Don’t Discount American Democracy’s Resilience

Don't discount American democracy's resilience

Protestors on Pennsylvania Avenue during the No Kings protests of Oct. 18, 2025. Nathan Howard/Getty Images.In the process of doing a lot of thinking lately about how it’s going in America1, I’ve found myself not really vibing with some of the pessimism I see elsewhere, the constant proclamations that the U.S. has crossed the Rubicon into authoritarianism. It’s prudent to consider worst-case scenarios. What makes the situation especially hard to…

Don’t Discount American Democracy’s Resilience

Nate Silver: “It’s prudent to consider worst-case scenarios. What makes the situation especially hard to assess is that there’s no particularly clear precedent for the situation the United States finds itself in right now. No country with this long a democratic tradition has faced this much of a threat to it, and the U.S. is exceptional in general for being the wealthiest nation in world history, perhaps on the verge of a profound economic and t…