Senator Chris Murphy: “This Is How Democracy Dies—Everybody Just Gets Scared”
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From the online spectacle around Leo XIV's election to our favorite on-screen cardinals. This week on Critics at Large, we're talking all things Pope. The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough. I'm Vincent Cunningham. Join me and my co-hosts for an episode on what can only be described as Pope Week. New episodes of Critics at Large drop every Thursday. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. As Donald Trump carries out a radical plan to slash the federal government to a nub, no matter what the cost or who's going to pay it, his most obvious accomplices are congressional Republicans, politicians who, with almost no exceptions, will not dare risk his wrath or risk a primary challenge. But also notable is the Democratic opposition or the lack thereof. In the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he won't swing at every pitch from the administration as though this were a baseball game. Chuck Schumer's vote to back the Republican budget in order to avoid a government shutdown enraged many in the congressional rank and file. So the Democratic Party now seems paralyzed.
Senator Chris Murphy has emerged as one of the most vehement critics of what you might call the business-as-usual approach by the Democrats. Murphy says we have months, not years, before American democracy is damaged beyond repair. In other words, if there's an emergency, act like it's an emergency. I spoke with Senator Chris Murphy last week. Senator, I wonder if we could try to define the crisis that we're in. I'm of the opinion that the Trump administration is intent on creating a kind of American-style authoritarian situation. Do you agree with me?
I do. Long ago, the Republican Party decided that they cared more about power than they did democracy. That's what January 6th was all about. Regardless of who won the election, they wanted to make sure that their person was in charge. They believe and have long believed that the Democratic Party progressives are an existential threat to the country and thus impoverished. any means justifies the end, which is making sure that a Democrat never again wins a national election. So this seems pretty purposeful and transparent, this decision to rig the rules of democracy so that you still hold elections, but But the minority party, the opposition party, is rendered just weak enough, and the rules are tilted towards the majority party just enough so that Donald Trump and Republicans and the Trump family rule forever. And of course, this is not an unfamiliar system. This is Hungary. This is Turkey. This is Serbia. There are plenty of countries all around the world that hold elections.
It's just one party continues to win. And that's, I think, the very concrete, the very transparent plan that Trump and his White House are implementing right now.
Why do your Republican colleagues put up with this? Do they fess up to it when you talk to them in private?
They do not fess up to the plan behind closed doors. They are living in a self-created delusion. Most of them will tell you that it's not as bad as you think. Yes, Donald Trump is acting evil. in a way that previous presidents have not, but we will still have a free and fair election, that what he's doing is not enough to topple essential democratic norms. They are, of course, also deeply scared of him. They have worked very hard to become United States senators.
You know, I think this has only been going on for a couple of months. It's quite different from the first term. How bad is this? And where is it going in your estimation?
Well, we have months, not a year, before our democracy is rendered so damaged such that it can't be repaired. I do think that over the last four years, those surrounding Donald Trump put together a pretty thoughtful plan to destroy democracy and the rule of law. And you are seeing it being implemented.
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