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Not Fidel Castro. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
A giant landfill of words has been dumped out on the subject of Donald Trump. I hate to add to the pile, but I feel I must. Unlike most participants in this industrial disaster, though, I have no wish either to praise Trump or to bury him. What I want is clarity.
The word most often associated with Trump is “authoritarian”. From the New York Times, Atlantic and Economist to the Guardian, Vanity Fair and Politico, we are told, with ritual repetition, that Trump is the second coming of Hitler or Mussolini, an aspiring dictator eager to herd his opponents into the great American gulag. Naturally, people panic. I want to calm them down. Using as few words as possible, I’m going to show that the combination of Trump and authoritarianism is an impossibility.
What’s an authoritarian, anyway? The word is squishy. It can mean someone who likes to have his own way or someone who compels you to do things his way. Since we’re dealing with extreme emotions, I’m going with a hardline definition: an authoritarian, let’s say, is an actual or would-be dictator.
If you expect to become an authoritarian, you have to wield absolute control over a key institution of government such as the military (Franco, Peron, Pinochet) or a mass movement with a paramilitary wing (Lenin, Mussolini, Mao). Neither condition applies to Trump. Every federal institution is set ferociously against him. What would happen if Trump ordered the FBI or the 101st Airborne Division to start shooting Democrats? Homeric laughter would happen. And if Trump is training a militia somewhere off the 18th hole at Mar-a-Lago, not even the Times has heard about it.
The conservative establishment has, on occasion, co-opted an authoritarian as a bulwark against the Left. That was Hitler’s bridge to power. But the Republican and conservative elites here ran shrieking for the door the moment Trump won the nomination in 2016. They coined the term “Never-Trumper”: when it comes to the presidency, they prefer the entire population of the United States ahead of the evil Orange Man.
What kind of a person becomes an authoritarian? Well, it may look like fun, but authoritarianism is really hard work. You need to be in the prime of life, in your 30s or 40s (Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Mao, Castro). Very rarely, an exceptional person such Caesar is granted literal dictatorship (the Romans invented the whole idea) in his early 50s. In a clear case of ageism, however, no septuagenarian has ever been offered the job.
The authoritarian personality favours clever manipulations and conspiracies. Best in class was Stalin, who held the purely administrative job of First Party Secretary but seized total power by seeding loyalists everywhere. Trump, who was a builder of buildings, a task with a beginning and an end, can scarcely think ahead from breakfast to lunch. This is a life playing out at the Short Attention Span Theatre.
Trump never dealt with a permanent bureaucracy before his election. Far from being a Machiavellian, he proved to be something of a simpleton — or if we want to be kind, a naif — who was constantly tripped up and outmanoeuvred by his own bureaucrats. Even if you are one of the 10 humans on earth who still believe the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian hack, you have to admit that failure to kill that narrative reflects poorly on Trump’s conspiratorial skills.
Still, I know what some political depressives will be thinking — and they’re wrong. January 6 was not an insurgency aiming to install Trump as Chief Authoritarian. In an insurgency, people with guns shoot at each other and lots of them die. In the firefight to convert Augusto Pinochet into El Supremo, 3,000 Chileans died. That’s an insurgency. On January 6, only one person died — a young woman who was shot by a Capitol policeman while trying to break through a door into the House chamber. She was unarmed, as was the rest of the trespassing mob. There’s no such thing as an unarmed insurgency.
What else can I say to reassure the fretful? Shall we talk about the Trump rhetoric? To borrow a phrase from Hillary Clinton, Trump should be sent to a reeducation camp run by Miss Manners, no question about it. But we’re talking about authoritarianism here. Now, both as a kid in Cuba and in my professional life, I had the pleasure of sitting through entire Fidel Castro speeches. I mean, I served freedom by deciphering every cough and mumble that bearded authoritarian could utter in a four-hour tirade. And say what you will about Trump’s rhetoric, you can be sure of this: he’s no Fidel Castro.
You won’t hurt Trump by calling him an authoritarian. He’s like one of those bull elephant seals, covered with a hide inches thick and full of scars. “Authoritarianism” won’t even reach his sensory apparatus. But tens of millions of Americans voted for the man. If you insist that Trump is an authoritarian, if you continue to maintain that he’s the greatest threat ever to our democracy, then you’re portraying these voters as goose-stepping bigots — and you know full well that they’re not. They’re your family, friends, and neighbours. People in those categories may not be as reliably helpful as, say, a good dog, but only rarely are they involved in overthrowing constitutional norms.
So relax. Trump is too old, too isolated, and too ADD to have a shot at dictatorship — and if he tried, the result would be comedy rather than tyranny. You still want to join the ranks of the anti-Trump resistance? Hey, that’s wonderful. You want to do battle against authoritarianism? I’m there with you. Just don’t mix up the two. I promise it will make you clearer of mind and healthier of body, and it will free us to begin to call our politicians by those vile names that actually fit.
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SubscribeAnti-Trumpism is probably more of a threat to democracy than Trumpism.
We’re in a magical world right now where everything is fascism except worshiping state authority and merging state and corporate power.
Yes, it’s clever how they rearranged the furniture on that. I’m often lectured to by those who believe unfettered government leads to greater personal freedoms.
Doesn’t “unfettered government” more accurately describe the Soviet Union and its sucessor tyranny? If there are those your circle who lecture you on that subject, directly find new tutors.
Unfettered capitalism is taking us down the road to feudalism and wage slavery. We don’t have to go the way of the Dictatorship of the Proletariate. I distrust putting too much power (power corrupts) in corporate hands or in the government. China, though, has been impressive and I recently read that Kerala in India, with aCommunist government is the richest part of the country. The Scandinavians seem to be doing the best. True believers are dangerous whether in Capitalism, Communism, religion or our people uber alles.
Newspeak is upon us.
I actually cackled at the absurd truth of your comment. Impeccably delivered.
Which is the very definition of fascism
Strip the laundry list of things political science “majors” haphazardly slap on it (often contradictory) and that is the core of the ideology. I mean Mussolini might have been a power seeking kook who jumped between every single point of the political compass over a few short years, but he did write it down.
Which is, of course, why Matt Hindman wrote that.
I’m legitimately more worried about the insane response from leftists and the overall establishment if we get another Trump presidency than I am of anything Trump might do. They will use the supposed threat of him to shore up even more support and acquiescence and roll over more of our rights. The left feel very close to becoming full blown authoritarian themselves
Yeah? What right are those?
I agree the leftists are a huge threat. Here’s the problem: Trump would also be a threat if, as the article points out, he was actually competent. Trump himself said, “Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Leaving aside the delusional “Massive Fraud”, calling for himself to be fiated into office (or have a new election) notwithstanding “all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” is simply wack-job nuts and clearly authoritarian. The greater problem is: the Progressives and the Trumpists own the primaries. Both are small minority viewpoints in America with grossly outsized bullhorns. As a result, we get bomb throwers from both extremes who think name-calling is high level policy discussion. For conservatives, even Trumpists, Trump is a horrible choice to lead the Republican ticket. He polls well now, but as the electorate becomes more focused, the lefties will flood the airways with his own (really stupid) words and likely put Biden back in office. Please remember, the senate is Democrat because Trump got his feelings hurt in GA and told his people to boycott the senate election. Thanks Donald!
Does the same degree of delusion apply to all the democrats who called foul over their elections, too? The difference is that the largely un-activist right agreed with Trump, whereas the largely activist left didn’t seem so worked up over their candidate’s claims. From AL Gore, Hillary and onward….
“with his own (really stupid) words”. Give me one or two quotes, fully and in context that you think are stupid. You are just completely taken in by the what the left say as opposed to checking for yourself. You might find the world a whole lot different.
And in an incredible twist of Mystification, the Left alleges that its own unhinged reaction to Trump is the fault of the Right. They’re saying, it’s not my fault that I’m acting like this, you made me like this!
It’s a majestic gaslight.
They have always been authoritarians.
It seems to me it has already turned America into an authoritarian state. One where the media and justice system are weaponised against your political opponents
Media is manipulated everywhere by powerful interests, directly and indirectly. Even here. Justice systems may be also. That’s not to say that Donald Trump has ever been subject to any kind of injustice whatever. If he’s spending a lot of time in court it’s because he’s has a lot of things to answer for.
Are you serious
Well they sure waited until they knew he was going to run to break out this new fancy idea of lawfare. Most everyone understands what is actually going on with this.
We should not worry about Trumpist Authoritarianism because it is a chimera, a fantasy nonsense cooked up by, er, authoritarians, whose idea of democracy’ is shutting down free speech and imprisoning their political rivals. Here are some neat parallels between Trump and Biden. Guess which are currently being prosecuted and which are ignored. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/topped-trump?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I think a sound case can be made that anti-Trumpism represents a greater threat to the American Constitutional order than Trumpism. But be that as it may, you must remember that when an American Democrat says “democracy”, especially in the phrase “our democracy”, he or she does not mean rule by the δῆμος, he or she means rule by Democrats, and Trumpism is indeed a threat to “democracy” in that usage of the word, while anti-Trumpism is not.
Don’t tell Margaret Sullivan. Another Washington Post and New York Times progressive shill went to The Guardian to exclaim that the press is failing because they have not adequately communicated “the dangers of a Trump win.” She is demanding more “threat to democracy™” articles to stop the orange man as if these papers do not run headlines 24/7 saying that exact thing. I would not call it an existential crisis to democracy but I would call it an existential crisis to them. Media sock puppets like Sullivan are supposed to tell everyone else what to think and the plebs are supposed to obey. If hardly anyone is listening to them anymore then something worse than the biggest hysteria of Trumpist totalitarianism has happened to them. They have ceased to be important.
The problem is that half the country still is listening to the Chicken Littles and believes that a second Trump administration would destroy our democracy™ — you know, just like he did the last time. But the unhinged fear mongering doesn’t quite have the same impact as it did eight years ago. Back then Trump was an unknown quantity as a politician. A blank canvas which the Left and the Uniparty could paint as the Antichrist bogeyman. Destroyer of worlds. Now that he has served a full term (in spite of the Deep State’s best efforts) we have an actual record. Rational and objective examination of that record proves that none of the dire end-of-days absolutely certain predictions which were spewed by the chattering classes ever came into being.
How many wars did Trump start vs. how many Middle East peace treaties he facilitated? How many international summits did he fall asleep at? How many times did he fall out of AF1 or simply standing on a podium? How much money has he and his family extorted or been bribed by from the CCP and corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs? How many untaxed foreign millions did any of his sons burn through on Russian hookers and meth? No double standards here, right?
The more they try and take him down the stronger he becomes. The stronger he becomes the more batshit crazy the fear mongering will become. The next 11 months are going to be one wild ride.
I think you’re sleep-walking – this is all baloney. 91 indictments…. 2 Impeachments. Conspiracy theorists like you don’t care about the truth – the only truth is your truth – and that depends on what crackpots you’ve been listening to. Wakey-wakey – there are far more worthy GOP candidates out there – why does it have to be the aged corrupt orange moron-baby?
How come the above poster has 32 plus votes and you have 2 minus? What does that tell you about the popularity of your respective decisions? Now clearly popularity on its own does not define factual reality, but it is the bedrock of a democratic society. What does it say that far, far more people like the idea of Trump than like your Trump-bashing? As a believer in democracy (I’m assuming), surely you respect the will of the majority, and are big and wise enough to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself “How did I get it so wrong?”, when the public has clearly rejected your worldview?
I’m as conservative as it gets, but that’s a crazy argument. First of all, Unherd comment section is not the public. I mean just look at the name of the website. More importantly, there’s so little correlation between popularity and truth, it might actually be an inverse relationship. Remember – Covid hysteria was popular, slavery was popular, The Last Jedi made well over a billion dollars, etc…
Fair. But, Unherd is not a “Conservative Outlet” unless the new definition of Conservative is anyone that promotes people with opposing viewpoints to engage in a battle of ideas.
The Left has dug themselves into a massive intellectual hole because of their excessive smugness and inability to question their own bias. The Left is projecting and the more informed the community, the more apparent that projection has become.
So you’re correct that Up/Down Votes are not proof that an argument is correct…but Rebirth is correct that it does appear to be solid evidence that the Left is intellectually flailing where opposing viewpoints actually clash in highly educated spaces…despite the fact that “high education” is reportedly a trait of Progressivism…at least according to the mainstream media talking heads.
“91 indictments…. 2 Impeachments.”
And ZERO convictions, thus proving the conspiracy theorists correct! SMH.
I think many people would love anyone but trump and Biden but the insanity of the American system is at work here.
The 91 indictments are really there specifically so prior can make comments like you’ve made. The CONTENT of the indictments ranges from the mostly irrelevant (Trump’s payments to the porn lady) to the absurd (the current fraud trial in which the supposedly defrauded banks from 30 years ago testified that they did their own due diligence and do not see any issue). I don’t think a sane person on the planet can suggest trump doesn’t honestly think he won the election so that’s a whole additional lot wiped it out.
For years, the Left and Never-Trump factions told us they had to be so vicious because of a profound moral objection to Trump. But it turns out, it never had anything to do with Trump. He was just a convenient scapegoat and no different than any Republican or Democrat (RFK Jr) not pre-selected by the Donor Class.
