Maduro didn’t cheat, he openly stole the 2024 elections before the eyes of the entire World. By comparing him with Orban or Trump you are elevating his true moral standing, if this applies to him.
At this point in time both Trump and Biden have negative polling numbers. According Gallup both get low 40s approval numbers. Americans today are generally displeased with politicians. I expect Trump to self-destruct but so did Biden. No. Fascists is not at our doorstep. But our grandchildren will condemn for passing a mountain of debt.
In true democracies, unpopular leaders get voted out of office. In autocracies, not so much. Lincoln just barely managed to get elected and re-elected, and fortunately he was a strong pro-democracy president. It was a squeaker then and it will be now.
The dynamics of autocracy at some point become dominated by the absence of an internal mechanism for transition. The leader must simply die. In a perfected autocracy, the leader dies peacefully in bed and the eldest direct-line male heir takes over — even if it's the infant great-grandson, as in the case of the transition from Louis XIV to Louis XV.
But where autocracy hasn't already been consolidated for centuries, a violent succession struggle is possible. The leader may figure out that it's coming and conduct preemptive strikes.
It isn't always that bad, but in any case Trump's "race against time" isn't just about institutionalizing a policy agenda.
Surely this depends in USA on when those bodies/agencies whose role is to protect the state ( ie polity/ entity) speak up against illegality and act within their role to protect the state/nation. The people do not seem to have much stomach for large scale determined demonstrations or direct action to depose the illegal dictator yet and the lack of effective leadership/opposition from established elected opposition parties and the judicary or forces of 'law and order' is really awful.
Trump's authoritarian push feels a little like Putin's Ukraine push - lots of ground was gained right at the beginning with little resistance, and now we're in trench warfare well within the borders. One wonders how things might have been different if the establishment had chosen to treat November 2024 as the clear but narrow loss it was for the Left, rather than as the frequently-cited "shellacking" or "crushing defeat" the media chose to portray. If Trump has been accurately portrayed as barely scratching out a victory in a very favorable environment, perhaps fewer institutions would have capitulated in the first few months.
Since the outcome of the 2024 election, I've been repeatedly telling friends three simple facts:
1) Since 2016, 12 million more Americans have voted for someone NOT Tr*mp! There are far more of us who share the values of freedom, equality and justice, than fascism and authoritarianism.
2) In three elections, Tr*mp has literally NEVER won even 50% (let alone an actual majority) of the voting population's support—which does not count the 'eligible' voting population, and therein lies the fundamental failure of our ‘democracy’ aka electoral college.
The data have been there since 2016. It's just that corporate-owned media are simply ignoring it because they're too busy defaulting to binary, conflict-driven narratives that create false equivalences, allowing them to lazily treat all politics as horse races, rather than in terms of the stakes to us and our country.
The MSM have become stenographers to power...rather than a fourth estate whose role is to hold power accountable.
As Abraham Lincoln so wisely said: “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.”
And social proof of that sentiment, comes through protests and boycotts—and that drives poll results—so I hope everyone reading SIN understands that “we the people” ARE the strength in numbers!
We Americans, regardless of our race, birthplace, zipcode, or party identification, who value freedoms, justice, equality, truth and accountability—we are the supermajority; we just need to act like it put Tr*mp and MAGA into the dustbin of history.
Dunno, the folks in my right-leaning California suburb are all still flying their American flags (because THEY are the true patriots, see?) and I can't see any visible sign that Trump has lost his MAGA base. On the contrary, the Fox News factions are doing a victory lap. If all the so-called red states gerrymander to create more seats the Pubs will continue to hold a Congressional majority. The future of our democracy is not looking very bright to me.
We need to encourage our institutions, our elected leaders, our business leaders and our relatives to not pre give in to illiberal democracy. The rolling over is unacceptable. When businesses see that it is not in their economic interest to roll over, they won’t. So it’s up to us, citizens, to make it clear to all these folks.
The Trump coup does not appear to be following any past or other path to authoritarian rule. It is simply illegally cornering our entire population into a fight for literal survival and using any resistance as justification for murder.
This is a hopeful read. Keep pushing back, people! All is not lost!
Maduro didn’t cheat, he openly stole the 2024 elections before the eyes of the entire World. By comparing him with Orban or Trump you are elevating his true moral standing, if this applies to him.
