Democracies everywhere are backsliding. To survive we must unite

Author Michael Fuchs explains why, in defending American democracy, the United States must also address struggling democracies around the world.

The United States is fighting for the soul of its democracy. While the hateful agenda of Donald Trump was dealt a rebuke in the midterm elections, in a deeply polarized country, the struggle for democracy will only intensify as Trump and his allies attempt to pull America down a dangerous path.

The president spouts racist conspiracy theories – which have been used as justification for the mass slaughter of Jews in a synagogue and which appear to have inspired the attempted assassination of Democratic party leaders – with impunity. The president said the US military should shoot at asylum-seeking refugees at the southern border. He attacks the media as the “enemy of the people”. And all this was just in the past month.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Guardian. Click here to view the full article.

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