The People railing on about “Saving Democracy” don’t believe Political candidates should be allowed to come from outside approved donor circles. They want to hand-select the public’s options to create “guardrails” on acceptable viewpoints instead of just letting the public decide for themselves. Since they fear the public will make the wrong decision, they make it nearly impossible for any out of the box candidate to succeed.
The idea of preventing Democracy to Save Democracy is obvious cognitive dissonance at the very least.
I understand this narrative, although it verges on conspiratorial. The same applied to Bernie Sanders. Somehow the candidates need to be chosen by somebody, don’t they? Can you actually have anything resembling a pure democracy in a modern state?
Well, maybe.
It’s early days yet but look at panocracy.net or panocracy.substack.com/p/panocracy
I think you might be confusing Pure Democracy with Direct Democracy. Its easy to do. Direct Democracy is an implausible Utopian pipe dream where everybody votes on everything. We have a Representative Democracy where the decisions of individual Representative reflects the will of the people.
You’re right that the public’s representative options have generally been bracketed by an enlightened Aristocracy. But the Aristocracy hasn’t historically operated like a Politburo. In a Free Country, candidates need to be able to run obstructed campaigns. If those who oppose them can’t make compelling public arguments than the candidate should be allowed to succeed. That is how everyone understands Representative Democracy to work.
Correction. I can’t edit. They need to be able to Run “unobstructed campaigns.”
No, you were (unintentionally) correct. They need to be able to run “obstructed” campaigns, and win!
Both direct and representative Democracy still depend on informed voters understanding their choices and hopefully voting in both theirs and the nation’s best interests.
What we have today is a functionally illiterate society with its collective head buried in mindless TikTok videos, wandering around staring into their phones totally oblivious to what’s really happening. Then they vote for whomever the MSM tells them to.
Not sure we even have Representative Democracy; when we have presidential vetoes and executive orders.
This is probably the best, and pithiest, summation of what is wrong with the Left.
T Bone’s summation is not unidirectional, but applicable to any non-establishment candidate that develops in to a real threat to win the nomination. Trump’s outsider success was an anomaly that succeeded partly because of his nasty charisma and terrible opponent in the general election.
It may be a long time before another outsider candidate becomes president, but I hope we see a follow-up soon. Not Trump Part 2 but someone who’s a real consensus builder and sensible reformer–not a chaos courting revolutionary or world-class egomaniac.
If you blame Trump, it means that the Administrative State, DNC and MSM’s messaging have won; bring on the Dictators.
Yet you have no fear of the volatile clown who announces intended authoritarian policies, such as a State weaponized for personal retribution and martial law in “enemy” cities. With whatever level of sincerity or determination. Who knows with this bloated buffoon? But only on his first day, he re-assures us, in conversation with his gushing fanboy Sean Hannity.
Even putting all that aide, can’t you admit that Trump is a mean, low, and selfish person, on a scale that outdoes any other recent president?
Despite the influence of his vicious KKK-sympathizing father Fred, I do think Donald takes the ultimate blame for how bad he’s become.
That doesn’t mean I love having an always mediocre and now elderly Joe Biden as the other choice. Viable third party now!
Question begging. Just what ‘preventing Democracy’ are you talking about here?
In 1963 I sat as a ‘Senator’ in the American Legion Boys’ Nation. We debated the reform of electoral funding then before Congress. That reform remains to be achieved and America needs it more than ever.
The best way to prevent Democracy is to charge the leader of the opposition party for “crimes” the last 2 leaders of the party in power also committed but were brushed off as not significant.
Exactly. The DNC needs save democracy by forcing Bernie Sanders out of a potentially successful primary run, they need to save democracy by flipping around primary and caucus dates to stop Biden taking a hit, they need to save democracy by cancelling primaries (Florida). The Democrats need to ensure democracy by pressuring JFK Jr to drop out and refusing him security protection despite threats to his life, by impeaching Trump on spurious claims, by claiming that Trump is was not legitimately elected due to Russian interference, by claiming George W Bush was not a legitimate president and that the election was stolen from Gore, by claiming Stacey Abrams had her election victory stolen from her and she was rightly elected. The Democrats need to save Democracy by packing the Supreme Court. After Clinton’s loss to Trump it was urgent that the US re-evaluate the way presidents are elected (she won the popular vote!!) to ensure the most correct (democratic) outcome. They need to save democracy by ensuring those domestic terrorists, other people call ‘parents’ are hounded if they speak up at school board meetings. Etc, etc, etc…
Bang. Bang. Bang. That’s the sound of the regime media hammering the last nails into their own coffin. This hysterical nonsense is nothing more than temper tantrums by entitled imbeciles. I do find it puzzling though that all this hysteria is happening at the same time.
We all know Trump isn’t overthrowing democracy. He has zero institutional power. In fact, the Democrats are a much bigger threat because they have captured all the institutions.
I never considered Trump’s age as a factor. Now that the author says it, this totally makes sense. What 80 year old is running around planning coups?
You better hope Trump never gets any institutional power back again. And it’s not smart to juxtapose him to the Democrats who are he main beneficiaries of his will to remain in public life. Drain the swamp, starting with that big Orange Lizard.
What exactly is Trump going to do? How will he overthrow democracy? What are the actual steps involved in this?
The unusualness is not that there is anti-Trump rhetoric about, but the seeming co-ordination of the messaging and timing among a set of usual suspects. “Authoritarian”, “dictator”, “threat to democracy” hits the headlines in multiple outlets, and in interviews with Liz Cheney, all at the same time. That smells like a PR offensive (it is Christmas book season) that has supposedly independent media co-ordinating to push a narrative.
And in many ways, that’s the problem. Prior to 2018 the Atlantic, NYT, Washington Post, NBC were treated as respected publications with serious and educated journalism – even if you disagreed with it. The Russia Collusion Hoax and the continual outbursts of TDS and mutual censorship has destroyed their credibility. They are one-block, shrill and irrelevant to most of the electorate. The publication of party talking points may help bolster the flagging enthusiasm for Biden among hard-line Democrats, but the fact it is messaging en bloc just increases the stench of establishmentarianism and one-eyed reporting, and yet they still don’t seem to understand this and continue to act like co-operating state media.
Near simultaneous media emissions are inept as they must depend on material furnished from behind the scenes. As we saw over and over again re Ukraine and now see re Palestine.
It certainly does reek.
“What’s an authoritarian, anyway? The word is squishy. It can mean someone who likes to have his own way or someone who compels you to do things his way. Since we’re dealing with extreme emotions, I’m going with a hardline definition: an authoritarian, let’s say, is an actual or would-be dictator.”
I am not a Trump supporter and do not want him to be America’s next president, but I nonetheless think that if he does, he’ll be an improvement on the utterly useless Biden administration. Donald Trump is not a good politician, but he is nowhere close to any of the characterisations regularly regurgitated by the histrionic and entitled Liberal-left.
