I signed and would sign 100 times over if I could. Democracy is in danger. It’s time our elected representatives started behaving accordingly. A Tweet by Amanda Hollis-Brusky @HollisBruskyPoliSci Prof @pomonacollege

In 2022, democracy itself is on the ballot. The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln

A couple of days ago, when I posted my concern that we are losing our Democracy, I was worried that I was overreacting. Then, yesterday, a group of one hundred academics specializing in government and politics issued a Statement of Concern that is both scarier and more hopeful than my post. Their concern is that, When democracy breaks down, it typically takes many years, often decades, to reverse the downward spiral. In the process, violence and corruption typically flourish, and talent and wealth flee to more stable countries, undermining national prosperity. It is not just our venerated institutions and norms that are at risk—it is our future national standing, strength, and ability to compete globally.

Their biggest worry seems to be that, if we lose our Democracy, we will lose market share, which seems like a pretty conservative position to me. Not populous conservative like Fox News, but more business conservative like Forbes. Still, it is surprising that they lay the blame on the Republicans, saying, Elected Republican leaders have had numerous opportunities to repudiate Trump and his “Stop the Steal” crusade, which led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Each time, they have sidestepped the truth and enabled the lie to spread.

When I was eight – I don’t actually remember it as happening when I was eight per se but I do remember wearing a Dewey button home which upset my dad no end, so that would have made it 1948 – I asked my dad “Why don’t people like Roosevelt?” He said that he didn’t know because “…even rich Republicans should love Roosevelt, he saved Democracy and Capitalism.” It was one of those answers that I bought into as an eight-year-old but, as I got older, seemed more like hyperbole. A hyperbole that I’ve heard many times since. Now, at eighty, I’ve come full circle. Now, watching Trump claim he won and the election was fixed, watching his followers – not all his followers of course, but the rabid ones – actually storm the Capitol, watching the majority of Republican Representative and even Senators say it didn’t happen, I am starting to understand how fragile our government really is. Now I understand that President Franklin Roosevelt probably did save Democracy and Capitalism.

That is what President Joe Bidden has been saying and that is what the signers of this Statement of Concern seem to be saying. What I find surprising is that so many of them seem to be conservative. And, while they are professors of government and politics, the wording suggests they are concerned with the business of America. There are ten signers from Stanford including Francis Fukuyama – one of the few signers I didn’t have to Google – who has always seemed pretty conservative to me. These professors are part of the establishment and they think the establishment is threatened; they don’t want the hoi polloi getting their pitchforks out.