 So after Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power a couple of weeks ago at the vice presidential debate Mike Pence was asked Will you commit to a peaceful transfer all of power in the event? You lose this election and if you watched it, you'd know that he dodged that question We did not get an answer from him and if you don't get an answer to that very simple question That means the answer is no now This is alarming considering the fact that just a couple of weeks ago in an article for the Atlantic Barton Gellman explains how Trump's legal team has a strategy for Donald Trump to potentially remain in power Even if Joe Biden wins by basically appointing his own electors Where states are controlled by Republicans to the electoral college to overturn the results of certain states if it is in fact Close now since that article was published the situation has worsened And when I say the situation has worsened, I mean that in Donald Trump's political orientation. He is becoming more and more Authoritarian it's no longer just the way that he acts It's what he is doing using the powers that he has as president of the United States To undermine democracy and what he's doing now is calling on his attorney general to indict His political opponent just weeks before an election and as Jenny Fink of Newsweek explains on Thursday Trump told Fox Businesses Maria Bartiramo that Biden and Obama spited his campaign and urged attorney general will bar To indict them because we got plenty. You don't need anymore without an indictment Trump said we'll get little satisfaction And he won't forget it now first of all understand that I think that when People at his crowd chanted lock her up in 2016 that was problematic sure But I think that the media made a bigger deal out of it than it was in actuality But now this is a different scenario because Donald Trump isn't just some political outsider trying to obtain power now He has power so when he actually does directly call for one of his political opponents to be investigated or indicted for bogus reasons That should scare everyone because this is what we see in authoritarian regimes. This is what dictators do Now what he's basically arguing is that well, you know what there's evidence that in 2016 the FBI Spied on my campaign now it is true that when Obama was in power Intelligence communities Investigated his campaign to determine whether or not there was any Russian interference. We all know the story but what Trump is basically arguing here is that well because Under Obama's watch even if Obama didn't explicitly direct the FBI to investigate my campaign the fact that as president it happened That's good enough indict them indict my political opponent because Intelligence agencies spied on me. That's what he's arguing now. It's interesting to me that Trump's argument effectively is spying is unacceptable if it happens to me But if we're spying on the American people Doesn't matter because as can clip and sign of the nation reports federal agencies wiretapped the phones of protesters in Portland On top of that at the local level in San Francisco police illegally spied on protesters now Donald Trump's administration as well as Obama's administration wanted to prosecute Edward Snowden who is a whistleblower who unveiled a massive Unconstitutional and unlawful surveillance state being carried out by the NSA Does Donald Trump want Obama and Biden to be indicted because of what the NSA did Under their watch. No because he's doing the same thing He only is against spying if it happens to him And really he knows that there's not a lot here to work with because all of the things that he's accusing Obama for if he believes that Obama and Biden can be indicted because The FBI surveils a campaign or anyone you can be indicted for that too But what Trump is trying to do here is use this story for purposes of political gain He doesn't believe that Biden did anything that warrants an indictment But if Biden were to be indicted just weeks before an election that would definitely have an impact on the election It could tip the scales in Donald Trump's favor so this is a problem because he's using his institutional power as president as an incumbent president who's seeking re-election to Direct federal agencies explicitly to criminally investigate his main political opponent right before an election And you know, it's not just his main political opponent He retweeted a tweet from judicial watch that calls for Ilhan Omar to be investigated for some reason or the other now I will say it's not inherently an abuse of power For, you know, a sitting president or administration to investigate Anyone who has power or even who may be a political opponent if There's evidence that they are culpable of some wrongdoing. So for example when it was the case that Kelly Loeffler Diane Feinstein and Jim Inho were busted for insider trading when they dumped their stocks after they were briefed on the severity of COVID-19 and they knew that the market would crash That investigation was not controversial The only controversial thing about that investigation is that it didn't result in any of them being indicted But the point is the investigation itself was legitimate But when you just throw around, you know, let's investigate this person or that person under a dubious proposition When you weaponize the legal system for your own political gain That's where we start getting into some really murky territory dictatorial Territory Republicans aren't even trying to hide the fact that they no longer favor democracy But it's not just Donald Trump because Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted. We're not a democracy now My response to that is all right, you know, I kind of agree to an extent, but let's change that Let's make our system more democratic. Let's enhance our democracy But that's not what he's saying. He is vocalizing his disdain for democracy because in another tweet he adds Democracy isn't the objective Liberty peace and prosperity are we want the human condition to flourish rank Democracy can thwart that I'm gonna repeat the last two sentences. We want the human condition to flourish rank democracy Can thwart that in other words I'm not in favor of democracy unequivocally, I don't believe that democracy and further democratizing the United States of America is a good thing that we should do You have a sitting United States senator openly expressing his reservations about democracy and Honestly, it's shocking But it's not too surprising because the Republican Party for years now has been shifting further and further to the right And you can only shift so far to the right until you arrive at authoritarianism and we are now seeing them enter explicitly authoritarian territory Where they're not even pretending to care about democracy the facade is gone. They're just out right now Attacking democracy now It was always the case that Republicans Did not like democracy because they've literally tried to