What is truly absurd here is that the people describing Trump as authoritarian are the same people who are happy to see destroyed the careers of people who publicly disagree with radical transgender ideology, or who reject critical race theory. Donald Trump has more faults than almost any other mainstream political figure imaginable but FFS, he at least doesn’t sink as low as that. Trump believes in free speech and proves it. Nobody unwilling or unable to equal that distinction has any right to criticise him in this context.
Evidence for your ‘same people as’ assertion? There’s plenty of a scope for people to have had enough of Trump and think whatever about anything else. Don’t force exclusive polarities.
Real authority is the last thing we should fear. Anyone who resorts to violence only proves how little authority he really has. To speak with authority one must know the truth. Few would accuse Pres. Trump of having a great deal of that kind of knowledge. But he is Plato himself, compared to, say, Pres. Biden.
I like my federal administrations incompetent and lazy. If you’re counting levels of government I think the feds should be valued at 0.01. A trump presidency comes as close as possible to the ideal. He’s got my vote.
At this point I would almost settle for a liberal Democrat, but they’ve been obliterated by Progressives, who are explicitly illiberal.
Trump is a fairly poor excuse for a gentleman, and is at best a likable rogue. I would take him as president in about half a heartbeat over any leading Democrat.
The good folks at the New York Times, WAPO, Atlantic, Economist, Vox, Guardian, Vanity Fair, Politic and the DNC need to get back on their meds – or at least start drinking scotch whiskey in large tumblers. They have gone off the deep end; their alarmism is having the opposite effect they desire: A group of my friends, all VERY progressive, take the left media’s desperate screeching as proof positive that Biden is going to lose. They are despondent to the point of saying they may vote for Trump to “get it over with”. I kid you not.
The authoritarianism on display is in the left wing institutions of the media listed above but far worse is the mindset of those in charge of the major Government departments. You can change the politicians and being sensible ignore the journalists but how can you change these so called civil servants who are allowed to be under the radar but do not implement or obstruct the change required by moderate right wing policies?
They need to be fired. This kind of thinking has infiltrated its way to the top levels of federal agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and the military. I think it more likely that authoritarianism will be implemented by such organizations than a figure like Trump.
The problem with Trump is that he hasn’t; got the backbone to do any of that. He’s rolled over at every turn.
Trump was a noob in 2016. But no one else had the courage to run against the entire establishment machine.
However, I don’t actually believe Trump can become President, because the deep state won’t allow it. The DOJ has already been perverted to indict him on every possible misdemeanor and crime, putting Putin’s Russia to shame. (They haven’t got the gall to just poison him, but it’s the same thing.)
No, it will be a full-blown constitutional crisis if Trump somehow overcomes all the 2024 electoral fraud to get enough votes to win the Electoral College. I mean, if this is the tone of the election period now (“second coming of Hitler”) what will the Establishment do when faced with a Trump victory.
I think it could look like the French Revolution – blood on the streets. Not because of Trump, but because there is no way that the Democrats are letting go of power.
It’s not about Trump. Every Republican candidate, including George W Bush and even Mitt Romney has been portrayed as Hitler. Hysteria is what the Left does. Because they can never win the battle of ideas.
You have to ask – who is the greatest threat to Democracy? The current Democrat administration, the media barons, big tech, and the deep state behind it.
Mostly agree. But If somehow Trump wins in 2024 the Democrats WILL let him take power. There is no need to stop that action. The leftists control the deep state, the courts, major media, most corporations and will probably control at least half of Congress. Civil service laws and the courts would block efforts to drain the swamp. No legislation that might help prevent the ongoing slide into a LEFTIST authoritarian state would pass. Idealogues are patient when need be.
I dont understand why you’re getting downvoted. He proved during his first term that he doesn’t have any backbone in regard to draining the Swamp at least, which he ran on and did virtually nothing about. With one stroke of his pen could have, theoretically, closed any agency that reports to the leader of the Executive Branch–n.b., all of them do! That’s likely the “authoritarianism” that so frightens the Left–a President that actually does his job! But they needn’t worry, Trump is no Javier Milei.
This is true
Just more than anybody else; but it may not be sufficient.
You see? A nice example of pro Trump authoritarianism there.
Typical Democrat.
Being ruled by a vast bureaucracy filled with people in lockstep to a certain political ideology, a bureaucracy extended and entrenched every time members of that political ideology win an election, is democratic.
A politician being elected by the people and then having the implementation of the platform he/she was elected upon being thwarted by the unelected bureaucracy who represent the people who just lost the election, is democratic.
Left wing institutions of the media?? Where does one stand to say that?
A good start is to decentralize the bureaucracy. Move large swathes of these people to Montana or Idaho or wherever. If they refuse to go, see ya later.
Better yet send them packing. Nearly every Federal agency duplicates ones in every state. Besides national defense and Social Security, leave their functions to the States.
Take an axe to their numbers.
Two women died at the capitol protest. Cops beat Rosanne Boyland and pushed a crowd of other protesters on top of her, crushing her to death.
Well said, not to be forgotten. Others died and were physically and psychologically maimed for life.
It’s funny to read an unusually honest article about President Trump in the media but it’s got to have at least few snide asides to satisfy the diehard haters too. Newsflash: President Trump was never an “Orwellian police state fascist murdering liar”. He was the first President in my lifetime to actually speak to all of us and include us in his plans. Think about it. When is the last time you heard any candidate or office holder actually speak to you, rather than giving a speech? (or, in the case of Joe Biden, read badly from his teleprompter?) Despite all of the Poison Press and the antiTrump assassins, he is the closest thing to an honest man that we have ever had in that office or maybe any office.
This putz seems to think that Trump doesn’t use an autocue, amongst other inanities.
Lord have mercy.
Let’s count the authoritarian actions that Trump took his first term. Remember when he removed the heads of the FBI, DOJ, EPA,etc.? Oh yeah, that didnt happen. Remember when he attacked the Deep State and shut down all those agencies? Oh yeah, that didnt happen either, although he talked about doing so. Maybe the fear is this time he’ll actually do it? I wouldn’t worry. I think hes always been all bluster and hot air. It worked for him in business, on television and, if not for Covid, would have worked for him as President.
I think after all the tribulations Trump has been made to suffer in recent years, he will go after them with a vengeance.
“I think after all the tribulations Trump has been made to suffer in recent years, he will go after them with a vengeance”
Then he should run on it. He won the first time bc we’re all sick of government as usual. Problem is he didnt do it the first time so who would really believe him?
He brought his “tribulations” on himself. He’s far ffrom being a victim.
True, but he’s done no worse than the presidents that went before him. However, ever since he started his presidency in 2016, he’s been endlessly targeted by a rabid media machine, and now by a law system that has been weaponized to target political enemies. So much so that voters across both sides of the aisle are losing faith in the very public and political institutions that are supposed to protect them.
