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How the Republic Falls

Constitutional protections suspended. The government purging “alien enemies” and the “enemy within.” Three months into Trumpist rule, despotism is rising in America.

A thread, based on my new piece:

thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/ho…


How the Republic Falls

Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)
in reply to Thomas Zimmer

Thomas Zimmer
mastodon - Link to source
Thomas Zimmer
• •
I wrote about the radicalizing Trumpist campaign to purge the nation from foreigners the regime deems unwelcome, how it epitomizes the regime’s assault on the constitutional order, and how it is intimately connected to the escalating attack on the “enemy within.”
in reply to Thomas Zimmer

Thomas Zimmer
mastodon - Link to source
Thomas Zimmer
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Just three months after Trump took power, we are now at the point where the regime considers the legal status of groups it declares unworthy as entirely conditional.

In America, constitutional rights now come with a disclaimer: “Unless the regime decides otherwise.”

in reply to Thomas Zimmer

Thomas Zimmer
mastodon - Link to source
Thomas Zimmer
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The regime now openly claims that the “mandate of the electorate” supersedes and nullifies any right of the courts to intervene. That has indeed been the central claim of the MAGA movement all along: “We” represent the true “will of the people” – how dare anyone stand in “our” way?
in reply to Thomas Zimmer

Thomas Zimmer
mastodon - Link to source
Thomas Zimmer
• •

To what extent is the constitutional order still in effect?

If we must ask, we are fully in a crisis situation; once we don’t have to ask anymore, the constitutional order will have already been overthrown. Don’t waste time on an abstract “Is this a constitutional crisis?” debate.

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