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Using the simplest of labels to distinguish political beliefs is another important element to influence and inspire citizens, and autocrat vs. democrat sounds like a perfect choice. I believe that we also need to get as precise with the definitions of the two concepts so allow me to offer some descriptions using a scale of representative government types, with autocratic republics on the right and democratic republics on the on the left. Specifically, the farthest right is a “role model autocratic republic” (if you can call one guy representing everyone’s interests to be a republic). It’s the kind of republic that autocrats would like to have if they have the choice. i.e., one person rules. Best example I can think of is Ming the Merciless-Emperor of the Universe, but there are real live autocrats who are in charge of their countries today. At the other end of the scale is a role model democratic republic (the kind that other democracies would choose to have if they had the choice). It’s the kind of democracy that uses best practice-based solutions to meet its purpose. Between the two endpoints lies America’s republic, maybe not as close to autocracy as democracy right now, but certainly in the range of a plutocracy or at the very least, a kleptocracy.

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The theme in this Report is "why". Perhaps the media has concluded, why ask why. If the questioner is thinking we need that answer in the context of "know thy enemy", we can see Trump and Putin are psychopaths. Their agendas are simple; it's I want what I want, and I want it regardless of what it does to others. Their world is populated by one, and all the rest of us are objects.

The old know thy enemy and you will know thyself does not apply; what they want changes on a whim or perceived grievance and is unknowable. The people that have chosen to follow Trump and Putin are caught-up in the games they play with no real understanding of their leader. They think the policies they have seen so far and that has served them well will always be. In the history of the world's psychopaths, the followers pay the price eventually.

Many politically savvy and media people knew Trump was bat-shit crazy but thought Putin was different. I think they found out he was just a less overt kind of crook and crazy.

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I disagree, you are citing a red herring, one that is indeed evidence of how the two party system is failing under the oligarchy that runs it and Democrats are completely unable to protect us. You are currently promoting war in Ukraine, not peace, and you have censored valid criticism and the discussion of certain topics which are unfavorable to Democrats. You have picked an idol in Joe Biden while distracting with the obvious misdeeds of the Republican Party and Trump. You have revived the Cold War and McCarthyism without an honest analysis of why Putin invaded Ukraine. You have the wrong diagnosis and thus the wrong prescribed treatment. Chris Hedges sums it up with "A society that prohibits the capacity to speak in truth extinguishes the capacity to live in justice." You Thom Hartmann are part and parcel of our country's lurch to the right, ignorant of the reality of how Democrats have failed us completely, picking scapegoats instead of using your megaphone to pressure Democratic leadership to do what is right.

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