American democracy does not die in the predicted darkness, but in broad daylight

« Why don’t you just say: isn’t it great that we keep criminals outside our country? » With that comment, President Donald Trump hunted the journalist who pointed out this week that he had previously explicitly promised to follow statements from the Supreme Court. The discussion in the Oval Office About the fate of 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from the US to El Salvador on 15 March on 15 March and has since been stuck in the notorious Cecot prison.

Until the Supreme Court, this case was litigated and even that Court, full of judges appointed by Trump, came to the conclusion that the ABREGO Garcia’s return had to make return possible. But it refuses.

Is this it? If the government does not so openly do not care about the statements of the Supreme Court – will that mark the end of American democracy?

The fear of the end of that democracy was already intensified in the election of Trump in 2016. In 2018, a zipper books of renowned historians and political scientists, with titles such as How democracies that,,  » How Democracy Ends and The Road to Unfreedom. Timothy Snyder, author of the latter, wrote in response to the IJCEGO Garcia case that this marks the beginning « of an American policy of Staatsterreur ». Steven Levitsky, one of the authors of How democracies thatalready left in March Der Spiegel Knowing that as far as he is concerned, the end of democracy had been used.

Guantánamo Bay

Long before the election of Trump, the American rule of law and democracy were suspended: from the heavily politicized appointments of judges to the lawlessness of terrorism suspects in Guantánamo Bay. But Trump goes beyond his predecessors. He makes the government an extension of his wishes, contradicts contradiction. Independent press agencies AP, Reuters and Bloomberg lost their permanent place at press conferences, museums are ideologically curated, universities must be imposed on strong loss of subsidy to extensive substantive interference, political opponents are criminal or their protection is dismissed and the government-general and the government-general are dismissal. And now, openly legal judgments are being ignored.

The Washington Post responded in 2017 to the Trump election by the slogan in 2017 ‘Democracy Dies in Darknessto feed. The opposite appears to be the case now. Democracy dies in broad daylight, right in front of your eyes.

Electoral autocracy

If it continues, Staffan Lindberg, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg and director of the V-DEM Institute that reports on democracy worldwide every year, does not expect that the US still counts as democracy in its next report. « Maybe they are already the threshold. »

Democracy is in the core a system in which leaders are accountable, emphasizes Lindberg, and can be dismissed if necessary. In the US, the president is checked by the congress and can be called back by the courts. « But with a Republican majority, the congress does nothing to control Trumps power. Trump reigns de facto by decree. There are currently more than 200 lawsuits against the government for violating laws and the constitution. The congress does nothing. »

The second line of defense against the president’s unconstitutional behavior is the judiciary. But Trump doesn’t care what the judges say, as the IJEGOGO Garcia case illustrates. Lindberg: « Trump has openly stated: » Anyone who saves his land does not break any law. « That says everything. »

What Erdogan and Modi did in ten years, Trump does in three months

An important detail in the demolition of the rule of law, emphasizes the professor, is Trumps attack on the law firms who have assisted his political opponents. « That is of enormous importance, because the court can only take action against the government if someone pending a case. And to be able to do that successfully, you have in the American system that needs large law firms. If they no longer dare to accept people whose rights are violated, there are no more limits to what the government can do. »

Lindberg’s conclusion: the US turns into a democracy in an ‘electoral autocracy’ before our eyes. « In addition, there are still multi -party elections, and there is media freedom, freedom of expression and association on paper, but in practice that is everything that you can no longer speak of democracy. »

It is the well -known process from Orbáns Hungary, Erdogans Turkey, and Modi’s India. But the big difference is that it is much faster in the US. Lindberg: « What they did in ten years does Trump in three months. »

Constitutional crisis

Trump has never made a secret of what he wanted, so it should not surprise anyone that this is happening now, says Kim Wehle, professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and author of the book How to read the Constitution and Why. What happened this week with the statement about Abrego Garcia has not changed anything about the nature of the government, she says. « It is only no one to deny it anymore. »

The only logical step after ignoring a judicial statement is that the congress will sell the president, says Wehle. « But the Republicans do not do that, so we are already in the middle of a constitutional crisis, because the constitution no longer functions as should. A law only means something if it is maintained. »

In theory, it is the task of the US Marshals, a federal police service, to arrest someone who ignores a judgment of the judge. But the Marshals are under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, which is led by Pam Bondi. And it is precisely she said that Abrego Garcia will « no longer return ».

A law only means something if it is maintained

The Founding Fathers Had not foreseen this situation, says Wehle. « The system is not rigged up with the idea that a power -hungry, criminal -set autocrat would reach the White House, and that one of the two parties would become fascist. The Constitution is not watertight, and now he is failing. »

According to Wehle, a crucial factor in this is that the information flows to voters have changed fundamentally. « As president, Nixon was the most similar to Donald Trump. But the press was able to crash because everyone had the same information. Now many voters believe in the lies they read online. »

If judicial judgments are ignored, the Marshals do not intervene and voters do not have access to correct information, who can stop a president who breaks laws? The army? Wehle cannot speculate about it, there is no historical precedent for what is happening now. « But radical action is needed. »

Civil society

No matter how grim the situation in the US is according to Wehle and Lindberg, the slipping of democracy is not irreversible, they believe. See a country like Poland, where the illiberal trend was turned. John Morijn, special professor of law and politics in the international relations at the University of Groningen: « In Poland you first saw well -organized contradiction from social organizations. Secondly, there was a well -organized spokesperson from the judiciary. And thirdly, many ordinary Poles realized how dangerous the right -wing right was for their own situation. »

American democracy will also have to be of that, Morijn thinks. “People have to feel even more in their own lives what the absence of Checks and Balances Really means. « 

But precisely because Trump acts so quickly, and on so many fronts at the same time, American social organizations and citizens now seem overwhelmed. For the time being, only Harvard has resisted Trumps requirements. Lindberg gives it three months. Towards the end of the summer, he says, they must have seen a somewhat successful opposition. « If not, then democracy is gone. »

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