There is a saying that while history does not, in fact, repeat itself, it does rhyme. However, I see a lot of takes like this one, saying Democrats could lose the support of Black voters because Republicans used to win the Black vote and then they didn't. While the author lays out WHY Republicans lost and Democrats won support from African Americans, the suggestion that Republicans could somehow win support from Blacks is to create an imaginary Republican Party that is entirely different from the one that actually exists.
I've seen a lot of takes like this one that reference the Russian Revolution of 1905 - really a mutiny by the armed forces - and the Munich Putsch and comparisons to January 6th. There is no doubt that democracy in America is under attack. However, I would doubt it will be overthrown by some form of coercive violence. Parallels to Russia or Weimar Germany miss the weakness of those governments. While our government is "weak," in the sense that it struggles to pass new legislation, it's not weak and illegitimate in the ways those governments were. We ARE getting there, though, with the Trumpenproletariat. That's very worrisome.
If democracy erodes in America it will be in a uniquely American way.
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