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Bend over and I'll show you tator
The closer the president gets to election day, the bigger the threat he poses to U.S. democracy.
Even before U.S. President Donald Trump took the oath of office in 2017, serious observers were worried about the fragility of the United States’ democratic order and Trump’s all-too-obvious dictatorial proclivities.
It was partly his evident narcissism and contempt for the truth, but also his willingness to run roughshod over long-standing norms, his long record of fraud and shady business dealings, and his evident admiration for dictators in other countries. Trump’s arrival helped make books such as How Democracies Die and On Tyranny bestsellers, while journalists and political scientists (including yours truly) began compiling lists of “warning signs” of creeping authoritarianism.
1. Systematic efforts to intimidate the media.
This tactic has been a central feature of Trump’s presidency from the beginning, whether in the form of his constant tweets about “fake news” and his none-too-veiled attempts to threaten the owners of media outlets he dislikes (such as CNN or the Washington Post). As he reportedly admitted to CBS reporter Lesley Stahl, Trump has attacked the press quite deliberately. “He said, ‘You know why I do it?’” she later told PBS. “‘I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”
2. Building an official pro-Trump media network.
Earlier reports that Trump (or one of his sons) was going to start his own media company proved unfounded. But as I noted in my earlier reassessments, the president hardly needs his own news company when he has Fox News almost entirely in his camp, when Fox anchor Sean Hannity is said to be a close personal advisor, and when the even more whackadoodle One America News Network is reliably in his corner. Trump can also count on radio host Rush Limbaugh (to whom he gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom last year) to echo whatever new falsehood the president chooses to tweet (such as telling his listeners the coronavirus was “the common cold, folks” and just a left-wing conspiracy to bring Trump down). Who needs Pravda when you’ve got Limbaugh?
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3. Politicizing the civil service, military, National Guard, or the domestic security agencies.
The president may be commander in chief and head of the executive branch, but soldiers and civil servants swear an oath to the Cons ution, not an individual. Ignoring that principle, Trump has tried to get government officials to express their “loyalty” to him personally, and led cabinet meetings where appointees sing his praises in cringeworthy fashion. He replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions with William Barr after Sessions showed a certain degree of integrity, and Barr’s extreme commitment to the principle of executive authority and resulting willingness to protect the president and even to lie on his behalf make former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s loyalty to his brother John and former Attorney General John F. Mitc ’s fealty to former President Richard Nixon seem rather quaint. In any case, it’s a pretty small step from believing in a president’s total authority over the executive branch to the view that he’s should be beyond the rule of law entirely. Which would be just fine with Trump.
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4, Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents.
I don’t know if Trump is using the FBI, CIA, or other surveillance capabilities to spy on the Biden campaign or to monitor other political opponents. But we do know that the federal government has conducted surveillance of people protesting the administration’s immigration policies, and Trump has threatened to declare the loose and leaderless antifa movement a terrorist organization, which could allow domestic security agencies to conduct more far-reaching surveillance on anti-Trump protests. Trump and his allies are certainly not above using government ins utions to advance the president’s personal political fortunes, and sometimes they’re not even coy about it. Thus, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told a local radio station that his baseless Senate investigation into Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine would “help Donald Trump win reelection.”
5. Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents.
At this point, it is hardly headline news to report that the Trump administration is deeply corrupt, and that Trump and his family have been using high office to enrich themselves in various ways. At times these tangled relations are almost comical, as when the Trump Organization asked the Trump administration for a break on the lease payments it owes on the building containing the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Other examples are more serious, however: According to a recent Brookings Ins ution study, the administration’s response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic has been marred by inadequate oversight and clear signs of corruption. “There have been reports that 27 clients of Trump-connected lobbyists have received up to $10.5 billion of [government coronavirus-related] spending; that beneficiaries have also included multiple en ies linked to the family of Jared Kushner and other Trump associates and political allies; that up to $273 million was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to Trump’s election efforts; that unnecessary blanket ethics waivers have been applied to potential administration conflicts of interest; and that many other transactions meriting further investigation have occurred,” according to the study.
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6. Stacking the Supreme Court.