suppress democracy in order to gain power for years I mean in Iowa the Trump campaign just successfully got a hundred thousand ballots invalidated and in Texas the Republican governor Greg Abbott Invalidated a decision that would have expanded the locations where voters can drop off absentee ballots So now because of what he did there's just one drop-off location in each county Which means that if you don't have access to reliable transportation You may not be able to drop off your ballot altogether. This is voter suppression now We're not even talking about the 2018 election where Brian Kemp as Georgia Secretary of State used his power His institutional power to purge hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls Mostly people of color which ended up leading to him winning that election which was effectively a stolen election So the point is Republicans have always had to or tried to suppress the vote Because that's the only way that they can win elections, but what's changing now is that the facade is Disappearing it's going away. Now you could make the case. Well, look, maybe It's better that they just be upfront with us and tell us that they hate democracy I would argue no the facade is better than no facade even though it's disingenuous because when you start explicitly saying maybe democracy isn't the best thing that actually has a cultural impact Their base picks up on that and the Republican Party's base is indeed following them as they move closer and closer towards openly embracing authoritarianism because as David Egret and Ed White of AP reports Agents foiled a stunning plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer Authority said Thursday in announcing charges in an alleged scheme that involved months of planning and even rehearsals To snatch her from her vacation home six men were charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the governor in reaction To what they viewed as her uncontrolled power according to a federal complaint separately seven others were charged in state court under Michigan's Anti-terrorism laws for allegedly targeting police and seeking a civil war a few hours later Whitmer pinned some blame on President Donald Trump noting that he did not condemn white supremacists in last week's debate with Joe Biden and instead Told a far-right group to stand back and stand by hate groups heard the president's words Not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry as a call to action Whitmer said when our leaders speak their words matter They carry weight the six men charged in federal court plighted for months Consulting and training with members of a group that federal authorities described as a militia and Undertaking rehearsals in August and September according to an FBI affidavit They were arrested Wednesday night and face up to life in prison if convicted now I should remind you that back in April when far-right extremists protested governor Whitmer's lockdown because of COVID-19 Donald Trump tweeted in all caps Liberate Michigan and months later we learn that domestic terrorists Literally tried to do what Trump wanted them to do quote unquote liberate Michigan by overthrowing their state's Democratically elected governor now these terrorists are not representative of the average conservative, right? But what we are seeing is that over time? gradually conservatives Republicans mostly Donald Trump supporters are losing faith in democracy and they're not losing faith in democracy Because you know, they've lost a lot of elections and they feel like they can never win They're losing faith in democracy while their guy is in power meaning that they think he doesn't have enough power Therefore, maybe if he had more power if he was a dictator Things would be better. We can actually do what he wanted to do just a couple of years ago One of Donald Trump supporters said, you know, I never thought that I would want a dictator But if there is going to be a dictatorship in America, I would want Trump to be that dictator Never in my life did I think I would like to see a dictator, but if there's gonna be one I want it to be Trump Now I get what you're gonna say. That's just one lady. That's a single anecdote. So it doesn't amount to much Yes, but I would counter by saying go to YouTube go to the comment section of any article where you know someone a commentator or a journalist is talking about How problematic it is that Donald Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and you see conservatives openly celebrating that fact not thinking that what he's doing is undemocratic but thinking that what he's doing actually is Necessary to save democracy. So either they don't believe in democracy at all and they've lost faith in it and they openly want a dictatorship or They still at least buy into the idea that democracy is a good thing, but they think that Trump Taking you know action to undermine democracy is actually better for the long-term health of democracy Either way, they've embraced Undemocratic tactics and I've got to tell you this should worry you if you're not worried this should worry you because democracy doesn't work if there's no buy-in if People who exist in society no longer believe that democracy is a legitimate form of government that democracy cannot survive This is why in you know, newly democratized regimes around the world democracies are so fragile and they end up slipping back into authoritarian regimes or illiberal democracies because you know, it takes time to Get a democracy to the point where all of society believes in it Like it has to be ingrained Culturally in a country in order for it to really have a lasting effect But what we are seeing right now is the Delegitimization of democracy and I would argue that sure there are reasons to be dissatisfied with democracy Because you know, we are seeing it be eroded over time with Citizens United and certain things You know our institutions being eroded, but if people in this country are just outright saying democracy may not cut it any longer That's a problem and what we are witnessing openly now is Democracy becoming a partisan issue When democracy itself becomes a partisan issue Only bad things can come afterwards and it's not unusual for democracy to be a partisan issue in some authoritarian regimes where they actually Allow, you know opposition parties to run Some of them do put democracy on the platform now They know that that will never happen because they don't have the power, but it's a partisan issue in Developing countries, you know democracy may be on the platform of an emerging political party, and I mean look I Shouldn't have to explain why this is troublesome We're seeing a party shift so far to the right that They don't even pretend to care about democracy. They're openly trying to undermine democracy and it's not just Donald Trump and Mike Pence anymore It's the Republican Party and their base who is doing this who's embracing authoritarianism and This is only the beginning