Democracy Is Not Self-Repairing

Democracy is not self-repairing.  Over time, without citizens who are committed to protecting it, it will eventually die, smashed under the iron fist of a would-be strongman who attracted a big enough chunk of the electorate to go along with him.  Trump failed, but it was close.

-- Brian Klaas, associate professor of global politics at University College London, "America has an authoritarian voter problem", Washington Post, 9 December 2020