With the U.S. presidential election less than a week away, anxiety is high, both across the country and around the world. Many fear the rise of populism and the erosion of democratic norms. In over two centuries, the United States has had many presidents who pushed on the door of anti-democratic power, but it has also had people who pushed back. 

Ahead of the election, what lessons can we learn by looking to the past? 

Brown University political scientist Corey Brettschneider is one of the leading thinkers on presidential power. His recent book, The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It examines how John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon abused their power, and how citizens like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Daniel Ellsberg resisted and offered a more democratic understanding of the Constitution. 

Just Security Senior Fellow Tom Joscelyn sat down with Brettschneider to discuss the book and the lessons it offers for the election, the state of American democracy, and beyond.

Here is Tom’s conversation with Corey Brettschneider. 

Show Notes: 

• Corey Brettschneider (@BrettschneiderC)
• Tom Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) 
• Paras Shah (@pshah518) 
• Corey’s book The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It published by W. W. Norton & Company
• Just Security’s “Democracy Backsliding” series
• Just Security’s 2024 Presidential Election coverage
• Just Security’s Democracy coverage
• Just Security’s Domestic Extremism coverage
• Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)