Aiming For Dictatorship With A Dying Base

Two authors look into what the MAGAt Republican Party is up to before it succeeds in killing off its base.

Steven Beschloss writes about how the MAGAt Republican Party is "Aiming for Dictatorship" in 2025 and beyond.

... A deeply disturbing New York Times story published Monday described in polite terms a plan for “sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government,” what might be more accurately described as an aggressive effort underway to install dictatorship if Donald Trump retakes the White House.

This plot is committed to concentrating power in the hands of the president by ending liberal government and the independence of the Department of Justice, the civil service and other federal agencies that have been largely protected (by law or tradition) from presidential political interference. And there’s more—and not just the Trump plan to seek retribution by criminally investigating Biden and removing perceived enemies from Intelligence, Defense and State—but a plan to “impound” funds appropriated by Congress if he opposes their approved purpose.

And the people developing this plan are not hiding their intentions.  [snip]

I urge you to keep all this in mind when struggling to understand why Trump continues to get support not only from a cultist base, but also from Republican leadership and their policy professionals.

They don’t care that he’s a criminal. They don’t care if he’s a convicted sexual abuser or rapist. They don’t care if he’s never read the Bible or espouses violence. They don’t believe in government to make lives better. They reject democracy and the principles of equality.

They want power and they’ll pursue it by any means necessary to get it and keep it. Their plan for 2025 and another term makes clear why so many Republicans have looked away from every desecration and degradation and violation committed by Trump... 

To borrow a phrase, when they tell you who they are the first time, believe them.*

Jonathan Metzl, author of "Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland," is interviewed by Vox's Sean Illing, and the familiar (to us) methods Republicans use to keep their base voting for them and against their best interests:

... I look at the rejection of the Affordable Care Act in the South. I look at policies that make it far easier for people to get guns and carry guns everywhere. I look at tax cuts that benefit wealthy Americans but cut roads, bridges, and schools in poor and working-class areas. Every one of those policies has been sold as a policy that will make America great again. But they have devastating consequences for working-class populations, particularly working-class white populations, in many instances.

You can’t really understand why people might support those agendas if you just start the conversation today. There are long trajectories of anti-government sentiment that course through the South that Trump has tapped into. There are also concerns about what it means to have the government intervene in ways that equally distribute resources that working-class white populations fear might undermine their own sense of privilege.

I think the GOP has also been remarkably successful at tapping into this narrative — a narrative that makes people anxious that immigrants and minorities are going to take away privileges that are theirs...

The resentments manufactured by decades of Republican myth- making about "them vs. us," defending "white privilege" in an increasingly multi- ethnic society, the focus on bullying and circumscribing vulnerable populations, actively working against the interests and well- being of the people who nevertheless vote for you... that's the script.  As Beschloss notes above, Republicans aren't even trying to hide their autocratic, fascistic intentions anymore;  the dog whistles have become bullhorns in their evermore desperate attempt to gain power, then change the rules to stay in power indefinitely.

The frustrating part is that so far they've been successful in convincing millions that they're on their side, when in fact the "politics of racial resentment is killing America's heartland." That's some strategy for gaining and maintaining power!

Meanwhile, this evergreen pictorial says it all:

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* Bonus relevant observation: "If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." -- conservative writer David Frum.

DeSantis' "Anti-Riot Law" Blocked By Federal Court

Autocratic, pandemic-promoting mini-Trump Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis (Sedition-FL) has been active in cultivating support from the most extreme, lowIQAnon elements of the Republican / Trumpist party, with his eye on a White House run in 2024. He's discarded the "conservative" principle of maximum local government control when he tried to strong-arm local boards of education to block life-saving mask mandates, an effort that has been blocked in Federal court. He's no friend of the First Amendment or of civil rights protesters either, as his racist "Anti-Riot" law demonstrated. Fortunately, a Federal court blocked DeSantis from enforcing that law yesterday:

"In a second court loss this week for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a federal judge on Thursday squelched one of the governor’s key pieces of legislation by blocking enforcement of a so-called anti-riot law, saying that it chills free speech.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that DeSantis’s 'new definition of "riot"' is vague and overbroad and criminalizes 'vast swaths of core First Amendment speech.'

