Scholars warn of ‘ defense force,’ ‘ political problem,’ other’ major risks’ under Trump
During a discussion on Wednesday, Harvard University professors lamented the effects of Donald Trump’s election as president on global politics.
Government Professor Daniel Ziblatt said unlike the 2016 election,” Trump has now come to power without much aid from the Republican Party, the Supreme Court is now heavily Republican-leaning, and]he ] has criminal immunity from any actions he carries out during his presidency as ruled in Trump v. United States”, the Harvard Crimson reported.
” You add all this together, and it does give one a very frightening picture”, Ziblatt ( pictured ) said.
His administration has much more freedom to do what authoritarians have done throughout history. That is, harassing and prosecuting critics”, the doctor said.
Ziblatt also said Trump will now be able to enact a “mass, strong, and destructive imprisonment of immigrants, the hollowing out of the federal government, replacing scientists and experts with loyalists, the use of the military and the uprising action against protesters, prevalent political problem”.
The doctor called politics “genius” because of “its self-correcting characteristics”.
He said the problem with it, but, “is if the man being elected into business is the kind of risk that it seems, and I just described, next this does destroy this happy self-correcting reasoning of democracy”.
Also, politics Professor Pippa Norris called Trump a menace, warning that he could employ “military power against his political opponents” or fire” thousands of career open servants”.
” When he makes claims like this in the rhetoric, is it essentially something that should be taken literally”? Norris said. ” Is it simply a performance”?
Further, she warned against executive overreach under Trump. She said,” The serious risks that we see with these other strongman leaders may return in the second term.”
She also made a comment on why Americans voted the way they did.
” We find that those who voted for Harris believe that there are enormous threats to democracy,” said Norris.
” But for Trump supporters, I believe they were also motivated by a sincere desire to support their vision of democracy and electoral integrity,” she said.
Government Professor Joshua Kertzer lamented that “6.7 billion of them do n’t get a vote” despite the fact that 7 billion people are affected by American foreign policy.
Harvard professors have also made criticism of Trump in the past. According to Ziblatt and another professor of government, Steven Levitsky stated in a recent opinion piece for The New York Times that” Donald Trump poses a clear threat to American democracy.”
” We can think of very few major national candidates for office in any democracy since World War II who have been this openly authoritarian,” the professors claimed.
MORE: Wesleyan president blasts Trump as threat to ‘ undocumented’ students
IMAGE: The Brainwaves Video Anthology/Youtube
Follow The College Fix on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
