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Tuesday, November 3, 2026Nov 3

Michelle Goldberg


Opinion: The straitjacket of minority rule

One of the most influential books of the Trump years was "How Democracies Die" by Harvard University government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Published in 2018, it served as a guide to our unfolding ordeal. "Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United States — but that we recognize as having been the precursors of democratic crisis in other places," they wrote.

Photo/Jason Andrew/The New York Times / A mob made up of supporters of then-President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. “Liberals — myself very much included — have been preoccupied by minority rule for years now, and youre probably aware of the ways it manifests,” writes New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.