{"id":131933,"date":"2016-11-04T13:15:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/04\/the-broken-guardrails-of-american-democracy.html"},"modified":"2016-11-04T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:15:09","slug":"the-broken-guardrails-of-american-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/04\/the-broken-guardrails-of-american-democracy.html","title":{"rendered":"The Broken Guardrails of American Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#39;s an interesting image &#8212; an idea of party and national constants, even axioms, any one of which should have stood in the way of Donald Trump getting to a few percentage points and a few days away from the White House &#8212; all of which have failed. Some are broken across the American electorate in both major parties. Some have been systematically weakened or dismantled on the GOP side in order to increase or secure power. Others have fallen to changed circumstances (or a perception thereof) in the nation.<\/p>\n<p>The unspoken problem here is, even if Trump loses, those guardrails, those safety interlocks, those ideological constants that have kept American politics from veering off the road and over a cliff, will still be broken. Will there be a will to fix any of them? If not, with what will they be replaced?<\/p>\n<p>Perilous times. Slow down for the curves ahead &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"sm2wp\"><p>\n<a style='display:inline;' href='http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2016\/05\/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy\/484829\/?utm_source=fbb'><br \/>\n<img src='https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/6dkStILGZqdi-3IZAnigcRKGq_eC-jjU67NXgQNe4vENziIGftZDZhDPEAP1UFyQptUFGVeb5A-D5lVX_yirtouPeRUquwzXk3GD5BdxfGLPoauf4w5Oo2GSs3F0hv2ELiNQjNpIf4IPPg=w506-h910' border='0' style='max-width:650px;'\/><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:large;'><a href='http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2016\/05\/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy\/484829\/?utm_source=fbb'>Donald Trump and the Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy &#8211; The Atlantic<\/a><\/span><br \/>\nThe American republic was long safeguarded by settled norms, now shattered by the rise of Donald Trump.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style='font-size:small;'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+DaveHill47\/posts\/FDS66bneztB'>View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#39;s an interesting image &#8212; an idea of party and national constants, even axioms, any one of which should have stood in the way of Donald Trump getting to a few percentage points and a few days away from the White House &#8212; all of which have failed. Some are broken across the American electorate &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/04\/the-broken-guardrails-of-american-democracy.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Broken Guardrails of American Democracy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32753,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/18\/mind-culture-and-social-science-tunnel-vision.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":0},"title":"Mind, culture, and social science tunnel vision","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Mar-13 12:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Psychology, sociology, economics, and anthropology are all driven world-wide by a focus on norms in Western (and, in many cases, US) culture and individuals. \u00a0These have been generalized out as how \"humans\" behave and act and think and react -- as global constants, reflective of how \"human\" brains work.But some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/27\/all-american-citizens-are-equal-but-some-are-more-equal-than-others.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":1},"title":"All American citizens are equal, but some are more equal than others","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Mar-19 7:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump thinks the amount of food-stamp money going to Puerto Rico is \"ridiculous\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/weather-and-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfrown.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfrown.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Bfrown.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":160932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/01\/13\/like-a-little-kid-playing-war.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":2},"title":"Like a Little Kid Playing &#8220;War&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jan-26 12:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Hegseth is, frankly, a chronically insecure bro who's frantic to show how alpha he is.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Artificial Intelligence (AI)&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Artificial Intelligence (AI)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hegseth","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hegseth.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hegseth.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hegseth.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hegseth.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":133814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/07\/east-is-east-and-west-is-west-and-ever-the-trump-shall-tweet.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":3},"title":"East is East and West is West, and Ever the Trump Shall Tweet","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Jul-17 1:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, that was sort of a labored headline, but work with me ...The core of Donald Trump's speech in Warsaw was summed upon this tweet on his account:\u275d THE WEST WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Our values will PREVAIL. Our people will THRIVE and our civilization will TRIUMPH! \u275eAside from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135486,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/03\/trump-attacks-people-thinks-mean.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":4},"title":"Trump (once again) attacks people he thinks are being mean to him","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Dec-17 12:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald doesn't seem to realize that ... ... ranting on Twitter just lends more attention (and perhaps credence) to the charges against him. ... using hyperbole discredits his arguments for people who might be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt otherwise. ... attacking people who ought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/trump1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/23\/pope-francis-is-a-catholic-pope-which-is-why-he-makes-american-pols-uncomfortable.html","url_meta":{"origin":131933,"position":5},"title":"Pope Francis is a Catholic Pope. Which is why he makes American pols uncomfortable","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Sep-15 4:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"Americans tend to see our politics as some sort of Universal Spectrum of Ideological Reality. Right vs Left. Republicans vs Democrats. Conservatives vs. Liberals. Each position on each political and social question in the world can be neatly pinned to that spectrum, and people are expected to treat it as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}