08-16-2018, 12:39 PM
From Foreign Affairs Magazine. The article is dated, so I can largely dispense with the introduction.
[/url]Voice
10 Ways to Tell if Your President Is a Dictator
Just because the United States is a democracy now, it doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
By [url=https://foreignpolicy.com/author/stephen-m-walt/]Stephen M. Walt
| November 23, 2016, 9:02 AM
Here is an article well worth the read. I will give only analysis to the points.
1. Systematic efforts to intimidate the media.
The President has certainly tried to humiliate the news media. At his campaign-style rallies, participants have threatened journalists, and the President has failed to condemn such behavior. So far it looks more impulsive than systematic, but do something consistently enough on impulse and one gets systematic results.
2. Building an official pro-Trump media network.
Not likely, but he can be satisfied with the likes of FoX News Channel, Breitbart, and (for the 'deplorable' people of little intellectual talent or self-control) the National Enquirer.
3. Politicizing the civil service, military, National Guard, or the domestic security agencies.
Probably the definitive hazard to democracy. He already acts as if people in government service of any kind are to do his political and intellectual dirty work. The civil service, the police, the military, and the intelligence services are usually in the hands of any dictator. He has not succeeded at such -- think of the investigation by Robert Mueller and others of his cronies.
4. Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents.
Having been done by Richard Nixon against anti-war groups through infiltration, such is possible again. Legitimate scrutiny of money-launderers and users of child porn can easily go to investigation of the financial records and computer use of dissidents.
5. Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents.
Patronage is the essence of dictatorial governments -- rewarding supporters with grants, graft, or opportunities denied others -- and injuring those who fail to support the Leadership. No matter what the formality of the economic system is, government rewards at the least followers.
Outright graft can usually be hidden if the news media are under government control or otherwise corrupt. But the rewards could be admissions and scholarships to college, low-rate loans for businesses or residential real estate, tax breaks, privatization of public assets on the cheap, or rapid advancement in the military or in the civil service... and on the other side, discriminatory taxation or regulation of the 'wrong' people.
6. Stacking the Supreme Court.
So far the President has selected Justices who concur with his ideology, and as the elderly Justices die off or retire we could easily end up with Supreme Court decisions that go 8-1 (Sonia Sotomayor dissenting). I can imagine states deciding that it is acceptable to execute people for simple larceny... and an 8-1 decision in favor of such. Or perhaps restoring debt-bondage -- again, an 8-1 decision.
(May such an America lose its next war so that it can be delivered, as were Germany, Italy, and Japan, from such horror and more!)
7. Enforcing the law for only one side.
Basically, if black people do not support the President and his policies, then black lives do not matter. People will face unequal enforcement of regulations from zoning to noise abatement. A protest against the regime's policies could be halted for noise levels, but a raucous celebration of the regime's ideology will not face any monitoring by noise meters. The legal system could become a veritable Apartheid in itself.
8. Really rigging the system.
There is no shortage of ways to tamper with the vote, as shown in countries in central and Balkan Europe whose limited experience with formal democracy ended with Stalinist rule. People who show signs of voting 'wrong', or even failing to participate in the 'right' rallies or electioneering, can lose their jobs, get expelled from school, face courts-martial, or face an IRS audit. My fear is that the government will mandate that people vote as their employers dictate, as by requiring them to turn their ballots over to their employers to decide their votes or face a severe fine.
It has not clearly been done yet, but I can imagine it.
[b]9. Fearmongering. [/b]
Already happening. Enough said.
[b]10. Demonizing the opposition.
[/b]
Already happening. Enough said.
[/url]Voice
10 Ways to Tell if Your President Is a Dictator
Just because the United States is a democracy now, it doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
By [url=https://foreignpolicy.com/author/stephen-m-walt/]Stephen M. Walt
| November 23, 2016, 9:02 AM
Quote:Given what is at stake, one of the most important things we can all do is remain alert for evidence that Trump and those around him are moving in an authoritarian direction. For those who love America and its Constitution more than they love any particular political party or any particular politician, I offer as a public service my top 10 warning signs that American democracy is at risk.
Here is an article well worth the read. I will give only analysis to the points.
1. Systematic efforts to intimidate the media.
The President has certainly tried to humiliate the news media. At his campaign-style rallies, participants have threatened journalists, and the President has failed to condemn such behavior. So far it looks more impulsive than systematic, but do something consistently enough on impulse and one gets systematic results.
2. Building an official pro-Trump media network.
Not likely, but he can be satisfied with the likes of FoX News Channel, Breitbart, and (for the 'deplorable' people of little intellectual talent or self-control) the National Enquirer.
3. Politicizing the civil service, military, National Guard, or the domestic security agencies.
Probably the definitive hazard to democracy. He already acts as if people in government service of any kind are to do his political and intellectual dirty work. The civil service, the police, the military, and the intelligence services are usually in the hands of any dictator. He has not succeeded at such -- think of the investigation by Robert Mueller and others of his cronies.
4. Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents.
Having been done by Richard Nixon against anti-war groups through infiltration, such is possible again. Legitimate scrutiny of money-launderers and users of child porn can easily go to investigation of the financial records and computer use of dissidents.
5. Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents.
Patronage is the essence of dictatorial governments -- rewarding supporters with grants, graft, or opportunities denied others -- and injuring those who fail to support the Leadership. No matter what the formality of the economic system is, government rewards at the least followers.
Outright graft can usually be hidden if the news media are under government control or otherwise corrupt. But the rewards could be admissions and scholarships to college, low-rate loans for businesses or residential real estate, tax breaks, privatization of public assets on the cheap, or rapid advancement in the military or in the civil service... and on the other side, discriminatory taxation or regulation of the 'wrong' people.
6. Stacking the Supreme Court.
So far the President has selected Justices who concur with his ideology, and as the elderly Justices die off or retire we could easily end up with Supreme Court decisions that go 8-1 (Sonia Sotomayor dissenting). I can imagine states deciding that it is acceptable to execute people for simple larceny... and an 8-1 decision in favor of such. Or perhaps restoring debt-bondage -- again, an 8-1 decision.
(May such an America lose its next war so that it can be delivered, as were Germany, Italy, and Japan, from such horror and more!)
7. Enforcing the law for only one side.
Basically, if black people do not support the President and his policies, then black lives do not matter. People will face unequal enforcement of regulations from zoning to noise abatement. A protest against the regime's policies could be halted for noise levels, but a raucous celebration of the regime's ideology will not face any monitoring by noise meters. The legal system could become a veritable Apartheid in itself.
8. Really rigging the system.
There is no shortage of ways to tamper with the vote, as shown in countries in central and Balkan Europe whose limited experience with formal democracy ended with Stalinist rule. People who show signs of voting 'wrong', or even failing to participate in the 'right' rallies or electioneering, can lose their jobs, get expelled from school, face courts-martial, or face an IRS audit. My fear is that the government will mandate that people vote as their employers dictate, as by requiring them to turn their ballots over to their employers to decide their votes or face a severe fine.
It has not clearly been done yet, but I can imagine it.
[b]9. Fearmongering. [/b]
Already happening. Enough said.
[b]10. Demonizing the opposition.
[/b]
Already happening. Enough said.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.