'There need to be mass protests': Authoritarian experts sound alarms on Trump's destruction of rule of law

Experts on authoritarianism tell Business Insider that Americans will need to hit the streets in mass protest against President Donald Trump's increasingly alarming grip on the United States Department of Justice.

Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, the author of the book "How Fascism Works," said that Trump's acquittal by Senate Republicans showed that they have completely given up on preserving American democracy by giving the president a green light to solicit foreign countries to help with his reelection bid.

"There need to be mass protests," he said. "The Republican Party is betraying democracy, and these are historical times. Someone has got to push back. The deeply worrying moment is when you start to become a one-party state."

Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, similarly said that the GOP's decision to let Trump off the hook for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges will only make him believe he can go even further in shredding the rule of law.

"He has tested the boundaries of people and institutions several times and found them to be bendable and weak," Mudde said. "There is absolutely no reason for him to stop pushing. It goes against both his personality and his experience."

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