Seandainya kata demokrasi itu dapat disepadankan dengan anjing ras, maka kita akan sepakat, bahwa Amerika adalah jenis anjing ber-ras paling murni.Â
Demokrasi yang dari 'sono'-nya berciri-khas individualistik, kemudian ditumbuh-kembangkan secara ketat dan murni, maka lahirlah anjing ras termurni (baca: demokrasi) ala Amerika; semua gimik, simbol, dan aroma demokrasi terpenuhi hingga serinci-rincinya, dan warga Amerika gemar menepuk dada negara-nya sebagai pusat eksperimen demokrasi tercanggih di dunia(dan pastinya juga disertai perasaan 'terhandal').Â
Yah, memang harus kita akui, demokrasi termewah dan termahal memang hanya ada di Amerika; sedemikian mahalnya demokrasi bagi Amerika, sehingga rela mencarut-marutkan generasi-mudanya demi mendukung lahirnya bayi demokrasi di Vietnam (atau demi mereduksi ancaman paham komunisme di Asia tenggara), meskipun ujung-ujungnya kegagalan yang harus diterima.Â
Harga mahalnya nilai-nilai demokrasi di sana mustahil terbentuk tanpa ada rasa hormat dan rasa memiliki yang sedemikian dalam di dada setiap warga AS. Kedalaman keyakinan warga AS pada nilai-nilai demokrasi tidak perlu kita perdebatkan, karena hanya dengan kedalaman keyakinannya-lah, AS rela (bahkan antusias) untuk berperan sebagai polisi dunia.
Tapi, apa yang terjadi di sekitaran era tahun 2015 hingga 2018? Â Penulis kutipkan cukilan alinea dari bukunya Steven Levitsky dan Daniel Ziblatt yang berjudul "How Democracies Die" :
"We feel dread, as do so many other Americans, even as we try to reassure ourselves that things can't really be that bad here. After all, even though we know democracies are always fragile, the one in which we live has somehow managed to defy gravity.Â
Our Constitution, our national creed of freedom and equality, our historically robust middle class, our high levels of wealth and education, and our large, diversified private sector---all these should inoculate us from the kind of democratic breakdown that has occurred elsewhere.
Yet, we worry. American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies,intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections. They try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices.Â
American states, which were once praised by the great jurist Louis Brandeis as "laboratories of democracy," are in danger of becoming laboratories of authoritarianism as those in power rewrite electoral rules, redraw constituencies, and even rescind voting rights to ensure that they do not lose.Â
And in 2016, for the first time in U.S. history, a man with no experience in public office, little observable commitment to constitutional rights, and clear authoritarian tendencies was elected president.
   What does all this mean? Are we living through the decline and fall of one of the world's oldest and most successful democracies?"
