Early into Donald Trump’s presidency, the Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded the US to a “flawed democracy”. Unfortunately it still belongs there. Far from putting Trumpian distempers into the rear-view mirror, Joe Biden’s victory has deepened them. Trump’s style of politics has taken on a life independent of him. Even if he retired to a monastery, the Republican party has chosen its course.
The danger this poses to US democracy is twofold. The first is to America’s rules of choosing its president. The grip of what is rightly called the “big lie” about last year’s “stolen election” should not be underestimated. Had there been any evidence of fraud last November, William Barr, Trump’s ultraloyal attorney-general, would have jumped on it. His justice department found no evidence of malpractice.
Like all myths, the stolen election is immune to evidence. Nor can it be dismissed, as it sometimes is, as purely the result of sore loser syndrome. Republican-governed states such as Arizona and Georgia are passing laws to seize control over their electoral college returns. They are motivated as much by what they want to happen in 2024 as by an effort to placate Trump. These are forward-looking power grabs from independent election officials. Some such provisions would embarrass Viktor Orban’s Hungary — the original “illiberal democracy”. The pattern is to deprive Democratic cities such as Houston of voting outlets while making it easier to vote in conservative rural areas.