 Despite four indictments and 91 criminal charges in total, Donald Trump could still very well win the presidency in 2024, which would likely spell doom for American democracy. But we need to be clear, Donald Trump is not the only threat to democracy in this country right now, because historian Ruth Ben-Guyet warns that the entire Republican Party is currently in a spiral of radicalization, and they all pose a danger to democracy. Now if that sounds like hyperbole to you, just consider how much this party has devolved over the past decade alone. Civil rights organizations are now having to literally issue travel advisories to Florida, for example, over their state's fascist attacks on LGBTQ people, and some residents have even left the state because of those policies. GOP tactics have become increasingly undemocratic, with some Republicans expelling, banning, and even threatening to impeach political opponents. Neo-Nazis have infiltrated political campaigns, not to mention they've pushed democracy-killing legal theories that have thankfully been struck down. Republicans have called for a national divorce, some have even raised the specter of civil war, conservative threats of terror, as well as actual acts of right-wing terrorism have become increasingly common, one wealthy right-winger is outright predicting the collapse of the United States and is already positioning himself to be a fucking warlord, and we're not even scratching the surface. There is a plethora of other reasons why Republicans pose a danger to US democracy, but if you still don't believe in 2023 that a post-democratic America is possible, you are either very naive or really optimistic. Now, I'm not saying a collapse of US democracy is inevitable, right? I don't want to make you depressed or get you in a doomer mood. I desperately hope that that doesn't happen, but what I am saying is that democracy is indeed in danger, and what we do now is going to determine our future. So this is a very important moment, and it's so bad currently. It looks so scary that our neighbors north of the border feel compelled to formulate a game plan in the event we have a full-blown fascist takeover. Canada has already issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ citizens traveling to the United States, but they're also thinking ahead about what to do if things get even worse. The Toronto Star reports, foreign affairs minister Melanie Jolly says Canada has been considering a game plan for how it would respond if the United States takes a far right authoritarian shift after next year's presidential elections. We are certainly working on scenarios Jolly said in French during an interview with the Montreal radio station Wednesday. Jolly added that Ottawa's closed political and economic ties to the United States means that we must certainly prepare several scenarios. She suggested Canada has a game plan in mind but wouldn't get into details. Quote, in general there is our game plan precisely to be able to manage what could be a rather difficult situation she said. So she's being coy but I mean the subtext is that they're looking at us and they're thinking things look pretty bad currently to the point where we need to prepare for the worst. That's where we're at in this country. Now they spoke to Thomas Junot who is a national security professor at the University of Ottawa and he explains that a US collapse means that Canada is going to be affected in a major way which is why they're concerned. I feel like this is obvious but this is why they're thinking about this because they kind of have to, right? They'll likely have to bear the brunt of an American refugee crisis in the event this happens. Their economy might suffer if the relationship between both countries suffers. I mean the United States and Canada they share intelligence information and scientific information so if the US becomes a fascist authoritarian regime does that relationship still exist? Do they still share these types of details? How does Canada respond to potential territorial disputes that emerge in some areas of the United States if certain regions want to break away from authoritarian America? I mean these are things that Canada has to consider but they're not just planning ahead. They're being proactive and also already showing up relationships with other countries in the event that their closest ally falls. The article continues NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said it's only logical that Ottawa planned for an aggressive Washington. She said Canada would benefit from stronger ties with other allies even if it ends up remaining on good terms with the United States. Donald Trump is a scourge on democracy across the world she said. Frankly, Canada better have a plan for a decline in American democracy. Meanwhile Junot said he hasn't heard of other countries saying publicly that they have contingency plans if Uncle Sam takes an authoritarian turn. Quote this is very sensitive for any democratic ally of the United States he said. My guess is that any ally will be very very discreet about this. Generally Canada's allies have used language focused on the risks of America withdrawing from the world stage. France's ambassador to Canada said last April that closer ties between Ottawa and Europe could protect both from Washington pulling inward. So those last two paragraphs are telling whenever you hear a diplomat talking about America quote unquote withdrawing from the world stage odds are that's code for America becoming a hostile authoritarian hellhole but they're trying to phrase it in the nicest way possible so they don't offend America. Now to be clear they're not concerned about the far left they're not concerned about Democrats they don't think that Democrats are communist as we often hear in this country they are explicitly concerned because of the outcome of the next election and how Trump and a victory could literally kill democracy I mean he's already kind of broadcasting things that he wants to do to either blatantly violate the Constitution or push the limits of what