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The USA: A democracy on life support

21 November 2025, Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/the-usa-a-democracy-on-life-support/

When a President Demands the Death Penalty for His Opponents, Democracy Is Already on Life Support

There are moments in political life so shocking, so fundamentally corrosive, that they should stop a nation in its tracks. President Trump calling for the death penalty for six political opponents is one of those moments – not because it’s surprising, but because it isn’t anymore.

A president of the United States, the supposed leader of the free world, now speaks about hanging adversaries with the ease of ordering a cheeseburger. No evidence, no process, no pretence of legality – just the authoritarian impulse spoken out loud: eliminate them.

And the true horror is not just in the words themselves, but in the silence that follows.

The Republican Party, once fond of quoting the Constitution like scripture, now treats Trump’s threats as if they’re merely colourful commentary instead of the political equivalent of arson. Speaker Mike Johnson nods along. Karoline Leavitt repeats the talking points with the fervour of someone auditioning for a ministry of propaganda. The party’s enablers treat this behaviour as normal, even patriotic – as though the Founding Fathers intended freedom of speech to include calling for the state-sanctioned killing of critics.

This is not strength. It’s not law and order. It’s a chilling preview of what happens when democratic norms collapse under the weight of one man’s ego and a movement’s cowardice.

Because authoritarianism isn’t built overnight. It creeps. It numbs. It desensitises.

First, the president jokes about locking up opponents.

Then he insists it wasn’t a joke.

Then he escalates.

And the people around him – out of loyalty, fear, or ambition – normalise it.

By the time a president demands executions for political rivals, the real danger is already well underway: a nation where threats replace arguments, silence replaces dissent, and loyalty replaces truth.

America has weathered dangerous leaders before. What’s new is the echo chamber that institutionalises the danger – politicians who imitate Trump’s rhetoric, media outlets that launder it into legitimacy, and supporters who cheer it as strength.

A democracy dies long before the first political prisoner does.

It dies when its citizens shrug.

It dies when its leaders cower.

It dies when a president crosses a moral line and nothing – absolutely nothing – happens in response.

If Trump’s calls for death penalties don’t spark a bipartisan alarm, then the alarm system itself is broken. And once that happens, the fall isn’t sudden. It’s already begun.

November 24, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA