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You're an expert on this subject:
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Are we living in an autocracy?
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Not yet.
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So, we still have
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plenty of agency.
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We have opposition
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political parties.
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We can do this.
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We have a civil society
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that functions.
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We have a press that functions.
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See, you know,
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there's at least
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five members of it
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sitting right here.
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The highly functional.
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We haven't,
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we haven't been arrested yet.
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Yeah.
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You know, what you're watching now?
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You are—
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and I don't think this is
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just Trump;
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it's actually people around Trump
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who've learned from
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what's happened in other places
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and who are sometimes,
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sometimes openly
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imitating what
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they've seen in Hungary or Turkey
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or even Venezuela.
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You have people around him
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who understand
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what are the levers to press on
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if you want to destroy democracy.
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So, you eliminate the independent
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civil service;
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you undermine judges;
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you undermine experts,
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as Tom just said.
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They are—
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this is a playbook,
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and they are following it.
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But there is nothing
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inevitable about politics.
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And just because they know
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what the playbook is
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and they've started to follow it
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doesn't mean that they
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achieve their goal in the end,
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which is which is
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making sure
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we don't ever vote again,
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or that our vote
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doesn't mean anything.