Are we witnessing the fall of the United States?

America needs nothing short of radical reversal on a range of fronts in order to pull out of its dangerous downward spiral

An American flag.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Over the past four years, it's become something of a cliché for certain political scientists on Twitter to respond to stories of Donald Trump's corruption, ineptitude, malice, and autocratic impulses by asking a provocative leading question: "What would you say if you saw it happening in another country?"

Unfortunately, occasions for posing and answering this question by referring to democratic backsliding or burgeoning authoritarianism have accelerated since the start of the Trump administration, with the number rising in an especially steep crescendo over the past couple of months. Viewed from the outside, the United States looks today like a great power in decline — with its political system buckling, corruption spreading, and state capacity collapsing. The effort of Trump and key members of his party to overturn the results of a democratic election is a big part of this, but it's only one facet of America's downward spiral.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.