There’s a popular and recurring chant that echoed throughout the recent No Kings protests several weeks ago: “This is what democracy looks like.”

But on Capitol Hill over the past four weeks, during a protracted government shutdown, Republicans have been displaying the opposite.

The quiet, moribund center of American government looks anything but like a democracy. The deserted hallways and empty offices portend something radically different : a future where the messy work of legislating on behalf of the public is replaced by the whims of a ruling oligarchy.

In other words, Republicans are showing us what autocracy looks like.

To understand why, and the implications for the body politic, it’s critical to recount how their handling of the ongoing shutdown has been remarkably anti-demo

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