is constitutionally permissible but again even though he represents the clearest threats of democracy the entire party itself is a threat Republicans in general are a danger to U.S. democracy and that's what people need to understand right it's not just Trump anymore it's all Republicans and professor of history Ruth van Gaet is going to explain why in the following clip it's now a party that is dependent on lying on corruption because election denial a third of the House Republican members are election deniers and it's the election denial is not just you know denying a fact or a belief having a false belief it's it's an act of corruption it's refusing to recognize the rule of law and rules of democracy and they're also dependent on on violence and you know the the point is that when when a party becomes yoked to the destiny of a lawless authoritarian his goal is to debase them and bring them down to his level and he makes them complicit in his crimes and so a kind of spiral of radicalization happens where the party now now the party elite some of them are under indictment they have investigations so they become more extreme and they take positions they never would have imagined they would take and so this is why uh seeing the journey of this party that's why i'm calling gop 2024 a race to the bottom and she's absolutely correct about that think about it in 2015 everyone was shocked to see trump say that he wants to deport every single immigrant considering that this was the same party that granted amnesty to immigrants it was under reagan in fact but i mean at the first gop debate all of the candidates they sounded like trump if not worse than trump some took it further i mean talking about invading mexico that's where we're at currently that is fucking insane where we're going to invade neighbors for political reasons the fact that you can say that out loud and still be electorally viable and not just be disqualified immediately should scare everyone right but i mean what we're seeing is the overton window shift to where now republicans can say the most bat shit fucking insane things imaginable and that's fine we're at a point where neo-nazis can be out in the open about their beliefs and when we think about fascist demagogues throughout history ruth ben gayat also compares trump to musolini but she explains that it's truly astounding to think of every single thing that trump has been able to accomplish in such a short period of time because remember trump didn't actually become politically relevant until 2015 but in under 10 years think of everything that has been he's been able to accomplish we're going to look back at this and and be astonished at what he has accomplished and so when people say he's lazy or he's just you know a clown that's not at all the case he's extremely effective and you know just taking his ability to work his magic and propaganda i actually don't know of another case where someone convinced what is it 50 60 million people that he won an election a national election with working inside a democracy he wasn't working like the fascists with a one-party state with a closed you know press environment we had a pluralistic free press we had a democracy and he still managed to do this and as we were talking before even three years you know later people believe him more than their own family members this is an enormous accomplishment and it happened very rapidly and that makes a lot of sense because in an environment where the regime itself controls press and information is very limited it is more understandable that citizens would more quickly succumb to propaganda but trump was able to do everything form this political cult within a democratic environment where information is more accessible than it's ever been and the problem compounds when you consider that our entire government has been unable to adapt to changing climate conditions and when you compare this moment to previous civilizations throughout history that were unable to adapt well it's evident that we are witnessing the first stages of societal collapse which makes matters worse so this moment is very very dangerous because we're seeing capitalism devolve into fascism after it already devoured our entire planet so we're kind of screwed even if democracy itself wasn't in danger but on top of that you know we have this political situation where fascism is on the rise not just in the united states but around the globe and we're actually looking at a situation where somebody could win the us election and bring about authoritarianism in a democratic way right if he's able to win but even though failure seems i don't want to say likely at this point but very much possible even if we fail at least we can say that we tried which is why i think it's important to talk about these things you know in the near future things are going to get pretty volatile in this country i'm assuming and if canada is preparing for the worst then i think that we probably should too but as bad as things look right now the future is still unwritten can we stop the worst-case scenario from happening i think we still can but no one person is going to be able to save the entire country right but i think we can all make a difference at the individual level just within our sphere of influence if we can we should still try to deprogram friends and family who are part of this cult and you can build relationships with people in your community that i think would benefit you would pay dividends in the event we become authoritarian right and i think that it's really important that you vote and you especially vote out fascists in elections so that way extremism becomes electorally unviable but most importantly the thing that i want to leave you with is to not lose hope because democracy isn't dead yet and even if it doesn't look good i do still believe that we can salvage this country but it just takes us right now being very careful and doing the right things in this moment because what we do now is i think really going to determine the future of this country if not the world