"In their 2018 book “How Democracies Die,” the political scientists Levitsky & Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries; bit by bit the guardrails of democracy were torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of the ruling party, then were weaponized to punish and intimidate that party’s opponents. On paper these countries are still democracies; in practice they have become one-party regimes. And the events of the past week have demonstrated how the slide to autocracy happens. In less than three years the Justice Department has been transformed from an agency that tries to enforce the law to an organization dedicated to punishing Trump’s opponents, by bringing an antitrust action against those companies that resist the jihad against environmental regulation."
At www.nytimes.com