DeSantis (R) made passage of the measure his top priority in the 2021 legislative session. He and the Republican-controlled legislature sought the law in response to the massive civil rights protests that took place nationwide in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer."  (our emphasis)

The neo-fascist Governor has tried to shut down dissent and health care measures that don't comport with the unhinged beliefs of the Trumpist cult that he wants to inherit for his political future. Despite the setbacks in court, he won't stop his efforts to be seen as the most Trumpian governor and front runner in 2024, something that Dear Leader himself mightily resents. 

(photo: DeSantis demonstrates one way of how COVID is spread)

Vid Of The Day -- Invalidating Elections

 

Rachel Maddow looks at the California recall election (by mail: vote NO, sign the envelope, send it back right now -- or vote in person on September 14) and other efforts by Republicans to pre- invalidate elections they think they have a chance to lose.  It's the ultimate authoritarian power move:

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

The bombshell reporting on corrupt, dangerous dimwit Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump's call to Georgia officials to pressure them to fraudulently change the results of the election continues to develop. There are some recent updates and reactions here and here.

Meanwhile, all 10 living former Secretaries of Defense -- Democrats and Republicans, including Trump's two SecDefs -- penned an unprecedented op/ed in the Washington Post that was clearly meant as a warning to Mango Mussolini and his sycophants in the Pentagon to stop obstructing the transition to the Biden Administration, saying in part:

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.

As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.  [snip]

Given these factors, particularly at a time when U.S. forces are engaged in active operations around the world, it is all the more imperative that the transition at the Defense Department be carried out fully, cooperatively and transparently. Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.

We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them. This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country.  (our emphasis)

David Atkins writes about the sedition caucus putsch cosplay planned for January 6:

The GOP senators carrying Trump’s water here are using as justification the fact that millions of Americans falsely believe there was election fraud. But the GOP base believes it precisely because the President and his allies in conservative infotainment media have been promoting the lies.

It’s a perfect self-referential paradox of propaganda. Lie to millions of Americans in order to justify destroying democracy, then use the fact that millions of Americans believed your lies as the reason to try to do so, regardless of the validity of the underlying claims.

Technically, the Senators supporting this effort are claiming they are not trying to overturn the election. They say they only want a “10-day audit” of the election results. The problem, of course, is that the results have been checked and double-checked repeatedly. An “audit” (which would not rise even to the level of a full recount) would accomplish nothing that has not already been done. The voting machines have been double- and triple-checked. Mail ballot envelope signatures have been checked and double-checked–and in any case, there is no longer any way to match envelopes to ballots. The Senators involved do know all of this. They just don’t care.

The immediate goal, of course, is to placate Trump and Trump’s base. Some of the Senators supporting this move are presidential hopefuls for 2024. The secondary goal is to blow enough smoke over the issue to justify new voter suppression schemes in future elections, in order to resolve the “doubts about our elections” that they themselves cynically promulgated.  (our emphasis)

In a similar vein, Tom Sullivan writes about Republicans' authoritarian urge to rule:

As others observed before me, Republicans do not want to govern, they want to rule. The first rule once was, heads they win, tails you lose. Now it is heads they win, tails “Nice constitutional republic ya got there….”

“So what’s a plutocrat to do?” asked Paul Krugman at a time before openly rejecting democracy was de rigueur for Republicans. Since they could not come straight out and say only the wealthy should have the franchise, they resort to propaganda about voter fraud, etc. More democracy, better democracy is the last thing they want.

The latest wrinkle in our Trumpist saga is the effort among elected Republicans to raise objections to the decision of voters on January 6 when the U.S House and Senate meet to accept electoral vote certifications from the states. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas proposes a special commission charged with yet another examination of electoral college votes from “disputed states.” [snip]

Anti-democrats do not want a more perfect democratic republic. They want the answer they want. They want to rule or else. Like a former client, like Donald Trump, he of the bottomless cup of lawsuits, they will keep raising objections to the will of the people, they will wear down opponents until they get the answer they want. If they lose, they try to will get even, Donald Trump-style. No presidential commission will remediate that.  (our emphasis)

 

Put succinctly --

"A cult is attempting a coup in America."

