David Frum: Donald Trump Is a Threat to American Democracy

EXCERPT:

CAMEROTA: "Longtime Republican and former speech writer for President George W. Bush is sounding the alarm on why he believes the Trump presidency a threat to American democracy. David Frum writes in his new book 'Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic,' the thing to fear from the Trump presidency is not the bold overthrow of the Constitution, but the stealthy paralysis of governance; not the open defiance of law, but an accumulating subversion of norms; not the deployment of state power to intimidate dissidents, but the incitement of private violence to radicalize supporters. And David Frum joins us now. So, David, this is troubling stuff. It's like you're the canary in the coal mine, or you're trying to play that part and it sounds like you're trying to sort of shake all of us into awareness of all the troubling signs you see." 
FRUM: "Yes."
CAMEROTA: "But why do you think it's so much worse than so many other people think?" 
FRUM: "The -- when people think about what to fear for their government, they imagine a kind of anti-democratic heart attack, some dramatic event, the body keels over. One moment the country was free, the next they are policing the streets. And, by the way, that gives you time to be a hero because until the police are in the streets, there's nothing you need to do. I think what has happened in America is not like a heart attack, it's like gum disease. It is a slow corrosion, a slow rot that will -- that can spread through the body and ultimately kill you. But because it happens step by step, people at the -- do not act in time when they could."