Authoritarianism has been interwoven into the fabric of our republic since its inception and the Republican Party is today fighting what will hopefully be a losing battle to hang onto and expand it…
RE: " ... white men benefited from the tools of authoritarianism being used to maintain their privileged positions in family, business, and society."
On of their "tools of authoritarianism," which you didn't call out here, is our "free market" fundamentalist economic system. This authoritarian economic tool protects and empowers our anti-democratic oligarchs. Auhoritarian oligarchs have been able to pick most justices on SCOTUS. They totally own the GQP and too many members of the Democratic Party. This has given anti-democratic oligarchs control of state and national legislation. They are writting laws for their benefit. They are growing their power and wealth via oligopolies and stock buy backs. One of those oligopolies is our "Free Press," or MSM. Their economic power and only be matched by massive voter participation.
Our "free market" fundamentalist economic system, like slavery and feudalism, is authoritarian by definition. There are the 1%, who own and manipulate this authoritarian economic system to their exclusive benefit. Throughout our history, oligarch greed has always maximized economic inequality and abused the 99%. This was true under British colonialism, American slavery, American Industrialists, and now by oligarchs of American Dirty Energy, banks, Wall Street, and High Tech.
As Professor Richard Wolff says, "We can do better than capitalism." Capitalism grew out of the failures of Feudalism. Now we need to thoughtfully determine the next better system to replace "Cannibal Capitalism:"
Thom, thanks again for a forthright , thorough look at whats in store for us if Republicans win this next election. They are attempting all their dirty tricks . Showing up masked and armed at polling places. Having people arrested or threatening to. Harassing voters by attempting to see who their voting for.
These tactics are the norm in other governments that choose Authoritarianism over Democracy.
Thats why we still have the Electoral College.
Because of Republican fears that their white supremacy might be interrupted if we have one person: one vote.
For them money must count. Power must count. And the Supremacists Court has pushed these things in place for them.
I voted last night/late afternoon in Denver. It was cold, windy, and I walke the 3 blocks to the nearbyv24-hour Dropbox. I’d spent more than an hour filling out my 6-page ballot mailed to me last week. And I just wanted that satisfaction of putting it from my hands into the safety of the state- provided reinforced metal box. If only MORE states made voting as easy as it is in Colorado. No election police, no ID requirement, endless choices of where and when each qualified citizen can vote. I walked home satisfied and happy to live in a democracy and a state that trusts me to do right thing, easy things for me to cast my opinions
After WWII, my uncle got a job with a new company making a new product, electric powered adding machines and typewriters. He worked for IBM the rest of his life. He didn't complete high school, so as IBM moved to computers, he became low value, and IBM gave him early retirement.
His retirement was delayed while they made him a fantastic offer, fly back and forth to Chile for a while.
His last job with IBM was flying suitcases stuffed with $100 bills to help the dictator, really ANY dictator, prevent Allende from nationalizing the brand new state of the art IBM computer factory. It wasn't illegal, but fairly risky.
You'd think with such a widespread, worldwide cabal of hundreds of millions of irreligious, democratic, liberal, progressive pedophiles raping babies, drinking their blood, killing them, and then sacrificing their innocent souls to Satan (not necessarily in that order?) that it would be fairly easy to sleuth out where these Temples of Doom actually exit. Even Indiana Jones couldn't find any.
But, see, that's the thing: Objective truth is totally beside the point when whipping up raw hate and fear for political power. The very first warning sign of creeping authoritarianism is going all in on the "big lie," the promotion of demonstrably false accusations hurled at their perceived "enemies," which is anyone threatening their grip on power, and which is the vast majority -- ergo, minority rule is part and parcel to wingnut governance.
Authoritarianism thrives on lies; democracy thrives on truth. Nowadays, indeed if they ever have, Republican snowflakes can't handle the truth, a foreign concept to the rank and file. The power of lies, big or little, is perhaps democracy's worst enemy. Bearing false witness against thy neighbors is perhaps the worst of all the many sins of the newly minted Republican Party of Trumpism -- long in the making, long in the unmaking.
The powerful Republican tactics to defeat democracy Thom describes are amplified by two other factors. One is the demagoguery Trump unleashed, all through his presidency, in his endless manic rallies. The apex was the one on January 6, but they have continued undiminished. In five years now Trump has created a fascistic personality cult, the equal in every respect to Hitler's achievement in the 1930's. The cult's political might is displayed in the many election-denier candidates the GOP is currently campaigning, and even moreso by the overwhelming majority of Republican voters admitting to their comfort in voting for them.
