Quotes Of The Day -- The Fight For The Soul Of America

"The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study.

"In a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey.

"The shift has both led to and been driven by the rise of Donald Trump." --  The Guardian summarizing a study by the V-Dem Institute in Sweden measuring the increasing authoritarianism of the rotted- out Republican Party, starting long before COVID Donnie came on the political scene. 

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"Under President Trump, the United States has abandoned international climate and nuclear arms agreements. It has announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, questioned the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and antagonized stalwart allies like Germany.

"America’s past presidents have long promoted democracy, human rights and the rule of law abroad, yet Trump instead has waged an assault on those values at home, where he has weakened institutions, shredded norms and declared without evidence that the upcoming election will be 'rigged.'

"America’s moral authority also has been undercut by the devastatingly high death toll and wrenching economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the racial reckoning that has convulsed the country.

"These highlights from Trump’s nearly four years in office read like Vladimir Putin’s wish list. Few countries have benefited more geopolitically from Trump’s time in office than Russia." -- Phillip Rucker and Shane Harris on the front page of today's Washington Post, in a long read about the gift COVID Donnie has been to Russian thug Vladimir Putin.