'Depths of depravity': Experts sound alarm about 'corruption' on grand scale if Trump wins

Since becoming the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has been vigorously attacking GOP nominee Donald Trump and his far-right MAGA running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), as fundamentally anti-democracy. The 2024 election, Harris and her supporters argue, is a choice between the United States continuing as a democratic republic under a Democratic administration in 2025 or sliding into authoritarianism under a second Trump presidency.

That theme was echoed by a combination of liberals, progressives, centrists and right-wing Never Trump conservatives during a July 23 event held at New York University and billed as "Autocracy in America: a Warning and a Response."

One of the conservative speakers, Salon's Marin Scotten reports, was attorney George Conway, one of Trump's most scathing critics on the right.

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Conway aggressively fundraised for President Joe Biden earlier this year and is rooting for Harris now that Biden has withdrawn from the race and endorsed the vice president.

Conway, according to Scotten, told attendees, "Everything is about him — the government is about him — (and) pleasing him and his glory and his power at any given moment. People don't take him seriously because they find the depths of his depravity too difficult to comprehend."

The Never Trumper warned that if Trump returns to the White House in 2025, "What we will see is corruption on a scale like we've never seen before in this country."

Other speakers during the NYU event ranged from CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen and attorney Maya Wiley to author/New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, known for her expertise on authoritarianism.

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Ben-Ghiat warned, "It is MAGA dictatorship or American democracy. It is repression — the iron (fist) coming down on us — (or) freedom. I've seen what happens to societies when corrupt leaders and their allies gain power based on division or hatred, and Project 2025 is a recipe for mass chaos, abuses of power and dysfunction in government."

Eisen said of the 2024 election, "We've gone from age vs. autocracy to dictatorship vs. democracy as the theme of the next 119 days." And Wiley, a former prosecutor, emphasized that democracy cannot be taken for granted — telling attendees, "Autocracy only happens when we the people don't get together and say, 'No, you won't.' Democracy is not a promise, it's a commitment. So let's stay committed."

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Read the full Salon article at this link.