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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
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<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/trump-republican-party-authoritarianism.html?emc=edit_th_180828&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=356538130828"><font
color=purple><span style='color:purple'>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/trump-republican-party-authoritarianism.html?emc=edit_th_180828&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=356538130828</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<h1 style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'><b><font size=6 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:28.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Why It Can Happen Here</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></h1>
<h2 style='margin-top:0in;-webkit-hyphens: manual;color:rgba(27, 27, 27, 0.65098);
max-width: 100%'><b><font size=6 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:21.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";font-weight:normal'>We’re very close to becoming another
Poland or Hungary.</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></h2>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Aug. 27, 2018</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><img border=0
id="_x0000_i1025"
src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/08/27/opinion/27krugmanWeb/merlin_142754778_285d3bc0-97c2-4522-8501-1604a620a1e5-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Admirers of President
Trump saw him speak last week at an Ohio Republican Party dinner.Gabriella
Demczuk for The New York Times<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";font-weight:bold'>Soon
after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a friend of mine — an expert on
international relations — made a joke: “Now that Eastern Europe is free from
the alien ideology of Communism, it can return to its true historical path —
fascism.” Even at the time, his quip had a real edge.<span
class=apple-converted-space> <o:p></o:p></span></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And as of 2018 it hardly
seems like a joke at all. What<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/nations-transit-2018"
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Freedom
House</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>calls
illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and
Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we
normally understand it is already dead.<span class=apple-converted-space> <o:p></o:p></span></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> </span></font><font
size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>In
both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in
Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular
elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed
freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively
delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the
foreseeable future.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And it could all too
easily happen here. There was a time, not long ago, when people used to say
that our democratic norms, our proud history of freedom, would protect us from
such a slide into tyranny. In fact, some people still say that. But believing
such a thing today requires willful blindness. The fact is that the Republican
Party is ready, even eager, to become an American version of Law and Justice or
Fidesz, exploiting its current political power to lock in permanent rule.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> Just look at
what has been happening at the state level.<span class=apple-converted-space> </span>In
North Carolina, after a Democrat won the governorship, Republicans used the
incumbent’s final days to pass legislation<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/politics/north-carolina-judges-suspend-limit-on-governors-powers.html"
title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>stripping the
governor’s office</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>of
much of its power. In Georgia, Republicans tried to use transparently phony
concerns about access for disabled voters to<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/randolph-county-georgia-voting.html"
title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>close most of the
polling places</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>in
a mainly black district. In West Virginia, Republican legislators exploited
complaints about excessive spending to<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/west-virginia-impeachment-supreme-court.html"
title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>impeach the entire
State Supreme Court</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>and
replace it with party loyalists.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> </span></font><font
size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And
these are just the cases that have received national attention. There are
surely scores if not hundreds of similar stories across the nation. What all of
them reflect is the reality that the modern G.O.P. feels no allegiance to
democratic ideals; it will do whatever it thinks it can get away with to
entrench its power. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> </span></font><font
size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>What
about developments at the national level? That’s where things get really scary.
We’re currently sitting on a knife edge. If we fall off it in the wrong
direction — specifically, if Republicans retain control of both houses of
Congress in November — we will become another Poland or Hungary faster than you
can imagine.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> This week
Axios created a bit of a stir with a scoop about a<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.axios.com/2018-midterm-elections-republicans-preparation-investigations-180abf7b-0de8-4670-ae8a-2e6da123c584.html"
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>spreadsheet</span></font></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>circulating among Republicans in
Congress, listing investigations they think Democrats are likely to carry out
if they take the House. The thing about the list is that every item on it —
starting with Donald Trump’s tax returns — is something that obviously<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><i><font face=Georgia><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>should</span></font></i></em><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>be investigated, and would have been
investigated under any other president. But the people circulating the document
simply take it for granted that Republicans won’t address any of these issues:
Party loyalty will prevail over constitutional responsibility.<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> Many Trump
critics celebrated last week’s legal developments, taking the Manafort
conviction and the Cohen guilty plea as signs that the walls may finally be
closing in on the lawbreaker in chief. But I felt a sense of deepened dread as
I watched the Republican reaction: Faced with undeniable evidence of Trump’s
thuggishness, his party closed ranks around him more tightly than ever.<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> A year ago it
seemed possible that there might be limits to the party’s complicity, that
there would come a point where at least a few representatives or senators would
say, no more. Now it’s clear that there are no limits: They’ll do whatever it
takes to defend Trump and consolidate power.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>This goes even for
politicians who once seemed to have some principles. Senator Susan Collins of
Maine was a voice of independence in the health care debate; now she<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-22/republicans-reject-delaying-kavanaugh-hearing-after-cohen-plea"
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>sees
no problem</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>with
having a president who’s an unindicted co-conspirator appoint a Supreme Court
justice who believes that presidents are immune from prosecution. Senator
Lindsey Graham denounced Trump in 2016, and until recently seemed to be
standing up against the idea of firing the attorney general to kill the Mueller
investigation; now he’s<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/politics/lindsey-graham-jeff-sessions-replace/index.html"
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>signaled</span></font></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>that he’s O.K. with such a firing.<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'> But why
is America, the birthplace of democracy, so close to following the lead of
other countries that have recently destroyed it? Don’t tell me about “economic
anxiety.” That’s not what happened in Poland, which<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2017/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=27&pr.y=14&sy=2007&ey=2017&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=964&s=NGDPRPC&grp=0&a="
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>grew
steadily</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>through
the financial crisis and its aftermath. And it’s not what happened here in
2016:<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study"
target="_blank" title=""><font color="#416ed2"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Study
after study</span></font></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>has
found that racial resentment, not economic distress, drove Trump voters.<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The point is that we’re
suffering from the same disease — white nationalism run wild — that has already
effectively killed democracy in some other Western nations. And we’re very,
very close to the point of no return.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><b><i><font size=3 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic'>Paul Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and is
also a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate
Center. He won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work
on international trade and economic geography.<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/PaulKrugman" target="_blank"><font color="#416ed2"><span
style='color:#416ED2'>@PaulKrugman</span></font></a></span></font></i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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