I hope so. Thay deserve it.
The Trump-hysteria on the Left is entirely in keeping with the junior-high level emotionalism they bring to every issue, although there is a streak of intentional panic-mongering there as well. Wait until he wins. The screaming and rending of garments will make the “resistance” riots after 2016 look like Sunday School picnics.
Far be it from me to quote the Bible, but there’s a phrase in there that sums this up:
“Wailing and gnashing of teeth”
The author skates over the all-powerful alliance that would make him ineffectual again in a second term: the intelligence establishment, the corporate/plutocratic media. the miltary industrial complex, Wall Street, the permanent deep state (90% Democrat), Hollywood, etc, etc.
You might want to loosen the tinfoil hat just a little, Jerry!
It’s not Trump the left fear it’s good old fashioned honest America with Mom and Pop, pickup trucks and private enterprise. Like Farage here, Trump lives rent free in diseased Democrat heads.
All we are witnessing is Democratic (party) projectionism and gas-lighting, get use to it, they have nothing else to offer.
We’re witnessing the self-proclaimed “I am a stable genius” versus the self-proclaimed “I am a moral genius.” But neither are either.
It’s used not use.
Very sweet of you. I am speaking in the present tense not the past.
A great article; I really enjoyed it. Didn’t think they had smart people in teh CIA 🙂
Trump 2024.
There most definitely was a conspiracy involved in the promotion of Trump to the Presidency. The trouble for the ‘Resistance’ is that it was instigated and carried out by their patrons. They actively promoted him as a viable GoP candidate during the Primaries and did all they could to force the whole lot of them rightwards. This, they called, the ‘Pied Piper Strategy’ the proof came from the Podesta emails. Anything that the ghastly sociopath Hilary Clinton ever says about him should be seen in this context.
https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/
A tactic they returned to before the 2022 midterms when they boosted Trumpist Republicans over more moderate ones in the primary races. They felt (usually correctly) they would be easier for the Democrats to beat in the 2022 elections.
Gotta love the hypocrisy of the Dems – MAGA is an existential threat to democracy so let’s spend $10 mill supporting the most MAGA candidates in the Republican primaries.
My take away was not that the author meant to say that Trump was/is good, bad, or indifferent. Rather to illustrate the absurdity of the current trend of word-baiting to whip up emotions and knee jerk tribalism, as opposed to having thoughtful and meaningful discussion on the pros and cons of candidates.
Precisely. I agree with every word you have written. I have noticed for some time that language is no longer used to promote exchange, communicate or even convince people with arguments and facts, but rather to agitate and to whip one’s supporters into a frenzy. My reaction to this is the complete refusal to engage in “debates” with individuals who foam at the mouth at the idea of being challenged. I suppose it’s a form of voluntary exile.
As an American, I don’t fear Trump will be a dictator. I fear his erratic nature having the power to start a world war. The older he gets, the more I can see him saying, “Well, if I’m going to die, that’s the end of the world anyway – might as well take everyone with me.”
I agree that this hysterical reports of a Trump dictatorship are just that – hysteria. They are politically motivated by liberal leaning news sources to attempt to scare voters to the polls. And I am a lifelong registered Democrat, though I will probably change my registration to Independent after this election. I want to vote in the primaries this round.
The real government control I see is coming from the far left and far right elements of both parties – from the total restriction on abortions in some states to the elimination of women’s single sex spaces, women’s sports – all women’s sex-based rights in others. The push for gender ideology against parental wishes is government control. The state is overtaking parents’ rights in raising their children. School is becoming an indoctrination center, rather than an educational institution. People are losing jobs for stating that there are biological men and women, and that can’t change. This is the dictatorship I see.
” I fear his erratic nature having the power to start a world war”
The Democrats seemed pretty worried about Trump starting WWII back in 2016. Funnily enough, with Biden in charge telegraphing weakness to every dictator and jihadist out there, we are closer than we have been. Afghanistan, Ukraine, October 7th and probably Taiwan soon… all happening on Biden’s watch.
Both you and Samantha appear to be in the right. Which is no paradox.
Nothing invites aggression more than weakness. Biden’s Afghanistan debacle proclaimed to the entire world his feckless imbecility. Everything that’s happened since stems from the message his idiocy proclaimed unmistakably to the world.
“I fear his erratic nature having the power to start a world war.”
Biden mishhandling and stumbling into multiple wars is definitely preferable to Trump negotiating tha Abraham Accord and ending conflicts started by his predecessors…
Exactly.
Yet when Iran retaliated and bombed a US air force base after the assassination of Soleimani, Trump – instead of reacting as you suggest – just shrugged and said, ok they’ve saved face now, this is over. That is a leader who will avoid war not invite it.
Meanwhile under Biden, Russian rolled into Ukraine, Hamas into Israel and there is war, war and more war. At what point do you look at the evidence a weak, indecisive president emboldens bad actors and a strong, decisive one like Trump has Putin, N. Korea and the rest too afraid of the consequences to do anything?
Trump is the archetype of the heel in professional wrestling, a sport he was once involved in. He’s the villain who divides the audience. For some reason, people can’t see that, and invest far too much in fearing the character or seeing him as a savior.
I doubt very much that he would stray very much from his first presidency. Perhaps be a little more careful in his appointments.
So a complete embarrassment all around then?
The best four years the USA have had in quite awhile. Good economy, low unemployment, no wars, moving towards a solid peace in the ME, containment of Russia,China, NK and Iran, getting immigration under control. What more could you ask for WW111?
I think many of us understand that we are now in crisis mode for much of the west.
Well done – the piece sets out to do what you aimed, and entertainingly. I like that you take the anti-trumpers on their word that they think he wants to be a dictator – but their rhetoric is unserious posing. The problem with the right now is that nobody means anything they say.
It’s more that he’s a weak man, craving approval and validation, such that he’s liable to do anything at all.
Yet he clearly also has great strength, in being brave enough to call things as they are and not caring what people he criticizes think, and enduring their relentless criticism. Which is the attraction of, say, the late great comedian Barry Humphries, who called out the woke fiasco in spades.
Another strength of his is also a classic weakness, which is the paradoxical strength and weakness of a bully and cynic. To love this man you have to believe genuine service to society or to the military or to anyone who pushes back or gets in your way is merely a myth. Classic sociopathic outlook.
Combine those strengths / weaknesses with nuclear power, and “BAM!” I’d call that a risk, as did the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. But we know better than he did, right? Because we were there? Okay. That’s not narcissistic of us at all.
We are not going to get Jesus Christ, but have to settle for what people think is the best person on the ballot. There is no doubt that he would be the best person on the ballot, the question is would the deep state allow him to win?
wow. What an unusual essay. Both entertaining and joyful. I think you’re onto something. And I love it.
