'Scared to death': Historian explains why Trump is more dangerous than ever

25 June 2024

A wide range of Donald Trump critics, from conservative attorney George Conway to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), have been warning that he would be even more dangerous during a second term in the White House.

Historian/author Jefferson Cowie (who teaches at Vanderbilt University) laid out some reasons why the possibility of a second Trump presidency worries him so much during an interview with The New Republic's Michael Tomasky.

During the video interview — which The New Republic posted on June 25 — Cowie told Tomasky, "I'm scared to death. Like a lot of people, I'm just in shock that the country has gotten to this place…. I find it very, very frightening, and I wonder what daily life would be like if Donald Trump wins…. He's able to get people to do his bidding on the local level and the state level, and that's really been the key to his success."

The interview was part of a series of reports and videos that The New Republic is offering on the state of liberalism in the United States.

Cowie, however, argued that rather than focusing on what liberalism is or isn't, conversations about the 2024 presidential race should emphasize the need to protect democracy from authoritarianism.

Cowie told Tomasky, "The right has come to own just about every key word…. in American political life. They have patriotism, they have freedom, they have all of these words that we associate with core values of America — but not democracy…. I do think this is kind of the final line of struggle: to own that word."

The historian continued, "What the right will say is: Oh, we're not a democracy, we're a republic."

Cowie argued that if "the left" can "coalesce around" democracy as a "core value," that could be a "winning message."

The historian told Tomasky, "Obviously, there is a kind of suffocating blanket on democracy itself. If we can lift that, then we can begin to think about some other things that we all really want."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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