#demagogues and democracy

[beenbettercomic]

"Fighting Is Good Business"

Despite everyone suffering the greed of the rich, it's apparently impossible to get everyone to recognize them as the villain.

-Jimmy Purcell.

[augustus-hater]

Who would you choose? A group of 60 unfunny jerks who don't care about you or 1 singular funny jerk who pretends to care about you? I would say the latter.

[bostonwalks]

The path to peace in the Middle East. Regime change in Iran!

[choppedcowboydinosaur]

People who say populism isnt true democracy and demagogues arent true democracy sound a lot like the people saying communist dictatorships aren't true communism.

It's literally the criticism Socrates had of democracy in Plato's Republic. That it would devolve into a demagogue taking power because he says sweet nothings into the ears of the people. Either you can accept that as a flaw of democracy and move on or not.

[asightsodivine]

(With a tribune of the people, a dictator, or a "Bonapartist" leader) ... which I regard as negative, the leader appeals to the lowest and almost pre-personal levels of human beings, flatters them, manipulates them, and makes sure that any higher sensibility is stifled by them.

- Julius Evola

[t-jfh]

Illustration: Rebecca Chew/The New York Times

A Warning About Donald Trump and 2024

At the outset of this election year, with Donald Trump leading the race to be the Republican presidential nominee, Americans should pause to consider what a second Trump term would mean for the country and the world.

Opinion by the Editorial Board

The New York Times - January 6, 2024

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Joe Biden and Donald Trump are headed for an election rematch in 2024.

(Photo: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

America’s hell: A tyrannical Trump who can’t be conquered

With the disreputable Donald Trump challenging the disfavored President Biden, the 2024 race has become the embodiment of Oscar Wilde’s witticism about fox hunting: “the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.”

Opinion by Maureen Dowd

The New York Times - January 6, 2024

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Attendees prayed during a Commit to Caucus event held by former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in December 2023. Evangelical voters have long supported Republican candidates, but who identifies as an evangelical Christian has changed over the years. (Photo: Jordan Gale for The New York Times)

Trump Is Connecting With a Different Type of Evangelical Voter

They are not just the churchgoing, conservative activists who once dominated the G.O.P.

By Ruth Graham and Charles Homans

Ruth Graham, a Times religion reporter, and Charles Homans, who covers grass-roots politics, spoke to voters and pastors in nine towns and cities across Iowa.

The New York Times - January 8, 2024

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President Biden’s visit to Charleston, S.C., was the second part of his two-stage opening campaign swing of the election year.

(Photo: Pete Marovich for The New York Times)

Biden Tries to Rally Disaffected Black Voters in Fiery Condemnation of Trump

The president visited Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., the site of one of the most horrific hate crimes in recent years, to denounce racism and extremism.

President Biden sought to rally disaffected Black supporters on Monday with a fiery condemnation of former President Donald J. Trump, linking his predecessor’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election to the nation’s history of white supremacy in what he called “the old ghost in new garments.”

By Peter Baker

The New York Times - January 8, 2024

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[ehj3]

NIGHT AND DAY

“You know I work all day / To get you money to buy you things” —John Lennon & Paul McCartney I happened to be driving down a rural two-lane blacktop further away from encroaching urbanity than I usually venture. Sharing the road with giant semis, slightly smaller pickup trucks, a lot of SUVs, and the occasional always inconsiderate BMW. On a straight multi-mile stretch of road between strip…

[ursie]

Brennan’s statement on Palestine :

[ ID: Statement from Brennan Lee Mulligan, on Instagram. It consists of three black squares with plain white text. The text reads as follows:

"I'm calling on my government officials to immediately demand a ceasefire and de-escalation in Gaza.

I applaud anyone and everyone calling for peace, with the understanding that real peace only exists if it deeply and honestly accounts for and fully ends violence in all its forms. Real peace addresses and corrects wrong-doing in the past and guards against it in the future. It goes hand in hand with justice and requires truth, restoration, reconciliation, reparation.

Peace cannot co-exist with collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement. It cannot co-exist with blockades, embargoes, or with 2.2 million people, half of which are children, trapped with no hope of escape or political recourse. it cannot co-exist with murdered journalists, bombed hospitals, or years of protesters being shot and killed at the border. it cannot co-exist with illegal settlements, segregated roads, and the silent, imperial chill that settles over the gaps in the violence - the unspoken geopolitical consensus that a group of people need to unflinchingly accept permanent subjugation and occupation.

My hear breaks for every Israeli person who lost loved ones during the attacks of October 7th. It breaks for every Ukrainian person who has lost their loved ones. It breaks for every Congolese person who has lost their loved ones. I do not speak on behalf of Palestinians now because some lives are worth more than others. I speak on their behalf because I, and all Americans, have a responsibility to pressure our government because we are responsible for this. Some have said that this situation is complicated. The Unites States government clearly disagrees. It has definitively, categorically, militarily chosen a side, and I do not agree with that decision.

In wiring this, I have been wrestling with what I am sure many people like me wrestle with: There is a powerful narrative surrounding violence in the Middle East that asserts and ever-moving goalpost of self-education and study in order to even be qualified to have an opinion. As someone with a love of research, I have at times in my life fallen into the trap that I am not educated enough clever enough, or aware enough to have a worthwhile perspective, and that three more articles and two more lectures and one more book will do the trick. Unfortunately, democracy doesn't work that way - we, the citizens of any democracy, cannot possibly be experts on every aspect of the policies of our governments, and yet if we do not constantly weigh in an make our voices heard, the entire experiment falls apart. Not only do people constantly doubt themselves and the things they can see with their own two eyes, but old shortcuts for political action can fall apart as well: This specific issue exists along a raw, charged and unique faultline in American Politics. Nobody I grew up with has ever challenged me on my support for abortion rights, LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, none of it. The people in my country who would despise me for those positions are, for all intents and purposes, strangers to me. But there are people who I've broken bread with and shared honest affection with who will see the words I've written here and incorrectly conclude that I do not wish for the security, dignity and happiness of them and their loved ones, and that breaks my fucking heart. Full-throatedly condemning the actions of the Israeli government while battling rampant anti-semitism at home is an urgent moral necessity, and doing so is made unnecessarily challenging for the average person to navigate by the pointed obfuscations of cynical opportunists, bigots, and demagogues on all sides of the political spectrum who see some advantage in sowing that incredibly dangerous confusion.

So, I'm calling my representatives. I'm having hard conversations with friends and family. I'm here, talking to you. I should have done it sooner. If you're Israeli and hurt by this statement, know that I want freedom, dignity, security and peace for you, and that every ounce of my political awareness believes whole-heartedly that the actions of your government are not only destroying innocent lives, but doing so to the detriment of you and your loved ones' safety. If you're American and feel lost and confused - I understand and empathize. This, the whole country, only works when we get involved. I am constantly haunted by the specter that maybe I missed some crucial piece of information on this, or any, important world event. I'll just have to make my peace with that self-doubt and trust my gut by going with Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations, etc. And if you're Palestinian and reading this: I unreservedly support your right to life, to freedom, to happiness and human flourishing, to full enfranchisement and equal rights, to opportunity, prosperity and abundance, to the restoration of stolen property and land, and to a Free Palestine." End ID ]

[wilwheaton]

