Thompson: Year one of Donald Trump’s second term has been catastrophic for American democracy

Comprehensive, accurate and depressing read:

…There’s no sugar-coating it: A year of Donald Trump has been more catastrophic for American democracy than we could have predicted. I don’t know how much more often I can say this, but the cruelty is the point. President Trump’s strongman tactics and callous attitude toward the suffering of vulnerable parts of American society are celebrated by some even as life for ordinary Americans becomes harder. 

But those same Americans, who have much to lose in protecting their neighbours, are still doing so. Amid the unravelling of American democracy, there are networks of mutual aid, acts of refusal and sustained resistance. Democracy does not disappear all at once; it is hollowed out gradually, and therefore can be defended in the same way: Through ordinary people insisting again and again that empathy is not weakness, care and solidarity are among the most powerful weapons, and democracy worth fighting for.

Source: Year one of Donald Trump’s second term has been catastrophic for American democracy