.”

Not understanding how power is allocated among the three branches of government, he said, leaves a void that invites a strongman. After a crisis, he said, “one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power, and I will solve this problem.’”

That was four years before Donald J. Trump, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination for the first time, said something strikingly similar: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
____
“I’ll start with the bottom line,” he said. “I don’t believe there is any problem of American politics and American public life which is more significant today than the pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the structure of government.”

He remembered his high school days, in Concord. “There were two required civics courses,” he said. “When we got out of high school, we may not have known a lot, but we at least had a basic understanding of the structure of American government.”

Justice Souter, a Rhodes scholar with a deep knowledge of history, sensed a parallel.

“That is how the Roman Republic fell,” he said, with Augustus becoming an autocratic emperor by promising to restore old values.
____
As the event neared its end, Ms. Warner asked Justice Souter to say more about the threat to democracy.

“I don’t think we have lost it,” the justice said. “I think it is in jeopardy. I am not a pessimist, but I am not an optimist about the future of American democracy.”

“We’re still in the game,” he added, “but we have serious work to do, and serious work is being neglected.”

Total immunity was the end.

 

[TypicalRussian]

There's essentially 2 flavors of absolute government

1)The concentrated and focused effort of individuals to seize power and to create a totalizing state. Cromwell, the sun king centralizers and Richelieu, and Hitler all fit this category

2)A forced authoritian state because the people dont really know better/care. This is how it is in Southeast Asia since there isnt really longstanding social institutions that can influence people and their style of government. In the natural debased state, government looks like this.

IF Trump does gown down the authoritarian road, it will be in the vain of #2 because 1)pretty much every single social institution that would organize and influence people to stop us from sliding into Aztec Empire governance has been killed, and 2)You cant really say that any of this is concentrated or huge effort, this administration is so sloppy in everything its doing (and its not even doing a whole lot), but people just dont care. "Fascism coming to America" would be like America slipping into fascism on accident because of skill issues.

 

[Helix]

We are careening towards autocracy.

 

[Slavister]

There's essentially 2 flavors of absolute government

1)The concentrated and focused effort of individuals to seize power and to create a totalizing state. Cromwell, the sun king centralizers and Richelieu, and Hitler all fit this category

2)A forced authoritian state because the people dont really know better/care. This is how it is in Southeast Asia since there isnt really longstanding social institutions that can influence people and their style of government. In the natural debased state, government looks like this.

Which kind is Russia?

 

[TypicalRussian]

Which kind is Russia?

2, but previously 1. The political apathy of the public is very well documented. But I'd actually argue at this point that the intellectual capita is still higher.

 

[Rich2018]

The crux will come in 2029...will Trump leave office ?