In the 1960s, conservative Turkish politicians often promised to transform Turkey into a “small America.” That pledge was premised on a hopeful vision of the United States, a country that many Turks wanted to emulate. But a half century later, it is the United States that finds itself well on the way to becoming a bigger version of Turkey and not the other way around.
If they were not clear already, the darker strains of Donald Trump’s presidency have been revealed in recent months. He has turned the coronavirus pandemic—mishandled spectacularly by his administration—into another front in an unending culture war against his political rivals and the media. The uprising that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd, meanwhile, did not prompt the president to reflect on the inequities of American society or to try to soothe the raw emotions of the street. Instead, he portrayed the largely peaceful protests as anarchic riots, used brute force to disperse demonstrators near the White House exercising their right to free speech, and further polarized the country. Like other authoritarians, Trump thrives on that polarization. He styles himself in both rhetoric and action as the defender of a besieged United States, inveighing against “leftists” and cosmopolitan elites and describing his critics as inherently anti-American. In chilling scenes this past week, the Trump administration sent federal agents—against the wishes of local governments—into cities such as Portland to quash protests.
