America After Trump Must Restore Democracy and Strengthening the Right to Vote

Photo: YouTube As Americans look forward to a new era without Donald Trump, one thing stands out: the gap between the real and the ideal in American-style democracy is far larger than any of us cared to imagine. Trump leaves quite a legacy: presidential power grabbing and loyalty testing running rampant, Congress mired in deadlock and unable to legislate anything important, supposedly independent agencies under the president’s thumb, and the courts thoroughly polluted by Trump appointees.Most senior Republican officeholders—“fewer than 1 in 10,” the columnist Max Book wrote—refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election, so fearful were they of Trump’s revenge. “Bipartisanship” is a bad joke, and the rule of law, not to mention common sense, is rapidly eroding.Joe Biden offers the usual platitude about American democracy being “the envy of the world,” but what is there to envy? We were one election away—or, to be more specific, about 127,000 votes away—from self-destructing (The figure comes from Biden’s combined vote margin over Trump in four states Biden flipped from 2016: Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania).