Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m L.V. Anderson (or Laura to my colleagues), a senior editor at Grist, and I’m taking over the newsletter today to give you a wide-angle look at how climate change is affecting democracy not just in the U.S., but around the world.
One of the biggest stories of this year’s U.S. presidential election is former President Donald Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric. Over the past few years, Trump has described his political opponents as “vermin” and made more than 100 threats to prosecute, imprison, or otherwise punish them. He’s said he would be a dictator on “day one” of his second term. He’s called for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He’s demonized immigrants and promised mass deportation. That’s just a small sample of Trump’s numerous pledges to pursue retaliation and personal grievances without regard for democratic norms.
