What would the rollback of our democratic republic actually look like?

It's critical to define the anatomy of a democratic republic backslide before day-to-day controversies cloud our judgement

The whirlwind, whiplash and wailing of a second Trump presidency will not wait until its official start on January 20th, 2025. We’ve already had news cycles with absurd cabinet picks, speculation on mass deportations, plans to sidestep congressional oversight, flailing tariff threats - the list could continue forever.

And while there’s no doubt the various choices and policies from a second Trump Administration will be consequential (in all likelihood, transformative), there’s a larger question: after four years, will we still have our democratic republic?

I don’t make this suggestion as a hair-on-fire alarmist. Considering we just reelected the man behind the January 6th insurrection, a man who has already floated an unconstitutional third-term with congressional allies - it’s level-headed analysis that our republic with democratic elements is at risk.

But let me hit reverse: despite the panic, despair and infighting that’s swallowed the political left since election day, it is completely possible that we emerge on the other side of Trump’s second term with our democratic republic in tact. Perhaps tattered, but in tact (If you read the full article, you can listen to an improvised call between myself and my cousin on this exact matter).

Just because things we find bad (let’s be realistic, really bad) occur in the next four years, that does not mean our ability to vote for change disappears. Bad things have happened in our Republic before, and they’ll happen again. The question is whether or not we retain the system to correct course at the ballot box, with all its imperfections.

Therefore, the guiding star of our immediate future is protecting the status of our democratic republic. To do so, we need to be aware of what it might look like for it to slip in the wrong direction.