Authoritarianism and American politics

[pbrower2a]

One of the hallmarks of authoritarians is that they question legitimate authority and sponsor not-so-valid authority. Authoritarian groups can speak frequently of "rights" as in "Right to Life", "Right to Work (for much less)", and of course, "Gun Rights". The "rights" for them implies onerous duties or losses for others.  

Interests of a foreign power hostile to American and other democracy are not legitimate rights in America.  

Quote:Of all the so-called dark money groups involved in the 2016 election, none spent more than the N.R.A. The $30 million it expended to elect Trump was three times more than the N.R.A. spent on Mitt Romney’s behalf in the 2012 election.

That $30 million, however, is just what the N.R.A. spent on the presidential race. It also backed other candidates, reportedly spending $55 million overall. The organization helped Republicans cement control of Congress. If it did so with Russia’s assistance, the whole party is implicated.

Of course, the citizenry has no way of knowing where any of that money came from. But the F.B.I. almost certainly does. We’re far from understanding what role, if any, the N.R.A. played in helping Russia help Trump. But a scandal that encompasses both the Trump campaign and the right’s most powerful lobby would be bigger than most people imagined before Thursday.

“In terms of what the Russians are doing in the United States, it’s far broader than just the Trump campaign,” Schiff told me. “In that sense when people think that the Russian intervention was just about tipping the scales to one of the candidates in 2016, they’re thinking far too narrowly.”

from the New York Times on the Russia-NRA connection