In the wake of a near-tragic assassination attempt of a widely reviled figure, some people who loathe him may be wrestling with or suppressing emotions that feel contradictory. But the notions that Trump is dangerous, and that attempting to murder him is also dangerous, are not in tension with each other. The ethics and the practicality of liberal democracy both affirm a strong norm against political violence. [...]    Even though American history has seen a long litany of murders and attempted murders — Gerald Ford survived two attempts on his life within a few weeks of each other — this one feels scarier. That is because our social peace has grown more precarious. An assassination attempt on Donald Trump is a far more dangerous thing than an attempt to kill Mitt Romney would have been a dozen years ago, or Al Gore a dozen years before that.    And while the responsibility for maintaining social peace and the norm of non-violence is shared equally across the political spectrum, the blame for its decay is not.    Trump stokes and feeds upon a lust for violence. He possesses a demagogue’s skill for manipulating his supporters’ most elemental emotions. As a private citizen he exploited a white woman’s rape in Central Park to demand the execution of innocent young men of color. He continues to call for various critics to be executed for their disloyalty. When a maniac attempted to kill Nancy Pelosi and smashed the skull of her husband, he cheered it on. He continues to glorify and promise to free the criminals who assaulted police in the attack on the Capitol in an attempt to seize an unelected second term.    It is not Trump’s fault that someone tried to kill him. It is absolutely his fault that it has immediately set off a widespread fear of reprisals and chaos.

Trump Shooting: He Must Be Defeated by Ballots, Not Bullets

Look, I can’t wait for the guy to die and be gone forever. I just want him to die in prison.

And he’s still a Fascist. Don’t let that get obscured in all of this. He’s still the same wannabe dictator, the same hateful liar, the same corrupt traitor, the same 34 time convicted felon, the same rapist.

Nothing about him has changed. Nothing about Project 2025 has changed.

Obviously, the national conversation is going to be focused on this for the near future, and we can’t forget or minimize that he remains a serious and dire threat to America, and the world.

[beenbettercomic]

"Edgy Perspective"

The party has made it to the election mountain.

-Jimmy Purcell.

[ukraineblr]

This is seriously a new level of being a douchebag.

- You directly undermine Ukraine's defense effort by turning Starlinks off for the Ukrainian military right in the middle of important operations and letting the Russian military use it despite U.S. sanctions

- You spread the most idiotic "nuclear war" takes whispered to you in the ear by the Russian ambassador in the U.S. and even Putin himself

- You give voice and listen to the most insane conspiracy theorists talking about "proxy war", "biolabs", "deep state", and "money laundering", as well as blowhard demagogues and media con artists openly praising Putin and his regime

- You use your multimillion-stong global audience to directly propagate the Ukrainian surrender to Russia's war of aggression and publicly ridicule Ukraine's calls for international defense aid in its war against one of the world's largest military powers

- You directly undermined U.S. aid to Ukraine and publicly called for "killing" a long-belated aid at the U.S. Congress despite Ukraine running critically low on air defense and munitions because you and your arrogant yes-men had decided that "Putin just can't lose"

And when the situation deteriorates, particularly due to months-long delays in the most essential and urgent defense aid, this shameless douche says "I did predict it" (while again completely ignoring the fact that POLITICO makes it perfectly clear that Ukraine is 'heading for defeat' due to the West's failure to send weapons to Kyiv).

No, Elmo, you did not 'predict' anything.

You precipitated this.

This war started with Ukrainians praising you as the free world's techno hero and naming streets after you.

Now you have degraded yourself to being one of Russia's key useful idiots amid the most terrible and the largest European war of aggression since Adolf Hitler.

Keep listening to the likes of Ian Miles Cheong and David Sacks and dive deeper into your delusions and absolute moral bankruptcy.

We in Ukriane have seen our share of smartasses giving us between 48 and 72 hours two years ago.

In this war, we've been through so many impossible things that you can't even imagine, let alone "predict".

We will overcome this too -- and will get the aid, will survive as an independent nation and a democracy, and will bring peace back to Europe by derailing Russian aggression.

