Is America becoming an autocracy?
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What is the current state of American democracy?
I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is The Sunday Story, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. We are more than three months into Donald Trump's second term as president, and there's a question that's coming up a lot. What is the state of American democracy? Last year, at a Fox News town hall campaign event, Trump insisted he would be a dictator, but only for one day.
There is energy. We're going to drill, baby, drill. After that, I'm not going to be a dictator.
After that, I'm not going to be a dictator.
Now, many scholars say the U.S. is moving swiftly away from liberal democracy and towards some form of authoritarianism.
It is certainly reversible, but we are no longer living in a liberal democracy.
We are very certain that the United States is moving in the direction of autocratization.
I think we're on a very fast slide into what's called competitive authoritarianism.
That was Stephen Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard, Shabnam Gamushu, a political scientist at Middlebury College, and Kim Lane Shepley, a Princeton sociologist. Of course, there are scholars who disagree with them. But in recent surveys, hundreds of political scientists from all over the country were asked to rate the health of American democracy. And they downgraded America's democracy score more than ever before. NPR's Frank Langfitt has been covering democracy for some time and was intrigued by these landmark results. He decided to speak to some scholars and others who've come here from authoritarian countries and find out what they make of President Trump's first months in office. Welcome to the show, Frank.
Hey, Aisha. Great to be here.
What struck you in your conversations with these scholars?
Yeah, there's one particular thing, Aisha. I had arranged to interview this guy, a scholar. He's originally from an autocratic country in Asia. And at first he agreed to speak on the record. And then like a day or two before the interview, he writes me this. I want to read it to you. It says, I've been following with concern the news this week and I've decided for now I don't want to be quoted in a news piece.
So what was the news and why did he have this change of heart?
He'd seen this video. I'm sure you've probably seen it, too. It was widely covered in the news. There are these plainclothes Homeland Security agents. They detain a doctoral student at Tufts University. This all happens in broad daylight on a street outside of Boston. So this student, she's from Turkey. Her name is Rumesa Ozturk. And she's here in the U.S. on a student visa. And in the video, you can see these men, and it's a woman or two, come up to her. They grab her wrists. She begins to resist. She starts to yell. and then they take her phone, handcuff her, and then they lead her off to a car.
Yeah, I remember there was a huge reaction to that video. And so what happened to this student?
So after she was picked up, they sent her to Louisiana. She's never charged with a crime. And a little more than a week ago, a federal judge released her, said the only evidence the government provided for holding her was that she co-wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper. urging the university to divest from companies doing business with Israel. Of course, this is not how Secretary of State Marco Rubio had described the whole thing. He said that the U.S. had revoked her visa, suggesting she's some kind of troublemaker. This is what he said.
I think it's crazy to invite students into your country that are coming onto your campus and destabilizing it. We're just not going to have it. So we'll revoke your visa, and once your visa is revoked, you're illegally in the country and you have to leave. Every country in the world has a right to decide who comes in as a visitor and who doesn't.
So that's what scared your source.
Yeah. I mean, he told me that when he saw that video, he recognized this exact tactic. And essentially what he was seeing was an abduction. And it reminded him a lot from what happens in his homeland.
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