For anyone who wonders why so many Americans are concerned, disgusted, alarmed, and even angry at Republicans today, here’s the reason why.
In their new book, Tyranny of the Minority, which is essentially a sequel to their previous book, How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that Trump Republicans are using the very Constitution that established American democracy to undo it.
Our founders, the two Harvard professors write, rightly feared that without safeguards the democracy they were creating might eventually evolve into a tyranny of the majority over the minority. Thus, they established checks and balances to keep that from happening.
Examples such as each state having two senators regardless of population, a Supreme Court not subject to political coercion, three equal branches of government, states having control over the election process, come to mind.
Unintentionally, these very safeguards laid the foundations for the emergence of the opposite problem that we have today, which is, the tyranny of the minority. It is a problem and a threat to our democracy because the Republican Party is the embodiment of this tyranny.
Republican tyranny of the minority, the authors say, is why government today is mired in constant conflict and obstructionism, the result of which is public disgust of government dysfunction just as the Republican minority wants. The only place government is working is in red states where a Republican legislative supermajority is enacting laws not supported by the majority of voters.
The Levitsky/Ziblatt book meticulously examines why the tyranny of the minority is so dangerous, not least because it represents a turn away from democracy by the Republican Party.
One of the most important and telling examples of this fact is the refusal of the majority of Republican office holders and voters to accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
The peaceful transition of power from one political party to another, Levitsky and Ziblatt remind us, was something that had never happened anyway until Federalist John Adams left the White House quietly in 1801 to make way for Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Democratic- Republican Party, to assume office.
That moment, the authors note, is when American democracy truly became possible. Democracies can take root, they say, only when parties learn to lose. That principle has been accepted and followed by every American president throughout our history until Donald Trump.
I think it is fair to say that most Americans, including myself, have underestimated the profound threat Trump’s refusal to accept the legal verdicts that the election was not stolen from him represents. That is why his criminal indictments for trying to subvert the peaceful transfer of power are so important for the future.
If he is not held accountable, it will happen again, perhaps as soon as 2024 if he is the Republican presidential candidate. When he loses, and I believe he will, he will predictably refuse to accept defeat once again, and Republicans in Congress will likely back him, only this time they will be better positioned to pull off the coup they failed to do in 2020.
The long and short of the story is that Republicans have embraced the democracy busting goal of establishing a Republican autocracy and are hard at work using the weaknesses in our system of government our founders unintentionally created to make it happen.
As Levitsky and Ziblatt put it, Republicans are using our democratic institutions to undo democracy itself.
The solution they propose is what they call “democratizing our democracy.” That involves several steps, including institutional changes, but essentially their answers to our political crisis ultimately depend on one primary thing, how people vote and whether or not they vote at all.
In other words, they say, we, the people, are the ones who must save our democracy. Our government cannot do it for us, our democratic institutions cannot do it. The responsibility lies with us, the people, a theme you have read here numerous times because it is true.
Voters put politicians into positions of power and voters can take them out. That is what we must do in 2024. Republicans in office must be voted out and no new ones elected, if we want to defeat the anti-democracy forces we now face.
The irony is that Republicans know this. That’s why they are trying in every state where they hold power to limit the ways people vote, the hours people are allowed to vote, the identification required for voting, and even the way ballots are collected and counted.
The Republican Party has become the primary threat to American democracy. That is the real message of the Levitsky/Ziblatt book.
But don’t take their word for it or mine. A story published this week in the Atlantic, quotes retiring Republican Senator Mitt Romney speaking candidly about what has happened to his party: “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”
But don’t take his word for it either. Look at what Republicans are doing and then decide for yourself which political party believes in American democracy and which one has turned away from it.
linnposts.com 
Sounds like a powerful book. Republicans simply can’t win if people vote. Unfortunately they can’t accept when they lose either. If I may take your theme of voting one more step, I invite your readers to check out the organization, VoteForward.org, which is a way for people to help get out the vote.
Thank you for the link, Wilbur.
So true!
The right-wing has a backup plan, should they keep losing (they will), they can’t stop the country from becoming more diverse, they’re going to at least try to control the story of history. They’re going to control the nation’s narrative and literally whitewash it.
Good point, Rollie. Kind of incredible, when you think about it.
If Trump and his MAGA supporters are not stopped, woe is us and our democratic republic!! Keep up your good work my friend!
