Watching old footage of Mussolini and Hitler is a chilling experience because Trump’ a presentation is so similar. These dictators raged, threatened, terrorized, and called for absolute obedience and submission to them and their doctrines. When you listen to Trump speak, he has the same tone, mindset, and behaviors of these infamous dictators. He dogs-whistles in code for his opponents or any dissenters to be opposed, and their careers and reputations destroyed. Given that America is still a democracy, he cannot call for murdering opponents, so for now, he has to settle for demonization, firings, and calls for imprisonment.
Assaults on the Foundation of American Democracy
Attacks on the media and the free press are straight out of the playbook of dangerous authoritarians. So is calling for a militarized state towards citizens. For a dictator, there is no room for opposition or other points of view. The dictator will lie, create conspiracy theories, and threaten the survival of anyone who opposes them. Through methods of exaggerated false promises, scare tactics, and grandiose self-declarations, the dictator can rally high numbers of people to believe in them and only them. By the mere proclamation of” fake news,” the credibility of the press is diminished, and the word of the dictator is the only voice to be believed. That philosophy is the antithesis of democracy. Why do millions of voting Americans not understand the definition of and the danger of a dictatorial leader? Is it because this particular dictator is white, and racism is still rampant in America has the recent protests are proving?
Trump will only appear on Fox News because they let hi control the narrative. On Fox, he calls all news stories that criticize him or disagree with any of his policies as” fake news.” He attacks the ethics of career journalists without any truth to his accusations. Fox’s opinion journalists are partisan extremists and haters of Democrats ao they are willing to forego respect for the Constitution and allow Trump to function as an autocrat.
Have Trump voters thought about the possibility of having an American autocracy with a flawed president of a minority party wanting to seek revenge on the white supremacist reign of Donald J. Trump?
Forget party affiliation, we better wake up and defend the free press and the first amendment right to free speech and peaceful assembly. Having a liar and conspiracy theorist for a president is a move towards killing democracy. Has Trump’s private calls to Putin been tutorials on how to divide America and make room for an autocratic society?
His vindictiveness towards opposition is in sync with the authoritarian mindset of ultimate power. The dictator’s character flaws are dangerous to all people of all races and religions. Trump is pro-white and pro-Christian only because those groups make up his base in critical electoral states.
BEWARE THE BASE, WHEN HE NO LONGER NEEDS YOUR VOTE, YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE NEXT TO SUFFER.
There is a litany of actions Trump is taking that are anti-American
and dangerous. He demands full loyalty from law enforcement on any interpretation he has on existing laws. He demands full compliance by the military on any intervention he deems necessary. He has repeatedly acted in ways that the courts have ruled against. He has abused his pardoning power. He has demanded that bogus investigations be started on the media and political opponents. Those investigations have never led to any substantive outcomes. He acts without respect to the power of the judiciary branch as if they are not a co-equal branch of the government. Most dangerous is his success at changing the independent functioning of the Department of Justice by demanding that it act as” his Department of Justice.” William Barr clearly does whatever Trump asks not him. Americans do not currently have a full-time attorney to protect the rule of law. That Barr has not been investigated, disbarred, or impeached is another sign that Trump is winning in his pursuit of destroying the American form of democracy.
Additionally, the normalization of nepotism that Trump has established is another alignment he has with dictators. Hiring people that you can trust and control is crucial to the dictator because, at their emotional core, they are insecure. Trump has blatantly disregarded the norms related to nepotism, hiring his kids and their spouses for jobs for which they are not qualified. Protection by the staunch loyalty of family is more critical to the dictator than the competence needed to effectively govern.
No past American President has ever behaved in the mirror image of murderous dictators. If Trump’s assault on the foundations of our democracy is successful, he will have accumulated the power of a dictator, and the Constitution will no longer define our country.