At this point in time both Trump and Biden have negative polling numbers. According Gallup both get low 40s approval numbers. Americans today are generally displeased with politicians. I expect Trump to self-destruct but so did Biden. No. Fascists is not at our doorstep. But our grandchildren will condemn for passing a mountain of debt.
For what it’s worth, Trump’s approval is lower than Biden’s at this point in his term. Not disagreeing about the debt comment. https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/data?open=false#%C2%A7how-popular-is-donald-trump
I compared NY Times to Gallup.
In true democracies, unpopular leaders get voted out of office. In autocracies, not so much. Lincoln just barely managed to get elected and re-elected, and fortunately he was a strong pro-democracy president. It was a squeaker then and it will be now.
The dynamics of autocracy at some point become dominated by the absence of an internal mechanism for transition. The leader must simply die. In a perfected autocracy, the leader dies peacefully in bed and the eldest direct-line male heir takes over — even if it's the infant great-grandson, as in the case of the transition from Louis XIV to Louis XV.
But where autocracy hasn't already been consolidated for centuries, a violent succession struggle is possible. The leader may figure out that it's coming and conduct preemptive strikes.
It isn't always that bad, but in any case Trump's "race against time" isn't just about institutionalizing a policy agenda.
Surely this depends in USA on when those bodies/agencies whose role is to protect the state ( ie polity/ entity) speak up against illegality and act within their role to protect the state/nation. The people do not seem to have much stomach for large scale determined demonstrations or direct action to depose the illegal dictator yet and the lack of effective leadership/opposition from established elected opposition parties and the judicary or forces of 'law and order' is really awful.
Trump's authoritarian push feels a little like Putin's Ukraine push - lots of ground was gained right at the beginning with little resistance, and now we're in trench warfare well within the borders. One wonders how things might have been different if the establishment had chosen to treat November 2024 as the clear but narrow loss it was for the Left, rather than as the frequently-cited "shellacking" or "crushing defeat" the media chose to portray. If Trump has been accurately portrayed as barely scratching out a victory in a very favorable environment, perhaps fewer institutions would have capitulated in the first few months.
I cannot empathize with this comment more
Since the outcome of the 2024 election, I've been repeatedly telling friends three simple facts:
1) Since 2016, 12 million more Americans have voted for someone NOT Tr*mp! There are far more of us who share the values of freedom, equality and justice, than fascism and authoritarianism.
2) In three elections, Tr*mp has literally NEVER won even 50% (let alone an actual majority) of the voting population's support—which does not count the 'eligible' voting population, and therein lies the fundamental failure of our ‘democracy’ aka electoral college.
3) In 2024 alone, 4.7 million voters were purged...between 2020 - 2022, at least 19 million were purged (source: https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression/voter-purges)
He is wildly unpopular, period.
The data have been there since 2016. It's just that corporate-owned media are simply ignoring it because they're too busy defaulting to binary, conflict-driven narratives that create false equivalences, allowing them to lazily treat all politics as horse races, rather than in terms of the stakes to us and our country.
The MSM have become stenographers to power...rather than a fourth estate whose role is to hold power accountable.
As Abraham Lincoln so wisely said: “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.”
And social proof of that sentiment, comes through protests and boycotts—and that drives poll results—so I hope everyone reading SIN understands that “we the people” ARE the strength in numbers!
We Americans, regardless of our race, birthplace, zipcode, or party identification, who value freedoms, justice, equality, truth and accountability—we are the supermajority; we just need to act like it put Tr*mp and MAGA into the dustbin of history.
Clap, clap, clap.
Dunno, the folks in my right-leaning California suburb are all still flying their American flags (because THEY are the true patriots, see?) and I can't see any visible sign that Trump has lost his MAGA base. On the contrary, the Fox News factions are doing a victory lap. If all the so-called red states gerrymander to create more seats the Pubs will continue to hold a Congressional majority. The future of our democracy is not looking very bright to me.
We need to encourage our institutions, our elected leaders, our business leaders and our relatives to not pre give in to illiberal democracy. The rolling over is unacceptable. When businesses see that it is not in their economic interest to roll over, they won’t. So it’s up to us, citizens, to make it clear to all these folks.
The Trump coup does not appear to be following any past or other path to authoritarian rule. It is simply illegally cornering our entire population into a fight for literal survival and using any resistance as justification for murder.