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ehrnst

(32,640 posts)
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 07:11 AM Jan 2017

David Frum: How to build an Autocracy - the preconditions are present in the U.S. today

Last edited Tue Jan 31, 2017, 08:21 AM - Edit history (1)

(long read, but essential)

It’s 2021, and president Donald Trump will shortly be sworn in for his second term. The 45th president has visibly aged over the past four years. He rests heavily on his daughter Ivanka’s arm during his infrequent public appearances.

Fortunately for him, he did not need to campaign hard for reelection. His has been a popular presidency: Big tax cuts, big spending, and big deficits have worked their familiar expansive magic. Wages have grown strongly in the Trump years, especially for men without a college degree, even if rising inflation is beginning to bite into the gains. The president’s supporters credit his restrictive immigration policies and his TrumpWorks infrastructure program.

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On the eve of the 2018 congressional elections, WikiLeaks released years of investment statements by prominent congressional Democrats indicating that they had long earned above-market returns. As the air filled with allegations of insider trading and crony capitalism, the public subsided into weary cynicism. The Republicans held both houses of Congress that November, and Trump loyalists shouldered aside the pre-Trump leadership.

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Trump will try hard during his presidency to create an atmosphere of personal munificence, in which graft does not matter, because rules and institutions do not matter. He will want to associate economic benefit with personal favor. He will create personal constituencies, and implicate other people in his corruption. That, over time, is what truly subverts the institutions of democracy and the rule of law. If the public cannot be induced to care, the power of the investigators serving at Trump’s pleasure will be diminished all the more.


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/?utm_source=fbb
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David Frum: How to build an Autocracy - the preconditions are present in the U.S. today (Original Post) ehrnst Jan 2017 OP
That is it, and this is the dirty little secret of "the wall" Cosmocat Jan 2017 #1
kick Cha Jan 2017 #2
Please read this Freddie Jan 2017 #3
Maybe the best political comment of all time Cicada Jan 2017 #4
Frum took for ever to say he would vote for H BSdetect Jan 2017 #5
You are right, this is an essential read. Very good analysis of what could happen emulatorloo Jan 2017 #6
I'll go out on a limb here GliderGuider Jan 2017 #7

Cosmocat

(14,543 posts)
1. That is it, and this is the dirty little secret of "the wall"
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 07:23 AM
Jan 2017

Trump knows GD well it would be a useless pile of garbage.

But, being the sell BIG lies because the bigger they are the more the masses will gobble them up type he is, this is what he DOES know.

It is the expansive, debt based economic stimulus republicans denied BHO when this country actually needed a massive infrastructure investment instead of the modest one they passed.

It is simple - borrowing 20 billion plus to pour it into the economy. So what if it is worthless, so what that it will be money WE will have pay back double over time between interest on the debt and if these morons actually imposes trade fees with Mexicao. it will be a short term sugar high that he can run around taking credit for a more robust "economy."

Freddie

(9,232 posts)
3. Please read this
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 07:38 AM
Jan 2017

It's the best and most frightening thing I've read yet. Frum minces no words about where this country is headed if we can't stop this. He's also an "intellectual conservative" - I know, an oxymoron, but coming from his side this is even more powerful.

Cicada

(4,533 posts)
4. Maybe the best political comment of all time
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 10:47 AM
Jan 2017

I can't think of a political column more important than this one. Ever.

BSdetect

(8,989 posts)
5. Frum took for ever to say he would vote for H
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 10:58 AM
Jan 2017

Despite claiming to fear twitler.

If he is a smart repugnant what hope is there that the idiots will see twitler for what he is?

emulatorloo

(43,982 posts)
6. You are right, this is an essential read. Very good analysis of what could happen
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 11:15 AM
Jan 2017

Rec to get it to the greatest page.

 

GliderGuider

(21,088 posts)
7. I'll go out on a limb here
Tue Jan 31, 2017, 11:23 AM
Jan 2017

David Frum doesn't have the first clue about what is actually being done to your country. He is still applying yesterday's perceptions to today's problem. That causes him to mistake this catastrophic fiasco for politics gone wrong.

As I've spent the last few days saying, This is not politics, this is a war. Political rules are as relevant to what's happening today as the Marquess of Queensberry rules are to an Afghanistan fire-fight.

It may look like politics because you just had an election and this is all happening in DC, but it.is.not.

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