About two-thirds of Canadians surveyed this month said American democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump in the White House, and about half said the United States is on the way to becoming an authoritarian state, a poll released on Monday said.

The November U.S. election is likely to pit President Joe Biden against Trump, who is the clear frontrunner to win the Republican nomination as voting in the presidential primary race kicks off in Iowa on Monday.

Sixty-four percent of respondents in the Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,510 Canadians said they agreed with the statement: “U.S. democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump.” Twenty-eight percent disagreed.

The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of Biden’s 2020 election win shocked many Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly blamed Trump for inciting the mob.

  • ExLisper@linux.communityEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    US “democracy” will be fine. Russia is still technically a democracy. US can also have it both ways: have some sort of life long president staging sham elections and locking up political rivals at the same time. It will still be a ‘democracy’. Of course Supreme Court would not let that… oh wait, they’re all hand picked by the dictator, never mind. I wander if an average American would even notice any difference.

    • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Right, but if it’s a sham democracy, it’s not a democracy. That’s the thing about Russia - it’s not actually a democracy. The layer of “democracy” is just a layer of authoritarian control with a very thin coat of paint.

      • ExLisper@linux.communityEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        Yes and what I’m saying is that US is not really that far away from this system. It doesn’t have strong constitutional defences (Supreme Court is extremely politicised, corrupt and can just change it’s interpretations of the constitution on a whim), the two party system is pretty much one capitalist party switching power between more extreme and less extreme wings every couple of years and it’s all run but 70+ year old millionaires. US could very easily keep the thin layer of “democracy” and turn into dictatorship beneath it.

        • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
          0·
          10 months ago

          Yep, I think we agree on the danger - I think the quotation marks might be throwing people off. If we agree Russia is not a democracy and the US is risking becoming that, not sure why you’re getting downvoted.