The pandemic has done a great job of highlighting weaknesses inherit to democratic governments. Populism and demagoguery, combined with rewarding loyalty and pu

The pandemic has done a great job of highlighting weaknesses inherit to democratic governments. Populism and demagoguery, combined with rewarding loyalty and punishing dissidents. A dysfunctional democratic republic isn’t very different from an autocracy. I suspect during times like this it might even weaker, since you end up with no national unity. You can’t deal with a pandemic effectively in this kind of political environment.