Political violence makes U.S. "dead democracy walking": scholar

Supporters of then U.S. President Donald Trump gather near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States on Jan. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"The U.S.'s constitutional system, the rule of law, and thus democracy itself are already in their death throes, and we are merely waiting for the inevitable end to arrive," says Neil H. Buchanan.

NEW YORK, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. economist and legal scholar Neil H. Buchanan on Thursday published an article on the website of Verdict, offering his assessments of the American political system that are "decidedly pessimistic."

"I have returned again and again to the phrase 'dead democracy walking,' arguing that the U.S.'s constitutional system, the rule of law, and thus democracy itself are already in their death throes, and we are merely waiting for the inevitable end to arrive," he said.

Buchanan, who holds the James J. Freeland Eminent Scholar Chair in Taxation at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, particularly noted that the U.S. historian Michael Beschloss once predicted the long-term and the short-term possibilities of American political violence.

"Beschloss is talking about what could happen after the rule of law ends in the United States. He looks toward a dystopian future in which it might not even be possible for historians or other scholars to continue to do what they do today -- write independent, non-propagandistic, and sometimes deeply critical analyses of American leaders and the government's actions," said Buchanan.