Tyranny of the Minority writers say Constitution not strong enough to protect democracy

Laura Barrón-López:

Daniel, I think that some news this week from Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican of Utah, speaks to what you two write about, which was that he is the only member of his party who voted twice to convict former President Donald Trump.

And in an "Atlantic" article out this week, Romney said: "A very large portion of my party really doesn't believe in the Constitution."

Daniel, do you see Senator Romney's retirement as a sign that, rather than weed out the extremists in their party, Republicans are weeding out moderate Republicans like Romney and Liz Cheney?

Daniel Ziblatt, Co-Author, "Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point": Yes. Yes, it's concerning.

To be a party committed to democracy, you have to do three very simple things. Number one, you have to accept election losses, win or lose. Number two, you have to not use violence to gain or to hold onto power. And then, number three, most critically, in some sense, for mainstream political parties is, you have to distance yourself and be explicit and open about condemning anybody who's an ally of your party that commits any of those first two types of acts.

To be a party committed to democracy, in order for democracy to survive, the political parties in a political system have to ascribe to all three of those principles. This applies to parties of the right and of the left.

And I think what is so concerning, as Steve described, is that over the last four years, we have seen a process of decay within the Republican Party where all three of those principles are violated, but, in particular, most recently among mainstream members of the Senate.

And this is what Mitt Romney's description provides us an account of, a violation of that third principle, people who essentially knew what was happening on January 6 and did very little to stop it.

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