Where is the line between “democracy” and “fascism”? Since President Donald Trump’s return to power nine months ago, that question has been posed again and again in response to the latest affront to human dignity, common sense and/or constitutional norms committed by his administration.

Arguably, however, this is the wrong question in that it assumes there is some precise threshold beyond which we cease to be free. Those who have experienced fascist takeovers elsewhere warn that if we insist on a definitive answer to that question, we will only belatedly realize that the walls have closed in around us. The danger is that we will drift — disoriented, unmoored, bewildered — into the iron cage of tyranny.

While there may be no red line from which to take our bearings, recent events have pul

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