Fearing the Threat to Democracy

article

Arnold D. Richards

Abstract

The threat to American democracy posed by Trump and his supporters is terrifying. Certainly, January 6^th is a day that will go down in infamy. It was a terrifying experience as I observed it on the TV screen, which was compounded by Trump’s lack of response making it clear that the mob was following his wishes. It brought to mind coups in other countries at other times. Chile comes to mind with the terrible examples of Pinochet and the execution of Allende as well as the murder of Victor Jara in the stadium after they cut off his hands. My wife Arlene wrote a poem about this as a letter to someone who said it had to happen to a Pinochet supporter.

Keywords:

American democracy, Augusto Pinochet, Chile, Donald Trump, fear, January 6^th, politics, psychohistory, Salvador Allende, trauma, Victor Jara

The trauma gets repeated again and again. When I hear about those who were and still are sympathetic to the perpetrators, I feel as terrified as when I learn that 76% of young Republicans still support Trump. Our democracy is under siege and threatened. It is hard to be hopeful and optimistic. It is the political post-traumatic syndrome of our time.

The assault on democracy continues. The GOP will control the House of Representatives, the Democrats have a thin margin in the Senate, and the Supreme Court may not defend fundamental democratic and personal values. Trump could be elected in 2024. This is a scary time indeed.

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About the author

Arnold D. Richards

Arnold Richards, MD, was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 2, 1934 in a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Erasmus Hall High School and then did his undergraduate and some graduate work at the University of Chicago prior to training as a physician at Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York. He did his residency at the Menninger Clinic and in 1975 was certified as a psychoanalyst by the American Psychoanalytic Association. He served on the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, New York Psychoanalytic Institute, Psychoanalytic Institute at New York University, Brooklyn College, Mt. Sinai School of Psychiatry, Smith College School for Social Work, and Wuhan Hospital for Psychotherapy in China as a guest lecturer. He was editor of The American Psychoanalyst (TAP, 1988-93) and of The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA, 1993-2004). He has also served in various editorial positions and on various editorial boards of other psychoanalytic journals. Dr. Richards may be contacted at .

How to cite this article

Richards, A. D. (2023). Fearing the threat to democracy. Clio’s Psyche, 30(1), 29.

https://doi.org/10.70763/e94fe9ac8dc10dd8b9a239e6abee2848

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