Cold War Daily

Donald Trump is, to a degree, a political vandal who threatens the rule of law in the US and beyond. We see Trump’s acts refracted through the lens of endless doomscrolling. Yet, this material filling our feeds can’t hide the fact that Trumpism and the MAGA movement is also marked by an overconfidence and incompetence in its proponets.

Liberal democrats, meanwhile, will never accept a new status quo of authoritarianism.

That’s why it matters that MAGA’s rallying cry of “saving America” leans on an Oswald Spengler–style narrative of decline.

What if Trump’s chaos-making actually presages a new era of liberal democracy?

The following analysis by Felix Schilk shows how narratives of decline are the common thread linking Musk, MAGA, and other illiberal forces on the global stage.

While the future of liberal democracy is very much an open question, it’s also possible that the diagnosis that MAGA seeks to cure, is itself incurably wrong.

Every crisis narrative is a “scalable story”, as Schilk writes. If anything, we live in a time of “crisis narratives”.

Worth a read: https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-and-the-narratives-of-decadence-that-link-all-anti-democratic-movements-247396