
By Damon Linker— Over the past four years, it’s become something of a cliché for certain political scientists on Twitter to respond to stories of Donald Trump’s corruption, ineptitude, malice, and autocratic impulses by asking a provocative leading question: “What would you say if you saw it happening in another country?” Unfortunately, occasions for posing and answering this question by referring to democratic backsliding or burgeoning authoritarianism have accelerated since…