We have, then, a very powerful political party attacking democracy head-on.
The other factor is the inherent delicacy and vulnerability of democracy itself. This is a long and detailed history, beginning with the Founding Fathers' open hostility to popular democracy and their ingenious writing of a Constitution to render it impossible. (Details here: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/10/19/democracy-defenseless-and-midterms-can-kill-it .)
No midterm election in history is more important than this one. Please, please vote--not "as if" but because your democracy depends on it.
It all reminds me of an abusive relationship. The bad partner does it in increments, but the actions and lies get bolder with time. The passive person does what they can to appease the situation, makes excuses for them, and hides their bruises.
What we are seeing has become ridiculous, indeed. I keep picturing the Qanon Shaman praying in the Senate chamber. Now that's a cartoon!
Thom: I have followed you for years, and you have inspired me to write. I follow you here and on Medium, but my question is about publishing my own work: I've spent the past few months working on a three-part series about our nation that makes more sense as a book, so I have yet to publish it anywhere. I need some smart advice on the next step. Would you be willing to look over my work, and perhaps suggest who I might show it to for publishing consideration? I value your work as a human being, always trying to help us be 'one thought smarter' than we were the day before. I'd like to think I can contribute in the same way, with this educational and historical/political work. As a writer, I have no experience actually getting a work published in book form, and would greatly value any guidance you could provide. Tim S.
I'd go further. I've raised a number of kids to varying extents. A common problem with kids born since TV became affordable is that they are programmed to think anything can be solved in less than one hour. They are OK with something lasting two episodes, but that's the limit.
When I was a kid, TV told us that white men were supermen and everyone else was - less. Lots of white men died trying to live up to that stupidity. This is the same thing, only different.
They have a cartoon view of authoritarianism, and all politics, and economics, and education, and actually it's a "whole world filter". They truly do live in a bubble. The interesting thing is every one of them that I talk to lives in a different bubble, many with relatively few areas of overlap.
I'm strongly tempted to make my own bubble and keep it away from their bubbles.
RE: " ... white men benefited from the tools of authoritarianism being used to maintain their privileged positions in family, business, and society."
On of their "tools of authoritarianism," which you didn't call out here, is our "free market" fundamentalist economic system. This authoritarian economic tool protects and empowers our anti-democratic oligarchs. Auhoritarian oligarchs have been able to pick most justices on SCOTUS. They totally own the GQP and too many members of the Democratic Party. This has given anti-democratic oligarchs control of state and national legislation. They are writting laws for their benefit. They are growing their power and wealth via oligopolies and stock buy backs. One of those oligopolies is our "Free Press," or MSM. Their economic power and only be matched by massive voter participation.
Our "free market" fundamentalist economic system, like slavery and feudalism, is authoritarian by definition. There are the 1%, who own and manipulate this authoritarian economic system to their exclusive benefit. Throughout our history, oligarch greed has always maximized economic inequality and abused the 99%. This was true under British colonialism, American slavery, American Industrialists, and now by oligarchs of American Dirty Energy, banks, Wall Street, and High Tech.
As Professor Richard Wolff says, "We can do better than capitalism." Capitalism grew out of the failures of Feudalism. Now we need to thoughtfully determine the next better system to replace "Cannibal Capitalism:"
https://bookshop.org/p/books/cannibal-capitalism-how-our-system-is-devouring-democracy-care-and-the-planetand-what-we-can-do-about-it-nancy-fraser/16071930
Thom, thanks again for a forthright , thorough look at whats in store for us if Republicans win this next election. They are attempting all their dirty tricks . Showing up masked and armed at polling places. Having people arrested or threatening to. Harassing voters by attempting to see who their voting for.
These tactics are the norm in other governments that choose Authoritarianism over Democracy.
Thats why we still have the Electoral College.
Because of Republican fears that their white supremacy might be interrupted if we have one person: one vote.
For them money must count. Power must count. And the Supremacists Court has pushed these things in place for them.
