When the future of the American republic is at stake, there is only one thing we can do: Give Democrats what they want. Or so you might think after reading Robert Kagan’s Washington Post essay “Our constitutional crisis is already here.” In Kagan’s reckoning, Donald Trump’s continued hold on the Republican Party, his persistence in believing that he won the 2020 election but it was stolen from him, the state-level actions of Republican lawmakers, the expectation that he will run again, the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, and the likely gain of congressional power by Republicans all mean that we are facing a crisis. The U.S., Kagan believes,
Kagan adds that “the destruction of democracy might not come until November 2024, but critical steps in that direction are happening now.” His appeal is, at least theoretically, aimed not simply at Democrats, but at the Republicans and conservatives who were and remain unwilling to follow Trump down his irrational and destructive post-election rabbit hole of election-denialism. But whatever feints Kagan makes in their direction, his ultimate “bargain” for those who wish to adhere to conservatism yet resist Trump’s excesses is, essentially, to give them nothing in return for yielding to the desires of the Democratic Party, which he presents as the only solution to our present crisis.
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