Chronicling and analyzing resistance to the threat that autocracy
poses to American liberal democracy, this book provides the definitive
account of the rise of Trump’s populist support in 2016, and his
failed efforts to nullify the result of the 2020 election. This book
is about the threat of autocracy, which antedated Donald Trump and
will persist after he leaves the stage. Autocracy negates both
liberalism—which includes the protection of fundamental rights, the
rule of law, separation of powers, and respect for specialist
expertise—and democracy—which requires that the state be
responsible to an electorate composed of all eligible voters—by
concentrating unconstrained power in a single individual. Anticipating
defeat in the 2016 election, Trump attacked suggestions that he had
sought, or even benefited from, Russian assistance despite the
evidence, and he made repeated claims of election fraud. In 2020,
fearful that his mishandling of the pandemic had alienated voters, he
intensified the allegations of fraud, demanding recounts, pressuring
state legislatures and state election officials, advancing bizarre
conspiracy theories, and finally, calling for a massive demonstration,
urging protesters to march to the Capitol to pressure Congress,
promising to accompany them. But as this book documents, Trump’s
efforts to nullify the result of the 2020 election failed. As the
courts rejected his numerous challenges, state election officials
loyally performed their statutory duties, the Justice Department found
no evidence of fraud, and politicians from all sides certified
Biden’s victory, this book traces the many, and varied, forms of the
defense of liberal democracy located within both the state and civil
society, including law (judges, government lawyers, and private
practitioners), the media, NGOs, science (and other forms of
expertise), and civil servants (in federal, state, and local
government). Evaluating their efficacy, the book maintains, is vital
if—as history has repeatedly taught us—the price of liberal
democracy, like that of liberty itself, is eternal vigilance. This
definitive account and analysis of Trumpism and the resistance to it
will appeal to scholars, students, and others with interests in
politics, populism, and the rule of law and, more specifically, to
those concerned with resisting the threat that autocracy poses to
liberal democracy.
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Resistance to Trump and Trumpism
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781040003855
Publisert
2024
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter