“Right now, our democracy is in crisis.”
Those are the words of Hillary Clinton, in a scathing essay published Sunday night by The Atlantic in which she issues a call for Americans to fend off the Trump administration’s “assault on our democracy.”
“I don’t use the word crisis lightly,” Clinton wrote. “There are no tanks in the streets. The administration’s malevolence may be constrained on some fronts — for now — by its incompetence. But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back. There’s not a moment to lose.”
The essay, which is adapted from the afterward of the upcoming paperback edition of her memoir, “What Happened,” assails the “unspeakable cruelty” of President Donald Trump’s policies, from detaining children at the border to the “monstrous neglect of Puerto Rico.”
“The message Trump sends by his lack of concern and respect for some Americans over others is unmistakable. He is saying that some of us don’t belong, that all people are not created equal,” she wrote.
Clinton, who Trump defeated in the 2016 presidential election, listed five main fronts in which she said Trump is testing America’s democratic norms — his “assault on the rule of law,” the legitimacy of elections, the “war on truth and reason,” his administration’s “breathtaking corruption” and undermining national unity.
“Trump doesn’t even try to pretend he’s a president for all Americans,” she wrote. “It’s hard to ignore the racial subtext of virtually everything Trump says. Often, it’s not even subtext.”
Clinton cited what she called “predatory capitalism” and “hyperpolarization” as among the causes of the nation’s current woes, and said a massive turnout in the 2018 midterm elections is needed to get started on “some serious housecleaning.”
“After Watergate, Congress passed a whole slew of reforms in response to Richard Nixon’s abuses of power,” she wrote. “After Trump, we’re going to need a similar process.”
Clinton called out a number of reforms she said will help “restitch” the social fabric, including reducing inequality, reining in the power of corporations and expanding national service programs.
“Ultimately, healing our country will come down to each of us, as citizens and individuals, doing the work,” she said.
