By Mark Haidar

It has happened rather quickly — democracy is dead. It’s hard to pinpoint when the decline actually began, but I will take a shot at it. Like an avalanche, it started slowly, took time to gain momentum, and then accelerated with such speed that it couldn’t be stopped. We are a democracy in name only, as we as a nation have abandoned the rule of law and destroyed our most important fundamental right: the right to free speech.

One only needs to look at the recent arrest of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to see what we have become. She was literally snatched off the street by a group of plainclothes officers, taken into custody, held without being charged, denied access to an attorney or anyone else, and flown to a destination without having a court hearing.

We used to treat alleged mass murderers better. We now elevate politicians who deliberately, willfully and maliciously lie to the American people, as long as they are loyal to a convicted felon who is our president.

Without getting into too much detail, I believe this decline started with Ronald Reagan when he attacked the air traffic controllers’ union. Since he took on the unions, their membership has significantly declined and the greatest shift of wealth in the history of this country began. The middle class has been pillaged, and the ultra-rich have flourished beyond belief.

In the 1980s, Rush Limbaugh emerged. He successfully identified a strain of Americans who were mad — rightfully so — but successfully placed the blame on the “liberals” and convinced these people that their grievances were the result of liberal policies and identity politics that, if not born, played a much bigger role in dividing people.

Because Limbaugh was so successful as a businessman by identifying this strain of America, he became very rich. Fox News took notice of this successful business model and used it to become the most successful cable channel by giving these people exactly what they wanted to hear. How successful has Fox News been? They recently paid $800 million to settle a lawsuit for purposely lying to the public.

The rule of law has been in decline for years. The conservative Supreme Court decided the case of Citizens United, which has brought unlimited amounts of dark money into politics. These ads spread lies on both sides while decimating the rule of law and further dividing people.

The nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia was also a crucial point in the demise of our democracy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “Moscow Mitch”, successfully blocked the lawful nomination of Garland, and President Obama failed to do what any Republican president would have done — gone to the Supreme Court to make the Senate do its job and hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination.

That opened the door for the Kavanaugh nomination and confirmation. A few short years later, Moscow Mitch reversed course, played politics and nominated and confirmed Amy Coney Barrett in a matter of weeks, securing a 6-3 conservative majority that has, in effect, led to minority rule in this country.