Is that the most accurate way to frame what's going on right now? Well, here's how I opened RS today... https://t.co/YpBXIw5tEn

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 3, 2021

 

Former Republican strategist turned Democrat Steve Schmidt has a tweet thread on the sedition caucus, which reads in part:

They are fighting to maintain the power of a defeated President against the sovereign will of the American people as lawfully exercised under the Constitution of the United States. They are fighting to establish a tyranny. They are deliberately poisoning 7/

Faith and Belief in American democracy. Democratic Republic’s cannot survive such a collapse. The system is rooted in the willingness of one side to cede power to another at the will of the people. There are no other systems of government except for this type that are free. 8/

The legitimacy of that system is being strangled by Trumps lies and the lies of his movement. That movement is an autocratic one with fascistic markers. It is hostile to the American Constitution, the rule of law and the highest ideas and ideals of American liberty. 9/

It's a coup that will fail, and those who enabled it will have forever marked themselves as the unAmerican betrayers of our democracy that they are.  We must dedicate ourselves to seeing that they all pay a serious price for their seditious actions.

Finally, a reminder to please go check out Infidel753's link round- up for links to interesting posts from the past week from around the Internet. You can thank us later (or not)!

SecDef Wants To "Dominate The Battlespace" (I.E., Our Cities)

Craven sycophant says:

“I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal.”  -- Defense Secretary Mark Esper, parroting autocrat wannabe Donald "#BunkerBoy" Trump, who lectured governors about "dominating" the protestors in their states in Monday's conference call.

Riposte I:

"Even in the midst of the carnage we are witnessing, we must endeavor to see American cities and towns as our homes and our neighborhoods. They are not 'battle spaces' to be dominated, and must never become so."  -- Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen (USN, Ret.).  Adm. Mullen's entire article is well worth the read.

Riposte II (from Adm. Mullen's successor as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff):

America’s military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy. #BeBetter

— GEN(R) Martin E. Dempsey (@Martin_Dempsey) June 1, 2020

"Our Democracy Is Still Very Much In Danger"

Would- be president for life Donald "Rump" Trump and his band of villains in Georgia and Florida have been trying to short- circuit the counting (and re- counting) of ballots since election day.  As more ballots (absentee, overseas, military, provisional) are counted, margins for the Republican vote suppressors in those states have been going down.  With Georgia Republican and voter purger extraordinaire Brian Kemp desperate to stay above the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff with Democrat Stacy Abrams, odious fraudster Gov. Rick "Batboy" Scott throwing around lies about fraud while a recount is underway, and future one- term Republican Senator from Colorado Cory Gardner echoing Scott's claims that Dems were "stealing" the election, there's a coordinated Republican effort to disenfranchise voters and to try to de- legitimatize election results when Republicans are in danger of losing.  Existential threat to democracy Rump is all in on this strategy, of course.

Paul Krugman discusses how Republicans are being prepared for distrusting any election results that result in Republican losses (not that it takes much preparation):

The attempt by Trump and his party to shut down the legally mandated Florida recount with claims, based on no evidence, of large-scale voting fraud fits right into this partisan epistemology. Do Republicans really believe that there were vast numbers of fraudulent or forged ballots? Even asking that question is a category error. They don’t “really believe” anything, except that they should get what they want. Any vote count that might favor a Democrat is bad for them; therefore it’s fraudulent, no evidence needed. 

The same worldview explains Republicans’ addiction to conspiracy theories. After all, if people keep insisting on the truth of something that hurts their party, it can’t be out of respect for the facts — because in their world, there are no neutral facts. 

So the people making inconvenient assertions must be in the pay of sinister forces. In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won a Senate seat on the strength of late-counted ballots. Did you know that the state G.O.P. has filed a freedom of information request for information on interactions between election officials and, you guessed it, George Soros? [snip] 

What all of this means is that what’s going on in America right now isn’t politics as usual. It’s much more existential than that. You have to be truly delusional to see the Republicans’ response to their party’s midterm setback as anything but an attempted power grab by a would-be authoritarian movement, which rejects any opposition or even criticism as illegitimate. Our democracy is still very much in danger.

Paul Campos at LGM sees this as a dangerous prelude to the 2020 election (should Rump be around to run), and sketches how the attempts to de-legitimatize election results in close races this year may play out when 2020 rolls around:

(1) He loses a close election, like 2016 except the other way.  If that happens, I think there’s a good chance that he won’t acknowledge the legitimacy of the result, and he’ll do everything he can, legally and extra-legally, to stay in office. 

