Religious inclinations and personal values do not justify an allegiance with tyranny, even when that tyranny reflects your peculiar form of virtue. Today, about half of Americans will gamble on a dictatorship because they see democracy as a failed system. Believing civil debate, reason, and compromise can no longer improve our republic, many Americans misplace their trust in a demagogue who gives voice to their innermost compulsions and elevates self preservation over common good. I, for one, prefer the deep flaws of democracy to the promised ruin of autocracy and hope to God I am wrong about all of this.
