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AMERICAN DEMOCRACY and the valued institutions that uphold it are under attack. That is the pessimistic conventional wisdom of progressives and scholars alike.

For many, Trump poses a unique threat to America itself. At the core of their fear is the realization that American democracy and its norms and institutions are fragile, strong only until the first authoritarian gives them a solid push.

For the pessimists, a confluence of factors has weakened our institutions: an increasingly reactionary Republican Party shielded from public opinion by structural political advantages such as gerrymandered districts and the Electoral College; a polarized political atmosphere with citizens split into echo chambers; and a corporate media that cares more about clicks than truth.

Put these together and you have a uniquely American recipe for the next democracy to backslide into illiberalism, as has occurred in Turkey or Venezuela.

Forgive me my optimism in difficult times, but allow me to dissent. Rather than suddenly discovering that our democratic institutions are deceptively weak, I suspect we are in the process of learning precisely the opposite: American democracy can take a punch.

As someone who teaches comparative politics, I understand my students concerns. The threat is real. But here are four reasons not to bet against American democracy just yet.

Democracy works. Theres an internal logic to its success. Democracy contains an imperfect but self-regulating mechanism: Good governance leads to re-election; poor governance leads to losses. Yes, the self-regulation is incomplete, frustrating, delayed and at times uneven. But in general it works. It is tempting to witness the well-documented dysfunction of the American political system and assume the worst. But we have seen instances of the process regulating against extremism.

The best example is Trumpcare, which died an early, humiliating death. Our judicial system forced a rewrite of Trumps draconian immigration executive order. All the gerrymandering and voting rights setbacks in the world will not save the Republican Party from large losses if the Trump administration continues down its self-destructive path.

Modern Republican principles and platform remain, for the most part, unpopular, appealing largely to a demographically shrinking constituency. The GOPs most important and consistent goal in the past few decades has been to lower the tax burden on the wealthy. This goal fervently believed and advocated polls terribly. Yet it remains at the top of the partys to-do list. Combine this substantive unpopularity with a flailing administration, and a very real correction at the polls becomes increasingly likely.

Trumps administration is completely incompetent. These are the Keystone Kops of budding authoritarians. This should not be surprising, nor expected to improve any more than Trump himself, who seems incapable of restraint or effective management. He has surrounded himself with people inexperienced in public policy and has left hundreds of key executive spots unfilled. The administration continues to leak like the Titanic. His presidency has suffered as a result. What should have been a honeymoon for Trump and the GOP looks more like the morning after an inebriated Vegas marriage.

Trumps scandals are only going to grow. Trumps conflict of interests, combined with his complete indifference toward them, suggest that he will soon unseat Andrew Jackson, the man who gave us the Spoils System, as the most corrupt president ever. Additionally, the Russian scandal is almost certain to expand. What was at first treated by journalists as an evidence-thin distraction has become a full-blown, legitimate story that threatens to drain this administrations legitimacy, if not bring it down in full.

Trump represents a real danger to our democratic institutions. But the United States isnt Venezuela. Its a fully developed democracy, which will prove to be more valuable than current conventional wisdom assumes. In a battle between Donald Trump and democracy, my moneys on America.

Matthew Hall

is an assistant professor in political science and geography at Old Dominion University.

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Matthew Hall: Don't bet against democracy | Guest Columnist ... - Virginian-Pilot