Is America dictator-proof?

By Edward Carr Deputy editor The Economist. Over the past two decades, feckless war-making, a financial crisis and institutional rot have let loose a ferocity in America’s politics that has given presidential contests seemingly existential stakes. As Donald Trump and Joe Biden campaign against a global backdrop of rising authoritarianism, this week’s cover asks whether Americans are right to fear for their democracy. It is a subject that we approached with some trepidation. When thinking through what a second Trump term would bring, it is hard to avoid veering into either complacency or hysteria. If Americans believe that their constitution alone can safeguard the republic from a Caesar on the Potomac, then they are too sanguine. Preserving democracy depends today, as it always has, on the courage and convictions of countless people all across America—especially those charged with writing and upholding its laws. And yet alarmism is dangerous, too, because national emergencies, real or confected, are the strongman’s ally. We always try to be sober and level-head. This week that mattered more than ever.