Trump is right that America is in mortal danger. He’s dead wrong about the cause.

In a speech to thousands of supporters in Columbus, Georgia days after he was indicted for mishandling hundreds of government documents (including classified material concerning nuclear weapons and contingency plans for war), endangering national security, lying to public officials, and obstructing justice, Donald Trump blasted “the sick political class that hates our country,” “the sick nest of people” at the Department of Justice, and Special Counsel Jack Smith, “a deranged Trump hater.”

“This is the final battle,” the former president declared. “Either the Communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the Communists.”

Trump is right about the mortal danger facing the United States. He’s dead wrong about the cause, which certainly isn’t a communist takeover of the country or the “sick nest of people” at the DOJ.

As political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argued in their must-read book “How Democracies Die,” a nation does not slide into dictatorship in a single moment: “Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible.” It begins with the election of a demagogic extremist. The essential test, according to Levitsky and Ziblatt, is whether political leaders, and especially a major political party, refuse to endorse or align with the autocrat, or out of “fear, opportunism, or miscalculation,” bring him or her into the mainstream and passively or actively support the ensuing rejection of democratic norms, denial of the legitimacy of opponents, curtailment of civil liberties, and toleration or encouragement of violence.

Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 were under no illusions about him. Sen. Ted Cruz declared that Trump is “a pathological liar,” “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen,” a “bully,” a “sniveling coward,” “utterly amoral,” and he “may be a rat.” Is “any doubt left,” asked Sen. Lindsay Graham, that “Trump is completely unhinged?” 

Nonetheless, when Trump was nominated, his rivals endorsed him. During and after Trump’s presidency, Cruz was one of his most vocal defenders; Graham became Trump’s adviser, good buddy and golf partner.

When Joe Biden was elected president in 2020 by a significant margin, Trump claimed the election had been stolen, even after Attorney General William Barr announced that there was no evidence of fraud, and after challenges in dozens of courts, including those presided over by Trump-appointed judges, went nowhere. Trump persisted, lobbying state officials to “find votes,” giving a green light to a fake elector scheme, pressing Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the results, and assuring his supporters a protest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 “will be wild!”  The attempt to overturn a free and fair election failed, but it was a close call. A mob broke into the building, shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” delaying but not preventing congressional ratification of the Electoral College vote count. Eight U.S. Senate Republicans and 139 GOP House members opposed certification.

For a moment, however, democratic norms seemed to be returning. Kevin McCarthy, then the House Minority Leader, declared that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” and recommended that Congress censure the president. “Let’s be clear,” McCarthy added. “Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States in one week because he won the election.”

It didn’t last. As Trump doubled down on election denial and rank-and-file Republicans continued to support him, GOP politicians, including McCarthy, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. Not surprisingly, Republican voters indicated, they were “not so confident” or “not at all confident” about the integrity of elections. Although most of the election deniers Trump endorsed in 2022 lost in competitive statewide races, the Republican politicians have remained loyal, in all likelihood, out of “fear, opportunism, or miscalculation.”

They appear to be staying that way, even in the face of a devastatingly detailed criminal indictment. To be sure, the usual suspects, including Sen. Mitt Romney and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, urged voters to take the charges seriously. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie characterized the DOJ investigation as “thorough,” and Trump’s conduct as “irresponsible” and “particularly bad” in someone who aspires to be president. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Trump should end his reelection campaign. Former Vice President Pence, confessing he was “deeply troubled,” has called on voters to make their own judgment.

Apparently, however, these “formers” do not speak for the 2023 GOP. Speaker McCarthy has opined that the indictment “goes to the core of equal justice for all, which is not being seen today.” Gov. Ron DeSantis, who might have been expected to distance himself from his main rival for the Republican nomination, claimed that “the weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society.” Sen. Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador, both of whom may be running to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, recycled talking points about “weaponization” and “prosecutorial overreach.”

It’s important to remember that the first presidential primary is still eight months away. And we can take some small solace in knowing that 60% of Americans believe the DOJ indictment is “very serious” or “somewhat serious.” But, to quote the great American philosopher Yogi Berra, “It’s getting late early out there.” And it may not be an exaggeration to conclude that the fate and the future of a once proud “law and order” political party and the world’s oldest democracy hang in the balance.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”