Tag: Trump and GOP tried to create a dictatorship

Harvard removes Republican Elise Stefanik from advisory committee

Stefanik was among the 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

BOSTON — The Harvard Institute of Politics removed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) from its Senior Advisory Committee in the wake of last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, pointing to her unfounded claims of voter fraud in the November election. 

“Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter released Tuesday. “Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”

The school initially asked Stefanik to step aside, according to Elmendorf. When the New York lawmaker declined, the school removed her. Stefanik was among the 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Continue reading.

President Trump’s use of the authoritarian playbook will have lasting consequence

Six weeks after the U.S. election, President Donald Trump had still not accepted defeat. This behavior is not typical in mature democracies. And it’s reminiscent of countries with what political scientists call “hybrid regimes” – nations that have elements of democracy but in practice are not democracies. 

For us – politics scholars studying Latin America and the former Soviet Union – Trump’s resistance to election results underscores the fragility of democratic institutions when confronted with authoritarian practices. These include deligitimizing election results, interfering with judicial independence and attacking independent media and opposition.

Trump is part of a global trend in authoritarianism. The United States can learn a great deal from other countries where democracies fell victim to the authoritarian playbook.  Continue reading.