(c) Illia Ponomarenko

[mariacallous]

Some Americans seem unable to accept how much peril they face should Trump return, perhaps because many of them have never lived in an autocracy. They may yet get their chance: The former president is campaigning on an authoritarian platform. He has claimed that “massive” electoral fraud—defined as the vote in any election he loses—“allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He refers to other American citizens as “vermin” and “human scum,” and to journalists as “enemies of the people.” He has described freedom of the press as “frankly disgusting.” He routinely attacks the American legal system, especially when it tries to hold him accountable for his actions. He has said that he will govern as a dictator—but only for a day.

Trump is the man the Founders feared might arise from a mire of populism and ignorance, a selfish demagogue who would stop at nothing to gain and keep power. Washington foresaw the threat to American democracy from someone like Trump: In his farewell address, he worried that “sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction” would manipulate the public’s emotions and their partisan loyalties “to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

Many Americans in 2016 ignored this warning, and Trump engaged in the greatest betrayal of Washington’s legacy in American history. If given the opportunity, he would betray that legacy again—and the damage to the republic may this time be irreparable.

The Moment of Truth

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Trump’s team are behaving like reckless rednecks

Past Republican presidents understood America’s true interests. The incumbent woefully fails to grasp them

This week’s revelation in The Atlantic magazine that President Trump’s National Security team shared and discussed secrets about Yemen air strikes over the Signal messaging app reveals that the United States yet again fails to grasp that one of the first rules of intelligence is “need to know”. It also demonstrates an attitude befitting a bunch of rednecks swapping stories around a bar.

Supposedly these “guys” think military operations are trivial enough to put at risk in the cause of gossip and bravado. Never forget that the real casualties of vice-president JD Vance and defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s banter are brave men and women of the US armed forces who risk their actual lives to protect US interests. It demonstrates quite how ignorant the National Security team are of such operations. Firstly it is highly probable that the strikes were a team effort.

Intelligence from Gulf partners is likely to have been used. Such strikes involve a range of nations, not just the United States.

And secondly, what Team Trump clearly doesn’t understand is that upholding the freedom of navigation principle matters. If the West doesn’t, then China will assert itself completely in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait; Russia will seek full control over the Northwest Passage.

In that scenario the US economy really will suffer. The isolationist Maga crowd just seem unable to comprehend that in today’s world everything is connected. Every shift by the White House creates a ripple felt across the farthest oceans. Every weakening of resolve encourages every adversary.

Having observed Trump 2.0 these last 50 days, it is becoming abundantly clear that those in leadership roles really have not travelled very much. I would be surprised if many of them have a passport. They seem blindly ignorant that we live in an era of a globalised world. It is a world governed by the very rules the US and the West crafted after the Second World War; a world that embraced free trade. Those rules weren’t just about trade but about morality and democracy. The United States embraced its leadership role and prospered from it. But Trump 2.0 seems to want to reject all that and feed the electorate’s grievances.

“A patriot loves his country. A nationalist hates his neighbours.” That best sums up the Trump Administration. But that great Republican president Ronald Reagan called it right: “We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends – weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world – all while cynically waving the American flag”.

The 1991 book Trumped! by John O’Donnell, one of Trump’s Atlantic City Casino bosses, tells us a lot about the President and his early days in business. His obsession with wearing suits, his conviction that the world was “ripping off” the US. A business agenda driven by personality politics, not commercial sense, goes back decades.

Every foreign diplomat should read it. The author’s experience is a good guide to who is now leading the free world – or not as it turns out. Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino ventures eventually ended as rubble. This might explain why the Israelis are sceptical about his plans for another seaside resort. When assessing the current US administration, we should not let ourselves be distracted by our sympathies for the war on woke. Those policies might be good red meat to many of us but they are not the core functions of any government.

The war on woke is the easy bit. Building an economy, future proofing social policy and securing a nation’s defences are the hard yards. Anyone can demolish a building but few can build one.

When I heard Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy on Ukraine and the Middle East, speak earlier in the week about Putin, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was yet another step away from the US’s moral leadership.

Standing at Pointe du Hoc 40 years after D-Day President Reagan stated “There is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.”

