Autocratic for the people: As Trump's populist wave recedes, an authoritarian regime in the making..

[DonViejo]

Autocratic for the people: As Donald Trump’s populist wave recedes, an authoritarian regime in the making is revealed

You can say this for Trump: He's been unapologetically clear about his anti-democratic aims from the get-go

BOB CESCA

It feels like we’ve inadvertently jumped into an alternate timeline. It’s as if Biff Tannen traveled back in time with Marty McFly’s Sports Almanac and, yada-yada-yada, we’re suddenly faced with a crisis in which Biff is running everything rather than merely washing and waxing Marty’s truck. Only this wrinkle in time is far worse than anything Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis ever conceived in any “Back to the Future” film. President-elect Donald Trump is an anomaly that should never have occurred — a disruption of time and history with which the world is unprepared to cope.

The fear and uncertainty accompanying Trump’s victory has a lot to do with not really knowing exactly how Trump plans to govern; whether he’ll remain confined within the strictures of the Constitution and the rule of law; whether he’ll govern as a somewhat normal political leader; or whether his regime will push well beyond those boundaries and into uncharted despotic territory. What we know, however, is that Trump campaigned as a screeching populist autocrat, and so we really have no choice but to steel ourselves for him to govern accordingly. Therefore, the foolish attempt to normalize his behavior during the transition only serves to misinform voters who have a penchant for deluding themselves into believing everything will be fine. If Trump governs the way he campaigned, we’re in for a long, dark era in history, and one that won’t be easily mitigated.

On Monday, President Obama struggled to give Trump a chance. “It’s only been six days,” the president said. Sure, six days of Trump as president-elect, but we also have 17 months of Trump as a candidate and 70 years of Trump as a man, with more than enough nefarious deeds, blurts and comments to give us an idea of how he intends to exercise his newly won power. As I’ve been writing in Salon for more than a year: Never forget that this is Donald J. Trump, a man with zero political or military experience, and a man who knows very little about the even the most familiar rules of constitutional government. He’s an erratic cartoon supervillain without any core values outside of pushing his brand and expanding his fortune.

Rachel Maddow, on her extremely compelling Friday evening telecast, delivered a brilliantly written and horrifyingly breathtaking cautionary tale of what’s in store with the Trump administration. Specifically, there’s a not insignificant shot that we’ll see a profoundly autocratic Trump presidency in which the new chief executive will behave similarly to Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who’s been actively imprisoning dissenters, including journalists, politicians, military personnel, clerics and academics. Among other egregious deeds, Erdoğan handed down orders to censor the internet, while banning citizen access to social media. And, as Maddow outlined on Friday’s show, Trump’s closest military aide and National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, has professional ties to the Turkish strongman. Additionally, Flynn has said he’d like to extradite an anti-Erdoğan Turkish cleric from the U.S. back to Turkey. Essentially, Erdoğan is slowly consolidating his power in a way that’s extraordinarily easy to apply to what we can expect from Trump.

more
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/20/autocratic-for-the-people-as-donald-trumps-populist-wave-recedes-an-authoritarian-regime-in-the-making-is-revealed/

[dickthegrouch]

1. They can't be too authoritarian

Without exposing their own hypocrisy, when they protest that it was 'legal' when they did it.
Or that they shouldn't be prosecuted for it because they're in charge now.

As I keep telling my partner, It's extremely hard to govern, when you don't care to follow the rules.

"Equal Protection" is going to get a strenuous workout in the next 4 years. I think it should be the basis for every challenge to the Trump reich.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

2. OMG, you just don't get it, do you?

Dictators don't give a fuck about the rules. Who'd going to stop them? Seriously?!!!!!