The United States, it has long been claimed, is organically disposed towards democracy. When the Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1600s, the first governor, John Winthrop, called the new settlement a “city upon a hill” that inspires the world.
This notion of American manifest destiny, however, has always depended on a blindingly obvious precondition: you cannot claim to be a beacon for democracy abroad without being a democracy at home.
Over the centuries, these democratic credentials have been tested numerous times. And now the US faces its biggest test in decades: the Trump administration’s blatant slide into authoritarianism.
