Rachel Maddow Shows How Trump’s Attacks On The National Archives Threaten Democracy

Rachel Maddow said that Trump’s attacks on the National Archives are the sort of thing that push people out of public service and kill democracy.

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Video of Maddow:

Maddow said:

In this political environment on the right they can generate a murderous rage about the National Archives apparently or the FBI or school boards or librarians or teachers or doctors or county public health boards or the little old ladies who work at the polls on election day.

No one is beyond being threatened, doxed, harassed, driven out of public service. It is hard to stay a democracy just on a practical level. It is hard to stay a democracy when all forms of public service, large and small, all jobs in the public life of our democracy come with threats of violence. 

You can’t long hold free and fair elections when it takes bravery to be a poll worker. It should not take bravery to be a poll worker or a file clerk at the archives or an immunologist. The threat of political violence takes normal people out of public life. which puts you on a very fast track to the end of democracy at a very practical level.

As with almost everything that Trump does, the long-term consequences of his self-serving attacks have a lingering impact on democracy and institutions. Thanks to Donald Trump, there are Americans who will think that there is something evil and untrustworthy about the National Archives.

The people who work at the National Archives facilities are public servants who act as the caretakers of presidential history. The National Archives is not the villain in the story.

Donald Trump violated the law, and in his effort to escape responsibility for his actions, the former president has launched an attack that even if batted back successfully will erode confidence in public servants and democracy among his supporters.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association