I took Professor Haycox’s opinion piece on the dangers of authoritarianism to heart. I do quite a bit of work internationally in the Arctic sphere, and it is also a concern for them.
American democracy is respected across the board, but I do get asked the question: “How can a democratic America witness a government filing criminal charges against a political opponent, threatening to put them in jail, making moves to punish them financially, and actually trying to remove them from the ballot?” Some have even referenced that these are the typical moves of a dictator or a Vladimir Putin clone, and they are concerned about what they are seeing.
It is a legitimate question. Is this the authoritarianism that the good professor is talking about?
— Paul Fuhs
Anchorage
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