I saw an interview with Anne Applebaum on CNN earlier this year, discussing the attitude of Republicans towards the importance of facts and the antics of Donald Trump. She is a Republican, but then one who has lived abroad, one who is well-read and open to different perspectives. In "The Twilight Of Democracy", she tells her personal story as an American expat living in Poland and the UK. In her direct environment, she notices the shift among her friends to consolidate power by changing the judiciary and the media, trends which are entirely anti-democratic but clearly supported by the new conservative fractions of nationalists and the extreme right.
She asks the right questions about how a democratic society can protect itself from anti-democratic forces who manipulate the system so that they can take advantage of democracy. To her credit she does not have final answers. She denounces the lying and the liars, the stifling of rational debate, the lack of respect for people with different opinions, the brutal power politics and the deliberate undermining of the foundations of democracy. To her credit she rather loses friends than her principles. Her insider stories about meetings, dinners and parties with the political elite in Europe are interesting.
For liberals, like myself, her discourse appears obvious, and I often wondered why she called herself a republican, and now, I can only hope that she will have more credibility among her fellow republicans and be read.
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