From the Atlantic: The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy - The American republic was long safeguarded by settled norms, now shattered by the rise of Donald Trump.

We'll look at the current status of democratic governance in the Unites States. Here is one critics look at the current state of it, and how this might have lead to the Donald Trump's recent success. He makes the arguments that several "rails" - settled norms - have been broken in recent decades, which has allowed for the rise of Mr. Trump, who seemingly is unconcerned with abiding by the rules which have governed America since the ratification of the Constitution.

It'll be worth a talk in class.

- Click here for the article.

There are the rails according to the author:

1 - The first guardrail to go missing was the old set of expectations about how a candidate for president of the United States should speak and act.

2 - The second broken guardrail is the expectation of some measure of trustworthiness in politicians.

3 - A third broken guardrail is the expectation that a potential president should possess deep—or at least adequate—knowledge of public affairs.

4 - he guardrail of ideology.

5 - he primacy of national security concerns.

6 - A deep belief in tolerance and non-discrimination for Americans of all faiths, creeds, and origins.

7 - Partisan identities have hardened.