The ex-real estate chum of Trump said Putin was not a “bad guy ”, who “could be taken at his word”. He then went on to parrot Kremlin lines on Russia’s legitimate claim to parts of Ukraine. The leaked texts of Trump’s security team reveal who they really are. They think bullying is leadership, allies are customers and trade is warfare.

That may play well in roadhouses of the Midwest but in the minds of our enemies it is an opportunity.

Rt Hon Sir Ben Wallace served as Secretary of State for Defence

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Walter Einenkel at Daily Kos:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday to talk about why Donald Trump’s candidacy poses a continued threat to democracy—and the media’s crucial role in pointing that out.  "I don't think the press has done enough to basically say, okay, the circus is here, you can watch the circus, but let's tell you what that means,” Clinton said. “Let's talk to people who have a real understanding of how dictatorships evolve."  She also gave an easy-to-understand breakdown of how the MAGA movement’s fascism could become normalized. “People did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should,” Clinton said, pointing out that institutional checks and balances can only provide so much protection from “a determined demagogue” who enjoys the support of his political party and the richest members of society who are most interested in getting even richer. Clinton, whose warnings about Trump went largely unheeded by media outlets in 2016, said she understood why people didn’t take her words “as gospel,” but that we now have years of evidence exposing Trump as a danger to our democratic processes. 

On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Hillary Clinton rightly noted that Donald Trump's threat to democracy would be disastrous.

Vote Biden/Harris 2024 to save America!

From the 05.09.2024 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

[t-jfh]

The extreme policy plans and ideas of Donald J. Trump and his advisers would have a greater prospect of becoming reality if he were to win a second term.

(Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First

Donald Trump has long exhibited authoritarian impulses, but his policy operation is now more sophisticated, and the buffers to check him are weaker.

By Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman

The New York Times - December 4, 2023

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Liz Cheney

(Photo:: Tom Williamson/Getty Images)

Liz Cheney, outspoken Trump critic, weighs third-party presidential run

Liz Cheney, one of the most vociferous critics of Donald Trump in the Republican Party, says she is weighing whether to mount her own third-party candidacy for the White House, as she vows to do “whatever it takes” to prevent the former president from returning to office.

While promoting her new book Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, the former Wyoming congresswoman — who was defeated by a Trump loyalist last year — is warning that Trump could transform America’s democracy into a dictatorship if he is reelected; anticipating, she said, that he would attempt to stay longer than his term.

By Maeve Reston

The Washington Post - December 5, 2023

Shared from Apple News

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(Photo: Alon Skuy / Getty)

What Trump’s Second Term Could Look Like

America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.

The Atlantic’s writers offer a detailed warning about the future — how Donald Trump could destroy America’s civic and democratic institutions, including its courts, national political culture, and military, if he succeeds in returning to the Oval Office.

By Tom Nichols

The Atlantic- December 4, 2023

Shared from Apple News

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(Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty)

How Donald Trump Warped America’s Reality

Megan Garber on the presidential candidate’s manipulations

Donald Trump has hastened America's decline into a "post-truth" society that privileges feelings over reality, my colleague Megan Garber has argued. I spoke with Megan about her contribution to "If Trump Wins," our new project considering the threat that a second Trump term poses to American democracy. We discussed Trump's manipulations and the double-edged power of emotion in American life.

By Lora Kelley

The Atlantic - December 6, 2023

Shared from Apple News

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[gaiawisdom]

Feudal Lords

The primal patterns WILL assert themselves again. Warlords. Chieftains, Captains of Industry, Arrogant Demagogues. In small human bands and tribal councils, the male instinct to rally to a leader works for survival. In a mass Democracy it is a persistent counterforce that must be confronted always and repeatedly. The core task for those seeking unity and inclusiveness is to raise awareness that each and all can contribute and step up to lead at times. Be willing to listen to and respect many voices.