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Vermont Conversation: ‘Gradually, then suddenly.’ Bestselling author Richard North Patterson on how American democracy was undermined.
Author Richard North Patterson, left, and his new book “Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy — and How to Reclaim It.”
Author Richard North Patterson, left, and his new book “Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy — and How to Reclaim It.”
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" data-large-file="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire.jpg" /> The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.
Author Richard North Patterson, left, and his new book “Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy — and How to Reclaim It.”
Courtesy photos
" data-large-file="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire.jpg" src="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire.jpg" alt="Split image: Left shows an older man with gray hair outdoors, wearing a blue jacket. Right displays the cover of “Tripwires” by Richard North Patterson, detailing recent threats to American democracy." class="wp-image-656034" srcset="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire.jpg 1200w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-300x225.jpg 300w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-125x94.jpg 125w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-768x576.jpg 768w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-800x600.jpg?crop=1 800w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-600x450.jpg?crop=1 600w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-400x300.jpg?crop=1 400w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-200x150.jpg?crop=1 200w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-780x585.jpg 780w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Richard-North-Patterson-and-Tripwire-706x530.jpg 706w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />
“Gradually, then suddenly, America reached the precipice of authoritarianism.”
That’s how author Richard North Patterson begins his exploration into key turning points in the last quarter century that have altered the course of American history. He breaks it down in his new book, “Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy — and How to Reclaim It.”
“The fire hose of stuff around Trump has been so great that we can’t keep track of it,” Patterson told me. “If we don’t understand how we got here, then we can’t figure out how to get out of this place and restore and reinvigorate our democracy.”
Starting with the Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore that awarded George W. Bush the 2000 presidential election, Patterson itemizes the fateful turns. There was the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008; the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court in 2010 that unleashed unlimited campaign cash; future President Donald Trump’s demand for then-President Barack Obama’s birth certificate in 2011; and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s refusal to convict Trump for the Jan. 6 attempted coup by supporters in 2021.
The culmination of the events that undermined democracy was Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court ruling in 2024 that the American president had immunity for his actions, thus creating an unbounded presidency.
Patterson is internationally renowned as the author of 23 novels, 16 of which have been New York Times bestsellers, including “Protect and Defend” and “Degree of Guilt.” Patterson is a former trial attorney whose articles have been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Times and elsewhere.
For the last decade, Patterson has devoted his energies to political commentary because, as he wrote in The Atlantic, “Trump rendered fiction redundant.”
As a fiction writer, Patterson recognized Trump’s gift for crafting a compelling story. “Trump creates a fantasy world in which we are beset by numerous forces, some real in themselves, some not real at all, like the great attack of communism and socialism he claims that we are suffering from,” he told me. “And then he creates the heroic narrative where Trump and Trump alone can save us from all of this.”
Patterson understands the allure of the story and its inherent danger.
“You had a meeting of the man and his megalomaniacal fantasies in a moment of extreme unease in the American polity, where people were willing to turn to someone who promised to be the all-purpose solution to their unease.”
“He claimed to make America great again. I would argue he made America hate again,” Patterson continued. “If you look at authoritarians throughout time, they’ve always found an enemy. And for Trump, they were racial minorities.”
Patterson predicted that “2026 and 2028 are really democracy’s last good shot at getting itself turned around.”
“If we have a JD Vance or somebody else who’s going to pick up on Trump’s proto fascism, then we are farther down the road to going from democracy to the authoritarianism in Hungary under (Viktor) Orban and beyond, where we simply can’t retrieve what we — what we once believed was secure.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Conversation: ‘Gradually, then suddenly.’ Bestselling author Richard North Patterson on how American democracy was undermined..