Bill Blackwell
Double “woe” to your warning, Bill. Thanks.
excellent. Lets hope the voters get the message, for the republicans are counting on ignorance to prevail.
I’m with you, Bro.
Jan,
Thank you for this lucid explanation and for bringing the book to our attention. This is further evidence showing the urgent need for all of us to get to the polls, and urge others, to ensure the continuing of our democracy. As someone, somewhere in my memory, said, “Democracy is the worst form of government . . . except for all the rest.”
Keep up the good fight!
Gene
I think it was Churchill, Gene. Good reminder. Thanks.
Jan,
Ah, of course. Thanks for reminding me.
Gene
The WSJ take on Levitsky & Ziblatt:
A key lesson taken from the examples given by Levitsky & Ziblatt is that it is poisonous in a democracy to treat rivals as, “ treasonous, subversive or other wise against the pale”. This kind of approach produces an institutional death match that explodes rule-based politics.
It’s, unfortunate, then, that Messrs Levitsky & Ziblatt proceed to do just that when it comes to one of America’s major parties.
You should read David Brooks’s latest op-ed in the NYT. It’s about the truth Mitt Romney spoke about the Republican Party. In the final sentence of the piece Brooks summarizes the state of your party: “As long as Trump is leading it, the Republican Party cannot be reformed. It can only be deprived of power.” That is exactly what Levitsky and Ziblatt conclude as well, as do I.
I completely agree with the last paragraph of that piece
Saw David Brook’s at UVA Miller Center couple months ago and he is outstanding.
May I suggest to you his piece in early August, “ What if We’re the Bad Guys”
I understand the Republican Party has to free itself from Donald Trump. Seems Democrats may soon face the Joe Biden dilemma
Joe Biden is being sullied by Republican lies and you should know that. For you to compare his situation with Donald Trump says more abut you than anything about Biden. Shame on you.
What it says about me is that I have an open mind. Just look at the polls. Even David Ignatius of the Washington Post says it’s time for Biden to go. Over 75% of Americans say our country is headed in the wrong direction.
Biden has gotten legislation passed that has help a majority of Americans more than any president in recent history. He is also an honest and decent man who will be re-elected because he deserves it. Mark it down. You heard it first here.
Jan, your comments here exquisitely detail the catastrophic consequences we are now facing, with the collapse and take over by Trump and MAGA maniacs, of the Republican Party. And you make many references to others like yourself with high credibility that are saying the same thing. Hundreds of truthful, creditable op eds, articles and books have been promoting the truth for months/years now, about the Republican Party for all to read. And just to add to your references, here is a link to today’s op ed by Robert Reich titled “America Needs a New Sane Republican Party”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/america-needs-a-new-sane-republican-party-and-the-person-who-should-lead-it-is-not-mitt-romney-opinion/ar-AA1gSQD8?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e4c8caba7f9d4b65b362917abd7cfd0d&ei=7
But in my mind, while I am still hopeful that “We The People” will prevail, we are now, today, in dangerous territory. America is not just “responding” to an “attempted” coup. And it is not just trying to “prevent” a future coup. It is “in the middle” of an “active” treasonist coup, now being led by the Republican Party.
We have no more evidence needed to prove this, than to observe what Republicans are doing to “Shut Down the Government” as we speak and write. How America responds to this big test, will determine much about our future. And even if we survive this test, we have much work to do.
With respect to Mr. Keefers comments:
1. It is obvious to any sane person in America, that the WSJ made a “typographical error” by substituting the names of “Levitsky and Ziblatt” in place of the Republican Party.
2. So now, Mr. Keefer, you “supposedly understand” that the Republican Party has to free itself from Donald Trump. But you don’t understand that American citizens need to free themselves from the Republican Party. You are still “Drinking the Kool-Aid”.
3. And, Mr. Keefer, in your self-projected, narcisistic “open mind”, that mind is either filled with air space the size of the Grand Canyon, or it is filled with utter, hot, stenching political garbage.
Have a nice day everyone. John Hamerski
Thanks for pointing out my many errors. It’s always nice when one of our political elites takes time out of their busy schedule of moral posturing to correct mere mortals
John, your comments speak for themselves. Re; Keefer, a Republican who believes the party can get rid of Trump without defeating the very Republicans who support him is not taking the Trump threat seriously, concerned as he is about the party but not the nation. Thanks.