A president’s ability to stack the Supreme Court depends on whether openings occur and whether the Senate is compliant. Trump doesn’t have to worry about the Senate, which allowed him to appoint two new justices during his first term. He hasn’t gone any further, but only because he hasn’t had another opportunity since the controversial appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In the meantime, Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are doing a fine job of packing the lower courts, including some candidates with decidedly dodgy qualifications. And if you think this is just matter of abortion rights or gun control, think again. If the 2020 election is a nail-biter, lower-court decisions on potential electoral irregularities could matter a lot. Indeed, several recent decisions (in Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, and Alabama) have opened the door to precisely the type of voter suppression that would benefit Trump. As other democratically elected autocrats know full well, checks and balances and the rule of law are no obstacle once the judiciary has been transformed from watchdog to lap dog.
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7. Enforcing the law for only one side.
One could devote a whole column to this warning sign alone. While railing against threats from immigrants, protesters, and the extremely dangerous, traitorous, menacing, yet sleepy Biden, Trump has largely turned a blind eye to far more serious criminals. Although right-wing terrorist groups and white supremacists are responsible for far more U.S. deaths than left-wing protesters or foreign terrorist groups, Trump has repeatedly signaled his sympathy for the former in various ways. Most recently, he has defended right-wing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, who allegedly shot two people to death during an altercation in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
At the same time, Trump is happy to give clemency to his own criminal associates, such as convicted felon Roger Stone, and Barr ordered the Justice Department to drop charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn—who had already pleaded guilty to them—a highly unusual move that prompted 2,000 former Department of Justice employees to sign an open letter warning that Barr had once again “assaulted the rule of law.”
Make no mistake: There are two legal systems in Trump’s America. One is for the president and his cronies, and the other is for suckers like you. The same way it is in other autocracies.
8. Really rigging the system.
When someone such as David Brooks of the New York Times writes a column telling you to prepare to participate in a massive campaign of civil disobedience following the November election, you know that we’re in serious trouble. And there’s nothing subtle about it: Trump has made it abundantly clear that he will do everything in his power to rig the election in his favor. He has no choice: Unemployment is high, evictions are increasing, deficits are soaring, the trade deficits he promised to fix are still there, and his administration’s bungled response to the pandemic that Trump kept denying will have killed roughly 200,000 Americans by Election Day, even as many other countries have managed to turn the corner and move back closer to normal life. Now there’s a record to run on!
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9. Fearmongering.
What to do you when you’re trailing in the polls, you have no idea how to get people back to work, and you can’t get the pandemic under control? Simple: Try to scare people about something else. Just as Trump ran for office in 2016 offering wild-eyed and irresponsible claims about Muslims, Mexican “rapists,” and other foreign dangers, this time around he’s working overtime to convince voters that the United States’ cities are in flames and that angry mobs of nonwhite people are heading for the suburbs to seize homes and destroy their entire way of life. When Trump’s inaugural address in January 2017 warned of “American carnage,” what we failed to realize that he was really telling us what he intended accomplish as president.
At the same time, he is trying to convince people that Biden is somehow both too tired to be president (he isn’t) and at the same time a dangerous amalgam of Malcolm X, the Red Army Faction, and the Zodiac Killer. It’s a transparent and desperate ploy—especially given that crime rates are still at historically low levels—but Trump’s lies have worked for him before.
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10. Demonizing the opposition.
This warning sign is a classic authoritarian move, and it’s closely related to No. 9. As his attacks on the media illustrate, it’s been a key part of Trump’s playbook throughout his political career. In Trump’s world, one cannot imagine legitimate differences between equally patriotic and responsible Americans, the sort of honest disagreements that democratic systems exist to accommodate and reconcile. You are either with him, or you are evil, insane, crazy, nasty, a traitor, et cetera. Of course, as many have noted, the most revealing windows into Trump’s own character are the accusations he routinely levels at others.
As his political fortunes sink, this tendency is getting worse too. Case in point: His demagogic speech at Mount Rushmore on Independence Day. Along with some standard Fourth of July boilerplate about the Founding Fathers and the War of Independence, Trump used the occasion to lambaste “angry mobs” defacing “sacred memorials,” accusing opponents of trying to “unleash a wave of violent crime,” representing “totalitarianism” and “far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.” His wild accusations had little or no basis in fact, and the speech made no attempt to bring the American people together in the face of the many challenges they are facing today. But when your best hope is to convince enough voters that that other side is even worse than you are (which would be saying something), then making up scary stories is what we have to expect.
