Robin Abcarian: Trump's autocratic ploys and racist outbursts endanger American democracy

Since President Trump famously hates to read, it's unlikely that he has studied historical texts on how leaders with autocratic tendencies - even duly elected ones - have turned their countries into dictatorships.

And yet, it's absolutely uncanny how he is following those leaders, taking our country into uncharted, undemocratic waters.

In Monterey last week, a few days before the president launched his epic racist and xenophobic attack on four newly elected Democratic congresswomen, a wave of nervous laughter engulfed a hotel banquet room when democracy expert Larry Jay Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, offered what he called "the autocrats' 12-step program."

The steps, laid