Last Saturday he tweeted "Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW!" adding the filibuster "allows 8 Dems to control country," and "Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time."
What's particularly worrisome about Trump's attack on the long-established processes of our democracy is that his assault comes at a time when the percentage of Americans who regard the other party as a fundamental threat is growing.
In 2014 -- even before acrimony of 2016 presidential campaign -- 35 percent of Republicans saw the Democratic Party as a "threat to the nation's well being" and 27 percent of Democrats regarded Republicans the same way, according to the Pew Research Center.
Those percentages are undoubtedly higher today. If Trump succeeds, they'll be higher still.
Anyone who regards the other party as a threat to the nation's well being is less apt to accept outcomes in which the other party prevails -- whether it's a decision not to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or even the outcome of a presidential election.
As a practical matter, when large numbers of citizens aren't willing to accept such outcomes, we're no longer part of the same democracy.
I fear this is where Trump intends to take his followers, along with much of the Republican Party: Toward a rejection of political outcomes they regard as illegitimate, and therefore a rejection of democracy as we know it.
That way, Trump will always win.
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