NYT - Krugman Op Ed "It Can Happen Here - we're close to becoming another Poland or Hungary"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/trump-republican-party-authoritarianism.html

Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a friend of mine — an expert on international relations — made a joke: “Now that Eastern Europe is free from the alien ideology of Communism, it can return to its true historical path — fascism.” Even at the time, his quip had a real edge.

And as of 2018 it hardly seems like a joke at all. What Freedom House calls illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we normally understand it is already dead.

In both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the foreseeable future.

And it could all too easily happen here. There was a time, not long ago, when people used to say that our democratic norms, our proud history of freedom, would protect us from such a slide into tyranny. In fact, some people still say that. But believing such a thing today requires willful blindness. The fact is that the Republican Party is ready, even eager, to become an American version of Law and Justice or Fidesz, exploiting its current political power to lock in permanent rule.


snip


last two para

Don’t tell me about “economic anxiety.” That’s not what happened in Poland, which grew steadily through the financial crisis and its aftermath. And it’s not what happened here in 2016: Study after study has found that racial resentment, not economic distress, drove Trump voters.

The point is that we’re suffering from the same disease — white nationalism run wild — that has already effectively killed democracy in some other Western nations. And we’re very, very close to the point of no return.

[2naSalit]

1. Very very close...nt

[Hekate]

2. 5th Rec

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. incredibly important op ed - giving it a kick for the evening crew

[marylandblue]

4. What does he think we should do about it?

It's not like liberals in those countries didn't fight it every step of the way.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44979353

We talk about fighting and demonstrating and not allowing them to get away with it. But these other countries are showing that white nationalism works. If lose in November, we lose everything. But then we have to win again in 2020. And in 2022. When will it be safe to lose again?

Anti-Nazi Demonstration, 1932, Berlin, 250,000 people.

[Initech]

5. White nationalism is a cancer that needs to be eradicated.

Fuck white nationalists!

[marylandblue]

8. How do we eradicate it?

We've had for 300 years, and every time we cut it back, it grows again like weeds.

[smirkymonkey]

6. K&R

[dalton99a]

7. This is a must read.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. another kick

[Scurrilous]

10. K&R

[rockfordfile]

11. I agree