'Fully radicalized' MAGA members now consider violence 'necessary to save the country': democracy expert

An expert on democracy warned Thursday that the rise of Donald Trump suggests that America is teetering on the edge of autocracy.

The author of the Lincoln Democracy Institute's new research project, the "Democracy Index," gave an interview published in Salon. The project gathered the views of 17,000 registered American voters about the state of the country.

"So far, America's democratic institutions and democratic guardrails are holding on," said Trygve Olson. "Still, we see the challenges presented by a cycle of political extremism coupled with Trump's willingness to pursue and permanently obtain power by any means necessary, which causes cracks that can ultimately destroy a democracy."

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According to Olson, Trump mirrors autocrats by using the same tactics to gain power: "Big Ideas/Big Lies, Misinformation/Disinformation, Marginalization of Opponents, Dependency of Allies, Divide and Conquer, Threats, Repression and Violence."

"The assumption is that autocratic actors resort to violence often. Yet in reality, they do so only when they are most vulnerable in order to send a message about the consequences of crossing them," Olson said. "That is why Mike Pence was the target on Jan 6. No one was more loyal to Trump than Mike Pence, so if Trump was willing to send the mob to get Pence, what message did that send to lesser and lower-level appeasers?"

Olson acknowledges that both the left and the right "have issues with political extremism" but, according to him, the "fully radicalized" members of the right-wing are more prone to violence.

"Non-MAGA Republicans, those who don't self-identify as MAGA conservatives, are no more likely than those on the left to see violence as acceptable within our democracy," he said. "Those who say they are MAGA conservatives are far more likely to suggest violence is acceptable or necessary to save the country."

Read the full interview over at Salon.