Trump is not a potential dictator but he is a chaos agent. When the chaos reaches an unbearable level then the people will demand a real dictator. What form this will take is not known.
I agree that Trump is not the second coming of Hitler or Mussolini. Those two had coherent ideologies (as abhorrent as those ideologies were). Trump’s ideology is simply that of every narcissist – “It’s all about me”.
Exactly.
Some Democratic supporting media and politicians are calling Trump an ‘authoritarian’, ‘nazi’, ‘Hitler’ (MSNBC) to preemptively justify any actions that may be taken to orchestrate a Democrat party victory. Actions may include election fraud, ballot harvesting, ballot destruction, even physical harm. Any actions would be justified to prevent Hitler from coming into power, wouldn’t they?
Let me propose a name for that constant re-sifting of the Trump kitty box which Gurri decries: “outrage porn.” Obsessive, prurient self-stimulation. (But also immensely self-gratifying.)
Very nicely written.
Thank you.
All politicians are bought and paid for, makes no difference who the President is and I have lived in the US through three of them.
It is a test, to see if the steampunk American constitution can hold up against a would be authoritarian better than parliamentary or Latin American constitutions. It was meant to, and I think it will.
Excellent summary.
An unusually question-begging and straw man obsessed tirade. Trump’s actions have repeatedly shown disrespect for the law and legal process, and he participated in an attempt to subvert electoral process and intimidate a rump Congress into maintaining him in power. That’s enough for me, my friends, family and in fact every American I know, including several who supported Trump in 2016.
Authoritarian and dictatorial can be made to mean many things. To say that Trump doesn’t fit some of them is beside the point. He’s proven extraordinarily willful, disrespectful of evidence and colaboratve processes of reasoned government as well as the rule of law. He does not understand or accept the idea of responsibility for his actions. ‘Responsibility? To Whom? Me?? Are you serious??’
Of course there are other threats to American Democracy. That’s no excuse for not exposing Trump to the criticism his record deserves.
Exactly.
Interesting points regarding the relative ages of the ‘authoritarians’. Got me thinking though that Trump’s age would be an asset were he actually to be anything other than a massive windbag (which sadly he isn’t).
Any step towards really ‘Draining the Swamp’, of restricting the three letter agencies and cleaning up US politics and society would much more easily be accomplished by someone who could stand up to the US blob and say ‘Do your worst – I’m 78’.
Trump won’t though, just like all the alternatives, he’s a coward and a fraud.
One can only hope he has a massive heart attack and dies before the election.
You really are a nasty piece of work! With a contribution like that how can anyone take you seriously?
Sounds like it is more likely to be you Clare
From across the pond I’m staggered at the complacency exhibited in the article and many of the subsequent comments – as if it’s okay he’d be a failure at authoritarianism so why not let the incompetent clown into the most powerful job in the world again – what more harm can he do? Let’s see:
stop funding Ukraine and see Putin massacre and ‘disappear’ the people of that democratic country and wipe it off the map – as a prelude to the next stage of his violent adventurism
Undermine NATO as a bulwark against tyranny and despotism
Reverse CO2 controls and massively expand oil and gas to line the pockets of his cronies, accelerating what is truly by far the world’s greatest crisis – climate change
Fill all key roles in government, the courts and law enforcement with obedient, servile, corrupt and crazy-stupid yes-men and women like MTG
Undermine national security by replacing diligent, intelligent generals and agents with crackpot hard right scabbard rattlers (and worse – warmongers)
Polarize the country like never before with partizan policies like the abortion fiasco
Generally make a laughing stock of the once respected USA in the eyes of the world – again…
Refuse to leave office in 2028 and engineer (possibly successfully this time) fraudulent elections to keep himself in power
I could go on… but if I were an American (I’d be a trad Republican) I’d be looking to nominate one of the mature, intelligent, capable alternatives – and one (a she) sticks out a mile … and not this corrupt, narcissistic, hideously stupid moron to be my President
This is a time of world crisis – not a 6 months goes by and some other ugly situation rears its head demanding cool heads and high intelligence from the US President.
And you think “well, it’ll be okay if Trump is in charge”
Are you all completely crazy over there these days?
As someone who lives in the US Thank you, well said.
So how do those four years compare with Biden’s three years?
So how does your comment on NATO compared to Pres. Trump trying to get NATO countries to increase there military expenditure (2%) to meet the NATO requirement? All your comments can be answered in the same vein. They are just not factual.
Bit delusional given that Trump presided over a peaceful world with Putin and Kim Jung Un barely raising a whimper, a booming stock market and economy, women in Afghanistan living a tolerable life, peace in the Middle East.
Fast forward to Biden and we have women in Afghanistan back under a medieval regime, brutal wars in Ukraine and Gaza, China more threatening by the minute, rampant US inflation for two years and a bizarre cult of woke ideology – revolving around gender and race – that threatens the very freedom of speech the US is founded upon.
Spin it all you want but facts are facts and people tend to notice them.
Trump is too disorganized and incompetent as well as lazy and short sighted to try to establish a dictatorship. He also doesn’t have the inclination to do so, because he’s he doesn’t want to kill the established order that benefits him, for him being supposedly against the established order of things, he himself is ultimately a product of that order of things. The only difference that sets him apart from everybody else in that world is his lack of tact born from low social and emotional intelligence and no impulse control, and a unwillingness to play by the unwritten rules due to impatience and an extreme sense of entitlement.
You’ve obviously read that book about how he learned to con people at golf while at Wharton. He’s moved on to bigger things since.
Except that he does already have a plan to dismantle democracy. It’s been documented.
Let’s take as narrow a possible definition of authoritarian and thereby prove that Trump is not an authoritarian. My 20 year old Merc is not a car because it doesn’t have air conditioning or parking sensors.
In the supposed land of freedom it is not appropriate to take only the broadest definition. Americans should be hyper sensitive to any authoritarian tendencies – questioning elections (on false pretences)? Packing the Court? Umpteen executive orders? Anti-woke whatever? The muslim ban? Didn’t he propose sending the military in against protestors??
I don’t really think “well he’s not Stalin, is he?” is really an argument against creeping authoritarianism. The Founding Fathers would have been ashamed of Trump and all around him.
In which case, they’d also be ashamed of JFK with his mafia and union links.
True.
The Founding Fathers would have been ashamed of most every president since Grover Cleveland. Well maybe not Harding and Coolidge. Possibly not Eisenhower…
Wrong. It’s not that Trump himself will become generalisimo. It’s not that Jan. 6 had any chance of success. The problem is that Trump very well could completely trash any hope of an orderly election. This will not lead to a Trumpist coup, it will lead to either anarchy or at least constitutional crisis, and in that crisis some genuine generalisimo could emerge.
