•••
By endorsing former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, prominent politicians such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are legitimizing Trump’s antidemocratic, extremist ideas. By not confronting the former president’s lies and refusal to accept the credible 2020 electoral results, his framing of the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists as patriotic and his intent to intimidate or jail his opponents, possibly suspend the Constitution and invoke the Insurrection Act to quell demonstrations, these leaders are normalizing violent and authoritarian leadership. In their recently published book, “Tyranny of the Minority,” Harvard government Profs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that when political leaders like Scott and DeSantis fail to repudiate violent or antidemocratic behavior, they “become indispensable partners in democracy’s decline.” This reckoning with democracy’s future is real, and the Republican Party has once again failed the electorate.
Julie Holmen, Minneapolis
•••
Dean Phillips had a lot going for him — intelligence, a likable personality, successful business background and an interesting family history. All vital for a successful political contest, but he missed the all-important sense of timing.
When first floating the idea of a bid, he received a lot of advice about this, most telling him that this was not the contest for him — his legislative accomplishments were few and in this all-important contest between democracy and creeping authoritarianism, an unknown didn’t have a chance. Perhaps he thought his would be the push to get other hopeful Democrats in the race and start a robust campaign with truly viable candidates.