Expert on authoritarian regimes explains how Trump is creating a crisis to 'cling to power'

[Nevilledog]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/tyranny-expert-explains-how-donald-trump-has-ceeded-the-election-is-creating-a-crisis-to-cling-to-power/

This week, as the economy revealed that the U.S. GDP cratered, President Donald Trump teased putting a hold on the November election. While it is unclear if the president was attempting to distract from the economy in freefall or his falling poll numbers.

Historian and expert on authoritarian regimes, Professor Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, describing the key ways to spot authoritarianism.

“Do we have any reason to believe that Mr. Trump would accept the outcome of the election?” asked the Yale professor. “The tweet of July 30th was a very clear statement, but he has literally, dozens of times before said he wouldn’t. There is nothing in his career that indicates he actually likes democracy. In this particular tweet, we have a dangerous mixture, where he’s talking about a problem he created himself, insofar as we do have problems with voting in the U.S. They have to do with things like African-Americans not being enfranchised, they have to do with the things of foreign intervention. And even the problems he mentioned, which is postal voting, which is good and of itself, that might be slowed down because of his own postmaster general. So, he’s talking about problems he caused himself, then claiming they’re an emergency, and using that as a reason to claim power himself. That’s a manufactured emergency and that is, in fact, a prime historical fascist tactic.”

He went on to explain that a fascist is someone who will often manufacture a crisis, blame it on the other side, and then use the crisis to his own benefit. In Trump’s case, vote-by-mail has become the enemy as Republicans continue to defund the post office and Republicans in several states were caught in absentee-voter crimes.

*snip*

[True Blue American]

1. The media

Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2020, 02:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Needs to shut up, breathlessly broadcasting his every tweet.

There is a reason people are tuning out cable.

[cayugafalls]

3. He needs to be outed as the fascist that he is.

The media needs to start doing their job and calling his tweets what they are, PROOF of his fascism.

We as a people need to start pushing back even more. The way to fight fascism is not to remain silent and let it win, it is to actively call it out and run the fucker out of office.

[True Blue American]

4. Agree 100%!

[northoftheborder]

2. Resistance Women, by Chiarverini - based on true story of rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930's

Chilling.