This is where we are today. After more than three and a half years in office, Trump continues to exhibit all 10 of my warning signs of democratic collapse. On several of them he’s gotten worse over time. There’s no reason whatsoever to believe that reelection would suddenly instill in this congenitally dishonest and self-centered narcissist a new commitment to the core principles of U.S. democracy. On the contrary, it will only reinforce his belief that he can get away with just about anything. How about a third term, suckers? Maybe Ivanka Trump can run in 2028 and we’ll rig that for her too. Can you honestly think of any law or norm he wouldn’t break if he thought it would be to his benefit and that he wouldn’t get stopped? Which members of today’s Republican Party would suddenly grow some vertebrae and try to stop him?
I didn’t used to be an alarmist, but when a president and his administration break some laws with impunity, there is no reason to believe they won’t break bigger ones if they think they can get away with it. But heed well what this really means. At that point, every one of us—including those who might have voted for him—becomes vulnerable to whatever they want to do. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is at stake come November.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/08...ction-edition/
Bend over and I'll show you tator
10 ways OP is becoming an asylum inmate
hater defending Trump again, because he knows he’s destroying the country he hates most
called it
You still inhaling pulled pork sandwiches into that watermelon sized gourd of yours? Still living 9 in a 2 bedroom apt?
he and spurshomer are the only liberals here who legit have tds
We should all relax, because the Repug party is fully against, screaming loudly against autocratic Trumpism
j/k
The oligarchy, SCOTUS5, Repug party, the rabid cult mob of the 40%+ Trash approval, simply, blatantly want America to be an oppressive, miltarized autocracy, ruled by plutocratic assholes, financed by the oligarchy.
It's very dangerous times, America on the precipice and will go over the edge if Trash wins.
By THE ING WAY,
autocratic, unCons utional, anti-democratic Trumpist fascism will continue if Trash loses.
Trump did not create Trumpism, he exploited it.
Its an opinion from foreign policy and legit imo.
And hater classifying people is hilarious.
Tell us why you worship Putin and Assad hater.
go ahead.
Lolol
You and wrongdomGuy
Option from person who supported the iraq war?
Its an opinion article re .
I agree with the author on most of it.
tough tomatillo sauce
Option?
What?
The posts by CULTISTS following the OP'S POST -
are just CONFIRMATION that Trump will succeed even further in his destruction of this country.
#11 - 62 million CULTISTS like the ones posting above - have given this criminal a chance to succeed.
Thanks CULTISTS.
What does your little green Prius think?
Why do you project your own failings onto others? You’re the one that’s 5’5 and 360.
How fascism works:
Watch expert explain how Trump fuels racist violence and chaos
Jason Stanley, Yale philosopher and scholar of propaganda,
author of “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.”
Stanley says Trump built a cult of personality within the Republican Party,
as evident during the Republican National Convention,
and has moved the United States steadily into authoritarianism during his term.
“Fascism is a cult of the leader who promises national restoration
in the face of supposed threats
by leftist radicals,
minorities and
immigrants.
He promises only he can save us,” Stanley says.
“In the RNC, what we saw is we saw a cult of the leader.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/how-fascism-works-watch-expert-explain-how-trump-fuels-racist-violence-and-chaos/
Pretty sure your stained Hanes 4x tee hasn't touched your belt in years.
Give us another picture
Pretty please
(shrugs)
Simple minded answer to a complicated question.
About all you are capable of.
"wrongdomguy" that is actually sort of clever. Props.
Why is it, that for the last 3+ years, everything is one mans fault?? At what point in time did this country become a 'one man show'?? Since when is the Executive Branch fully responsible for the running of this country? Why is it that for the last 3+ years not one of the 535 politicians who make up the Legislative Branch have a say or responsibility towards this country. Funny on the LEFT before the 2016 election swore that Trump would destroy this country and turn this into a monarchy government, and all these idiots keep blaming him as if that did happen!!
Use your words, gerbilducks
RandomCuck making a punching bag thread.
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