Trump very well could completely trash any hope of an orderly election.
I would suspect the disorder would come from the defeated in Trump won.
A few thoughts – most of the people who voted for and followed Hitler weren’t soldiers but ordinary people – just like Americans in fact. And Trump may be an idiot but that doesn’t stop him being a useful front for others or stop him doing dangerous things. He is dangerous in the way Boris was dangerous in the UK – too lazy and incompetent to govern, too narcissistic to risk being shown up so he appoints only other fools. And we are left rudderless for years with a collapsing health, education and local government.
Too far out to be really convincing. Sure, Trump is no Lenin or Castro, that is hyperbole. But then, there are lots of things he is not, from mass murderer to paedophile. If we look at what he actually is, he would look reasonably realistic as an Erdogan or a Modi. Neither got to power through violence or coup, and both transformed their democracies into pretty much one-party states. As for being a threat to democracy, democracy does rely on some set of rules, and on the loser accepting that they lost. Someone with an open contempt for rules and a proven record of trying to subvert the result the the election is a threat, both for the actual changes he could make, and for the descent into vicious lawlessness that he would inspire – for both sides. Does anyone really want to be governed by a President with Trump’s total lack of restraint – if that President happens to be Alessandria Ocasio-Cortez?
To be sure, the bigger damage he could do would come from chaos, not design. As ‘O O’ (apparently pro-Trump) describes him, he is
“disorganized and incompetent as well as lazy and short sighted, of low social and emotional intelligence and no impulse control, [ruled by] impatience and an extreme sense of entitlement”.
It is hard to understand why so many people want to put this man into the most powerful position of the planet. Unless, like all radical revolutionaries, they simply want to destroy everything, in the hope that something better might rise from the ruins.
What a strangely false description for India’s best PM till date. I suggest you read Indian history better to know that the one time India was close to being a “one party dictatorship’ was under Indira Gandhi’s Emergency in 1975-77.
OK, you know more than I do – so maybe I should stick to examples I understand better. Admittedly Erdogan was a much better example than Modi. You may well be right that Indian politics were at least as unbalanced earlier as they are now. But as an occasional outside observer you notice about Modi that he was closely associated with anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, that he is trying to exclude opposition politicians from parliament, and that he is pushing India towards being an all-Hindu state – at some very obvious cost to non-Hindu groups. If he is the best Indian PM till date, one might at least ask ‘for whom?’. He is certainly not someone I would wish the government of my country, of of the US, to emulate.
Your queries themselves show bias and ignorance.You obviously have not visited India long enough recently but rely on narratives created by Western MSM and a shadowy bunch of disgruntled elements both within and external, to create falsehoods.
PM Modi rules after winning elections certainly run better than many Western countries.And thank goodness Indian democracy is not in the state in which the US is at present.
It is pointless trying to discuss India as of now with those whose knowledge is limited as well as patronizing.( Other than going off topic of course)
Try to read factual history of a Rankean variety instead of mouthing insults and propagating lies
I did give a longish reply which UH is possibly screening. Perhaps you are unaware that several States in India are ruled by Opposition parties; that the said politician ( a dynastic one of the Nehru dynasty) was under court orders of suspension after he insulted lower castes – casteism is a Constitutional offence under the Indian constitution. The rest of your comments are so obviously biased that I guess you are a Guardianista type who also believes in the existence of a ” Far Right”, ” white supremacists” ” Fascists” etc etc for anyone who doesn’t subscribe to globalist Progressivism.
I was hoping that as a knowledgable and pro-Modi person you might have given me your opinion on where i was wrong. I could even have learned something – it has been known – but it seems it is not to be. Are my comments factually wrong, or just lacking in context?
I am sorry if I couldn’t answer your queries. I tried to do so in the reply immediately above. At the risk of veering off- topic I would suggest to read more reliable sources on India as it is now than the echo chamber of Beeb, WAPO, NYT etc
These might help- the latter link from Claremont is probably one of the most balanced Western appraisals-
https://openthemagazine.com/columns/terms-of-endearment/
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/indias-uprising/
In summation, there is a wrong narrative in the Western MSM, which unfortunately is not countered very well for whatever reason.
India’s constitution was a stellar achievement in 1946-48, based on a mix of Westminster parliamentary democracy and the US constitution. There has been absolutely no deviation from it other than in 1975-77.
Many are perhaps not aware that Indian Muslims follow Sharia law, have layers of protection much greater than the majority community in terms of land ownership, control over their shrines etc
Even a recent Pew research Report shows that the trope of ” oppressed Muslims” is not correct.
I will await a more India centric piece here to comment more.
Thanks. Very convincing – even thought-provoking. I know a lot more now. And another time I shall not use Modi or India as a simple illustration of a point.
I am glad to be of help. I can also suggest Lance Price and Salvatore Babones on the events of contemporary India.
Any evidence for such a strange and improbablr assertion?
Start by visiting India instead of forming strange views based on prejudice.
Or just start by reading the two references SG sent me. They might change your mind – they changed mine·.
Lots of people think Trump is a horrible choice as the GOP candidate. It doesn’t mean they think he will somehow overthrow democracy.
It’s horrifying and incomprehensible to know there are so many stupid cult followers who would rather die than admit to being wrong.
So when Iran bombed a US Air Force base in response to the US assassination of their General Soleimani and Trump ordered no further retaliation that is not restraint? That is in fact the very definition of cool headed restraint, the absence of which would have led to war with Iran. Give me one example of Trumps supposed lack of restraint? actual actions not mere words (which are pure theater designed to keep him in the spotlight and confuse his enemies abroad) that took the US closer to war?
Maybe its because you have a nut case like Kash Patel saying the bad stuff out loud – a second Trump administration would “come after” the media and the fantasy “deep state”. And Patel has been suggested as head of the CIA. Insane.
Trump is of course ridiculous and his lieutenants are a shower of oddballs and losers but it seems that America may decide that is what they want rather than the competent administration of President Biden.
God help us all if they get their way….
Indeed god help us all
I would not call the Biden administration competent although I agree that Trump is ridiculous. I find it sad that this large country has nothing better to offer than Biden and Trump.
The economy is booming – far better than anything Trump pretended to achieve. Record low unemployment, record jobs growth and a strong recovery from the economic disaster that the last “administration” left behind.
What part of that don’t you like?
It is not a question of whether or not he would succeed but the damage done to the USA and the world, especially the US’s alliances like NATO, in the attempt.
The US’s standing in the world is already lower than it should be as a result of his Presidency – how can anyone respect a country which elects such a crooked, treasonous moron once? To do so twice would reduce it to a laughing stock and greatly strengthen the enemies of the Free World like China and Russia.