(2) He loses, or is obviously going to lose, by a big margin.  In this scenario, I can see things getting really crazy in the weeks running up to November 2020.  I can imagine him trying to call the whole thing off, on the grounds of some spurious national emergency, or announcing ahead of time that the election results were going to be illegitimate because of “massive voter fraud” (i.e., similar to his reaction to losing a close election, except anticipating the result and trying to delegitimize it ahead of time). 

(3) Something basically unimaginable right now (I don’t trust the show runners at all at this point). 

Ultimately I don’t think Trump is going to go gentle into that good night.  And it’s probably a good idea to start anticipating that possibility.  

Conservative Jennifer Rubin concurs:

President Trump is back in the United States — and back to attacking democracy. He tweets:

The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018

We should note that this is the talk of authoritarians; it shows contempt for the office of the president, whom the Constitution designates to “to take care” that the nation’s laws are faithfully executed. It’s also a frightful peek at what he might do in 2020 should the vote not go his way.

We all need to be prepared and not assume Trump and Trumpism will accede to losing power.  These are times very few if any of us have ever experienced before, and the stakes couldn't be any higher.

Tweet Of The Day -- It's A Cult

Why the Trump- cult Republican Party must be defeated at every level in every election, in one graph:

President Trump has 2nd highest "own party" job approval rating since World War II at day ~500, only behind Bush43 (after 9/11) (Source: Gallup) pic.twitter.com/cNhEAjMObO

— Bruce Mehlman (@bpmehlman) June 3, 2018

They're impervious to facts, reason, compassion, decency, etc., etc. They don't need to be swayed; they need to be outvoted.

BONUS:  A reminder:

Virtually every election in America is decided by the people who don’t vote

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 3, 2018

BONUS II:  Charles Pierce has a must read on the same subject.

Monday Reading

As always, please follow the link to the full article/ op ed.

Sean Hannity is a hypocritical weasel?  The f*ck you say!

The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them. 

Dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013, after banks foreclosed on their previous owners for defaulting on mortgages. Before and after then, Hannity sharply criticised Barack Obama for the US foreclosure rate. In January 2016, Hannity said there were “millions more Americans suffering under this president” partly because of foreclosures. 

Hannity, 56, also amassed part of his property collection with support from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development (Hud), a fact he did not disclose when praising Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, on his television show last year. [snip]

The shell companies used to buy the properties are registered to the offices of Henssler Financial, a wealth management firm outside Atlanta. Bill Lako, a principal at the firm, has appeared on Hannity’s radio show as an expert on money issues. 

Lako recently wrote an article for the show’s website berating Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating ties between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, without noting his ties to Hannity. He did not respond to an email. 

We wonder what else HUD welfare queen Hannity is hiding behind that smug face.

Trump biographer and investigative reporter David Cay Johnston on Trump's DNA and what he is:

Here are the key things people should know about Donald Trump. He comes from a family of criminals: His grandfather made his fortune running whorehouses in Seattle and in the Yukon Territory. His father, Fred, had a business partner named Willie Tomasello, who was an associate of the Gambino crime family. Trump's father was also investigated by the U.S. Senate for ripping off the government for what would be the equivalent of $36 million in today's money. Donald got his showmanship from his dad as well as his comfort with organized criminals. [snip] 

Let me be very clear and quotable about this. At an absolute minimum, Donald Trump has divided loyalties, and the evidence we already have suggests that Donald Trump is a traitor. In fact, I would say that the evidence we already have, the public materials such as emails for example, strongly indicate that Donald Trump is a traitor. However, I don't even think he understands what he's done.

An antidote to this must be provided on November 6.

Greg Sargent notes that more and more Republicans are running for office as unabashed authoritarian Stormtrumpers:

Around the country, Republicans embroiled in tough primaries are increasingly emulating President Trump — by echoing his xenophobia, his veiled racist appeals, his attacks on the news media, and even occasionally his calls for imprisoning his political opponents.  [snip] 

So how long until multiple GOP primary candidates begin seriously running on the message that the Mueller probe is part of an illegitimate Deep State coup that justifies Trump shutting it down by any means necessary — that is, on a message of unabashed authoritarianism?

