The Democracy Index – by the Contrarian – April 4, 2025

April 4, 2025, with Joyce Vance, Joshua Kolb, Julie Zebrak, and 3 others

This week, the vision of our democracy that emerges is of one that is battered but still resilient. The wellsprings of resistance, of democracy itself, are continuing to bloom, in the middle of the serious damage this administration is trying to inflict on it. The Democracy Index takes stock of both forces.

Trump’s economically inexplicable moves on tariffs make sense when they are viewed as part of our throughline that watches Trump continue to seize power for himself. As Sen. Chris Murphy astutely explains, Trump’s tariffs — probably the biggest global development of the week, which has already caused calamity in the markets — made no sense as a matter of economics; rather, they are yet another “tool to collapse our democracy.” As with Trump’s efforts to make law firms, universities, government contractors, and others adopt his views, Tariffs give Trump the unilateral power to punish and reward businesses as he sees fit.

Murphy points out that these tariffs are a “means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.” The tariffs, which are doing enormous damage to our economy and to Americans, are better understood in this manner, in fact, as Senator Murphy subsequently notes, “British kings used taxation to reward loyalty and punish dissent.” Now they begin to make sense. He concludes, “The tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship. Why? So that Trump has a straight face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry. As he adjusts or grants relief, it’s a win-win: the economy improves and dissent disappears.”

Source Links: https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index