The best argument that Trump isn’t leading the US into authoritarianism is what he hasn’t done.

For instance, you might say “Trump did XYZ, and isn’t this troubling?” and I’d probably agree! But in the grand scheme of all troubling things that Presidents have done only to have democracy survived unscathed, is XYZ really that unprecedently problematic? Probably not.

If Trump really was leading the US into authoritarianism, what should we be seeing? Events like...

- Trump going through on his campaign promise to go after Hillary Clinton (and maybe other opponents, too).
- Unprecedented attempts to increase executive power.
- Journalists and news organisations critical of Trump mysteriously come under investigation.
- The Russia investigation ends suspiciously quickly.
- Shocking election irregularities in special elections.
- John McCain’s brain cancer “resolves early”.

By contrast, if Trump tweets an attack on the media, but doesn’t make the slightest attempt to actually do anything to them, then it seems pretty clearly to be cheap talk/bluster, with the main purpose being to signal to his base that “Hey, I hate the liberal media just like you do!”

Consider: ignoring his public statements, is the Trump Administration really that much different from how say, a Rubio Administration would have been? Maybe the immediate travel ban may have seemed a little out-of-character, but other than that, it’s been pretty standard so far as a Republican administration goes.

he's priming the pump

Waiting for him/them to achieve big wins seems like a bad strategy for preventing a slide into authoritarian fascism.

So Trump attacking the FBI and delegitimizing the media while using Soviet-style propaganda to muddy the truth isn't a threat to democracy? Just because he isn't acting on it immediately doesn't mean that future leaders won't see the playbook he laid out and push it further.

Even seemingly insightful, intelligent people are absolutely horrible at seeing the long-term implications of what Donald Trump is doing. This isn't about a year, four years or ten years down the road. This is about the long run. It's about the country current generations will leave for future generations.

The overconfidence in democracy may very well be America's undoing. If anything watching a sociopath like Trump get into office should teach people how fragile democracy is and that it needs to be protected rather than taken for granted.

itt we learn that the slide to autocracy happens in degrees, therefore everything is fine.

He only has two years of a guaranteed Republican trifecta, and he'd need to start early if he wanted to start rigging things or try to amend the Constitution. He better hurry up!

Early congrats on being right if and when efforts to save democracy prevail.

As I've said before, I don't really disagree with this. My main beef is with people who think there's a realistic chance that Trump himself becomes a Neo-Nazi dictator.

Another 9/11 it happens tomorrow.

I agree with you that if you ignore all the authoritarian things Trump has done, then he hasn't really done any authoritarian things. Other than the travel ban:

No other R President would have fired James Comey. No other R President would have forced out Andrew McCabe. No other R President would have used personal loyalty tests in judicial and law enforcement appointments. No other R President would have refused to implement sanctions on Russia for helping him win an election that passed with a overwhelming bipartisan majority. No other R President would have "both sides" a highly publicized Nazi terrorist attack. No other R President would have actively participated in, at a minimum, denying and refusing to defend against clear actions by foreign intelligence agencies to help him and his allies win elections by, among other things, hacking and stealing from political opponents. No other R President would have started a Immigrant Crimes Office whose sole job was to demonize immigrants. No other R President would demonize immigrants in nearly every public speech; no other R President would have so drastically "unleashed" ICE such that they use technicalities to even override requests from R Congressmen and deport pillars of the community.

It was probably time to GTFO when folks started shooting up schools every few years. I don't know what time it is now when we're getting school shootings on a monthly basis.

Monthly? There have been 18 school shootings in 45 days in 2018

Whoops. Guess I'm an optimist. **** me, I thought monthly was already an exaggeration.

but at least 250 years is a super long record-breaking time for a nation to sustain itself which proves we're safe forever. also really lucky for us that the only government-sanctioned genocides that ever happened all involved literal monster aliens from outer space and not people like our neighbors so it just can't happen again. not here. nope.

You forgot to add he pardoned a guy who ran a quasi-concentration camp.

Seems the only solution is to close all the schools.

Amazing.

Guys. As a non USAer. Please stop with this 250 years of democracy ****. You had slaves for the first part of that.

Also, a reminder that american fascism will be very american.

Blue lives matter. 9.11. Fake news. Make america great.

A lazy and stupid authoritarian can only do so much so fast.

Trump Donated to Project Veritas Before Organization Tried to Trick Washington Post With Outrageous Roy Moore Claim

the russian government cyberattacked american social media and trump lost by more votes than any president ever inaugurated. it was shockingly irregular and all over the news

He holds the office of President of the United States. If you could guarantee everyone would ignore him, fine.

The thing about Trump is he doesn’t actively want to be an autocratic leader, he just wants to be the most beloved President ever. His natural tendency is to regress towards authoritarianism when things don’t go his way since he’s a big fat baby. Congressional Republicans would actively abet his seizing more power if he wanted it.

LOL at calling the Electoral College a "shocking irregularity". I mean, I support abolishing it, but you can blame the Founding Fathers for it. To think of it as an indication of Trump's authoritarianism is just nonsense.

And yes, if it turns out that Trump personally ordered Putin to hack the DNC, I would call that authoritarian. (I also predict his chance of remaining in office after that revelation would be virtually zero).

But what I'm getting at is that if Trump wanted to start rigging elections, he's doing an awful job of it. He couldn't get his preferred Republican (the incumbent) to win the AL-Sen primary, nor suppress the Moore allegations, nor rig the general election in one of the most Republican states in the country.

"if it turns out" ?