I voted last night/late afternoon in Denver. It was cold, windy, and I walke the 3 blocks to the nearbyv24-hour Dropbox. I’d spent more than an hour filling out my 6-page ballot mailed to me last week. And I just wanted that satisfaction of putting it from my hands into the safety of the state- provided reinforced metal box. If only MORE states made voting as easy as it is in Colorado. No election police, no ID requirement, endless choices of where and when each qualified citizen can vote. I walked home satisfied and happy to live in a democracy and a state that trusts me to do right thing, easy things for me to cast my opinions
After WWII, my uncle got a job with a new company making a new product, electric powered adding machines and typewriters. He worked for IBM the rest of his life. He didn't complete high school, so as IBM moved to computers, he became low value, and IBM gave him early retirement.
His retirement was delayed while they made him a fantastic offer, fly back and forth to Chile for a while.
His last job with IBM was flying suitcases stuffed with $100 bills to help the dictator, really ANY dictator, prevent Allende from nationalizing the brand new state of the art IBM computer factory. It wasn't illegal, but fairly risky.
You'd think with such a widespread, worldwide cabal of hundreds of millions of irreligious, democratic, liberal, progressive pedophiles raping babies, drinking their blood, killing them, and then sacrificing their innocent souls to Satan (not necessarily in that order?) that it would be fairly easy to sleuth out where these Temples of Doom actually exit. Even Indiana Jones couldn't find any.
But, see, that's the thing: Objective truth is totally beside the point when whipping up raw hate and fear for political power. The very first warning sign of creeping authoritarianism is going all in on the "big lie," the promotion of demonstrably false accusations hurled at their perceived "enemies," which is anyone threatening their grip on power, and which is the vast majority -- ergo, minority rule is part and parcel to wingnut governance.
Authoritarianism thrives on lies; democracy thrives on truth. Nowadays, indeed if they ever have, Republican snowflakes can't handle the truth, a foreign concept to the rank and file. The power of lies, big or little, is perhaps democracy's worst enemy. Bearing false witness against thy neighbors is perhaps the worst of all the many sins of the newly minted Republican Party of Trumpism -- long in the making, long in the unmaking.
The powerful Republican tactics to defeat democracy Thom describes are amplified by two other factors. One is the demagoguery Trump unleashed, all through his presidency, in his endless manic rallies. The apex was the one on January 6, but they have continued undiminished. In five years now Trump has created a fascistic personality cult, the equal in every respect to Hitler's achievement in the 1930's. The cult's political might is displayed in the many election-denier candidates the GOP is currently campaigning, and even moreso by the overwhelming majority of Republican voters admitting to their comfort in voting for them.
We have, then, a very powerful political party attacking democracy head-on.
The other factor is the inherent delicacy and vulnerability of democracy itself. This is a long and detailed history, beginning with the Founding Fathers' open hostility to popular democracy and their ingenious writing of a Constitution to render it impossible. (Details here: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/10/19/democracy-defenseless-and-midterms-can-kill-it .)
No midterm election in history is more important than this one. Please, please vote--not "as if" but because your democracy depends on it.
It all reminds me of an abusive relationship. The bad partner does it in increments, but the actions and lies get bolder with time. The passive person does what they can to appease the situation, makes excuses for them, and hides their bruises.
What we are seeing has become ridiculous, indeed. I keep picturing the Qanon Shaman praying in the Senate chamber. Now that's a cartoon!
Thom: I have followed you for years, and you have inspired me to write. I follow you here and on Medium, but my question is about publishing my own work: I've spent the past few months working on a three-part series about our nation that makes more sense as a book, so I have yet to publish it anywhere. I need some smart advice on the next step. Would you be willing to look over my work, and perhaps suggest who I might show it to for publishing consideration? I value your work as a human being, always trying to help us be 'one thought smarter' than we were the day before. I'd like to think I can contribute in the same way, with this educational and historical/political work. As a writer, I have no experience actually getting a work published in book form, and would greatly value any guidance you could provide. Tim S.
I'd go further. I've raised a number of kids to varying extents. A common problem with kids born since TV became affordable is that they are programmed to think anything can be solved in less than one hour. They are OK with something lasting two episodes, but that's the limit.
When I was a kid, TV told us that white men were supermen and everyone else was - less. Lots of white men died trying to live up to that stupidity. This is the same thing, only different.
They have a cartoon view of authoritarianism, and all politics, and economics, and education, and actually it's a "whole world filter". They truly do live in a bubble. The interesting thing is every one of them that I talk to lives in a different bubble, many with relatively few areas of overlap.
I'm strongly tempted to make my own bubble and keep it away from their bubbles.