These discussions are of great interest but two aspects are neglected: the issue of American (and other) mis-definitions of democracy, and the void that has overtaken the left. The American system has never really been truly democratic as an electoral system dominated by capitalism. It is thus almost surely doomed to drift into breakdown even without the pressure of an increasingly demented right. This article makes no mention of the capitalist factor. And secondly there is no left as such anymore. The failure of Marxism, and yet its persistence as a dominating factor, has paralyzed thinking about socialism and democracy as the legacy of Marx/Lenin/Stalinism has clearly failed to produce any kind of (r)evolutionary response to the growing right unchallenged by any consistent of coherent response to capitalism as such. The jargon of Marx doesn't work anymore and yet it has a cultic tenacity that defeats all innovation.
We have produced our modeling tool: 'democratic market neo-communism' and that in the context the issues of eco-socialism. Despite the failure of Marx's theories, he and his generation of early socialists who he expropriated and dominated, had a keen insight into the weakness of bourgeois democracies, and the corrosive effect of capitalism. But that legacy fractured as democracy and socialism became antagonists, and by the time of Lenin, democracy didn't stand a chance against totalitarian outcomes. The whole legacy is 'shot' and our draft text The Last Revolution tries to start over from scratch, not so hard to do.
The left is clearly split between those who preach democracy/reformism and the nullity of the Marx dominated left who have lost any sense of a coherent program.
The right's 'coup in motion' needs a strong response from an 'in principle' revolutionary left (that can also carry the reformist sectors piggyback) that has a new set of materials, a new definition of democracy, a socialist guarantee (our neo-communism is basically 'socialism' 2.0, a hybrid with democracy so-called...etc...)
Unless a strong left able in principle to carry out regime change, and do it right, can challenge the new right, the latter will simply walk away with the crown jewels.

The U.S. is becoming increasingly ungovernable, and some experts believe it could descend into civil war. What should Canada do then?

Source: Opinion: The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare - The Globe and Mail