There are already ample signs they're using their usual toxic appeals to their racist base;  this would just add to the case for their defenestration from civil society.

As we noted on Earth Day, the focus this year is on ending plastics polluting our environment, most notably our oceans.  Looks like something's being done about it:

Scientists are preparing to launch the world's first machine to clean up the planet's largest mass of ocean plastic. 

The system, originally dreamed up by a teenager, will be shipped out this summer to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California, and which contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. 

It will be the first ever attempt to tackle the patch since it was discovered in 1997. The experts believe the machine should be able to collect half of the detritus in the patch – about 40,000 metric tons – within five years.  [snip] 

The system to tackle the largest swirling mass of rubbish in the Pacific has been designed by a non-profit technology firm called The Ocean Cleanup, set up by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat when he was an 18-year-old aerospace engineering student.

Now if we could just shut off the inflow spigot =cough= China =cough= Indonesia =cough=.

Also, please check out the link roundup over at Infidel 753's place for a great collection of the fun, the infuriating, and the informative on offer from the Internet recently.

Four Years From Now?

(Ed. note: Here's a thought exercise you shouldn't read if you're easily depressed, already depressed, or paranoid.)

Let's say we somehow don't perish in the next four years, and neo- fascist authoritarian Donald "Rump" Trump decides he wants to run for re- election.  Further, let's say he loses both the Electoral College and popular vote, but not by a wide margin.

Now, here's what we know are the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which fit Rump perfectly:

   -- Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
   -- Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
   -- Exaggerating your achievements and talents
   -- Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
   -- Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people
   -- Requiring constant admiration
   -- Having a sense of entitlement
   -- Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
   -- Taking advantage of others to get what you want
   -- Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
   -- Being envious of others and believing others envy you
   -- Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner

Now imagine someone with that condition who's gotten used to being in the most powerful position in the world, who's flaunted the most basic norms, who believes the laws don't apply to him, and who'll have the Federal government's security apparatus at his tiny fingertips.  Knowing that fascists don't give up power peacefully, what's the likelihood someone like Rump and his amoral gang of white nationalists and kleptocrats would? We don't mean to sound like alarmists, but the signs are there, and the demagogue hasn't even violated taken the oath of office yet.

Of course, if Republicans succeed in restricting voting rights further (perhaps through a national voter i.d. law, etc.), this scenario would likely be moot, and we might be looking at even more years of dystopia under Rump. Lovely.

(Don't blame us.  We told you not to read this!)

For survival tips (and a somewhat more optimistic view of the future), we would again recommend reading Masha Gessen's "Autocracy: Rules for Survival."  Resist.

Today's Cartoon Twofer - Debate Takes

(click on images to enlarge)


(David Horsey, Los Angeles Times)


(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland.com)

See posts below, if further clarification needed.

Scary Quote Of The Day - Bow Down To Your Master!

(Attribution:  www.democraticundergound.com)

Mini- moron helps illustrate The Boss' observation (below).

Quote of the Day: Begging To Be Ruled

"These were not people begging to govern. These were not even people begging to be governed. These were people begging to be ruled. For all the palaver about freedom and liberty, and all the appeals to the Founders and the American experiment, this whole convention was shot through with an overwhelming lust for authority. This was a gathering of subjects thirsting for a king." -- Esquire.com's Charles Pierce, seeing in the assembled Rethuglican convention delegates a mob of people yearning for a Fuhrer, a powerful leader.

See if these characteristics of an authoritarian/fascist mind ring a bell (from Theodor Adorno's seminal study in 1950, "The Authoritarian Personality"):

"1. Conventionalism: rigid adherence to conventional middle-class values.
2. Authoritarian submission: uncritical acceptance of authority.
3. Authoritarian aggression: a tendency to condemn anyone who violates conventional norms.
4. Anti-intraception: rejection of weakness or sentimentality.
5. Superstition and stereotypy: belief in mystical determinants of action and rigid, categorical thinking.
6. Power and toughness: preoccupation with dominance over others.
7. Destructiveness and cynicism: a generalized feeling of hostility and anger.
8. Projectivity: a tendency to project inner emotions and impulses outward.
9. Sex: exaggerated concern for proper sexual conduct."

It's worth noting that "The Authoritarian Personality" grew out of a desire by social scientists to study the origins of the Nazi movement, which led to World War II and the Holocaust.