The USA’s loss of global prestige began under George Bush with the 2003 Iraq invasion and was then doubled-down upon by Barack Obama with a general withdrawal from superpower projection. Trump reversed a small amount of the damage done with his successful management of N Korea and the creation of the Abraham Accords, but also did further damage in other areas with his ill-timed signalling about NATO (which may have emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine). The Biden administration then really made a proper mess with its unbelievably-badly executed Afghanistan withdrawal, the subversion of the Abraham Accords by re-opening talks with Iran, it’s arrant incompetence in dealing with Putin prior to Feb 2022, and the Inflation Reduction Act which is a repeat of the same anti-trade protectionist mistakes that caused the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Anyone who blames only Trump in this respect is simply not on top of the facts.
No, Trump was feared by China and Russia. Biden and Obama not so much.
“Trump was feared by China and Russia”
How dumb are you? Trump was a lapdog to Xi and Putin and an utter humiliation for the US.
Proof?
Yes the hyperbole doesn’t help.
That said a Trump administration with likes of Michael Flynn National security advisor etc and other loons in key posts would set the US and the West back some way. However US Constitution shown it can stand up to ‘authoritarian’ threats and the House and Senate still have a majority of good sense.
The issue ought to be much more about Trump’s total self absorption and incompetence. He’ll be useless again and rapidly a lame duck, esp if Democrats take the House. Republicans got much more chance of sustainable change in the directions they prefer if they go with likes of Haley. But you know sometimes the tendency to elect the Dog to Student Union President to poke someone in the eye gets a momentum that has appeal… until the Dog actually has to start making decisions.
“Republicans got much more chance of sustainable change in the directions they prefer if they go with likes of Haley. ”
I’m sorry, but this lady seems to be just another creature of the military industrial complex, whose role it would be as president would be to ensure that the forever wars continue unabated, and maybe thrown in another one, for good measure.
Say what you like about Trump and his personal style, no new wars were started under his watch, and indeed some other bodies hitherto considered existential “threats” (North Korea, ISIS,…) seemed to fade away of become neutralized.
You may prefer to believe that this was pure luck. I don’t think so. In this light of this, you can see why so many of the US political class, especially those on the neo-con right, are lined up against him.
Flynn was the ‘loon’ who as head of the DIA went public with their assessments that US policies in the ME were creating the likes of ISIS a few years before they emerged. He was hated from then on – and ‘taken down’ with FBI smears and misrepresentations. Trump didn’t have the back bone to support him though – which is par for the course for him unfortunately.
Haley won’t change anything, she’s very much a creature of the system. She’s basically mitt Romney with breasts with a darker skin pigment, she gives off a passive-aggressive insincerity that members of the managerial class are notorious for. A total slave to Wall Street and silicon valley donors, the only skill she has is running for office and and knowing what political position to take when the wind blows, that is it. She always gave of a Selina Meyer vibe from Veep.
Trump is also fairly well known as the great destroyer of international treaties with the EU, China and Iran. He has done far more damage than you realise and still gives way to Putin.
How can Trump still “give way to Putin”? He’s not in office! Actually there were achievements in Trump’s foreign policy, such as the Abraham Accords. And he unusually, didn’t actually get the US into yet more unwinnable wars in parts of the world where liberal democracy has no chance of taking root. Unpredictability can also be useful. As far as Iran is concerned, that country is a complete threat to both Israel and other Middle Eastern states, and is aspiring to be a nuclear power. The treaty Trump abrogated was a disaster.
Trump is a realist, the world isn’t and is never going to be one that we feel comfortable about living in politically. Unfortunately nd even tragically, Russia is set to win its war with Ukraine, which isn’t in the interests of the US with Ukraine by pure attrition, which it can afford and Ukraine cannot. The West simply doesn’t produce enough munitions, for one thing, and will lose patience with the war in any case. You will see, the US will have to come to an accommodation under any President.
Unpredictability can be useful – if used by a smart person as a tactic. Nixon did that, I seem to remember, and whatever else he was he was competent and self-controlled. You claim that Trump is a hard-headed reaslist who is coming to an accommodation with Putin and Kim Young-un’ because of a dep understanding of US national interest. But how would you know?? From the man’s behaviour is seems rather more likely that he is playing nice with dictators because he happens to fell like it that day, and because it gratifies his ego to interact with proper powerful men. And if so, how likely is it that he will get he next call right? And the next one? Are you sure you are not projecting on to Trump’s toddler-like behaviour the motives that you would like him to have?
This passes for political analysis? When someone does everything in his power to hold onto a power the electorate has removed from him, that is almost by definition authoritarianism. “I have authority and I will not surrender it.”
As for ‘unarmed’, that is news to me. The mob Trump sent down to the Capitol were armed; his own security advisers warned him about it and he said, “They are not armed against me,” acknowledging that the guns they were carrying were for the people they were about to attack. Yes, none of them shot anyone, but that is because they did not need to.
As for the argument that the entire bureaucracy is against him, that was true last time. Unprepared after his first victory he inherited liberally-inclined officials. This time he is putting together a cohort of obedient believers to run each department according to his diktats.
America and the world has much more to fear from Trump in 2024 than they ever had last time round.
You prove Martin Gurri’s point with your fevered imaginary facts. You sound as mad as a hatter.
First, Donald Trump didn’t use his power to try to hold onto power. He contested the election by trying to get recounts and delay certifications. Those are lawful actions that any losing candidate can take, whether they are an incumbent or not. When all that failed, Donald Trump left office on schedule without fuss. He surrendered his power, he didn’t abuse it.
Second, no one in the mob that swarmed the Capitol ever showed any signs of having a firearm and none have been charged with possession of a firearm. Donald Trump’s comment was about the Secret Service wanting to screen the crowd at his speech using magnetometers. That was not the mob that swarmed the Capitol.
Third, the point about the bureaucracy is that Donald Trump has no foot soldiers to support any takeover of power. As president he has a limited number of political appointments. That wouldn’t give him any chance to turn any military or the FBI into an enforcer of his aims.
This idea that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, an authoritarian, or a fascist is silliness. It’s a wonder that his enemies can make that hysterical claim with a straight face.
and this passes for reasoned analysis
Ugh. So very cringeworthy. I don’t even think the Dems and J6 committee have said the rioters had guns.
And if they did not guns, it was all OK, just a bunch of friendly tourists who got caught up in the moment? Or was it a false-flag ANTIFA plot?
Thanks for this response in a sea of sycophants who think they are critical thinkers
Huge laughter!
Your lead appears to be in your hat.
I guess this article was written before Trump stated he’d only be a dictator for one day (don’t worry it was just hyperbole, honest). I liked some of Trump’s policies but he’s a raving egotistical maniac and has demonstrated that over and over. I don’t know if republican normies can keep him and the rest of the lunatic fringe in line. And before you go all “whatabout” on me, I democrats fringe is equally scary.