We are not in the 1930s, but the crises we face now may prove just as serious. Donald Trump and his MAGA followers are edging closer to the fascist agenda. Trump's last performance on NBC's Meet the Press was definitely a case of 'non compos mentis.' Killing USAID will lead to increased famine and millions of deaths in the Third World. Iran is not yet a nuclear power, but North Korea is fast turning itself into a rogue Walmart for anyone who wants to buy ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. In Trump's rambling, narcissistic performance on NBC, he took credit for adjusting his supposed deal with Iran to include a ban on buying nuclear weapons as well as developing them. The only conclusion is that someone in U.S. intelligence told Trump about North Korea. Since Trump accuses the Iranians of lying and ignoring any deal they sign, it does not make sense to think that Trump believes that signing a deal now will accomplish much except as a public relations gimmick to escape from the mess he has created. Since Trump killed several levels of Iran's leadership, it is less than clear who he can negotiate with. All this is likely to be exacerbated by the upcoming super El Niño, which, combined with rising fuel and fertilizer costs, will make worldwide famine an even greater problem at precisely the moment when Trump has dismantled the protective mechanisms designed to alleviate this kind of emergency. You are correct. This is not 1929 or the 1930s; it may prove far worse. There is hope. We've learned a great deal in the last decades, and communications are far better than they were back then, but we've also seen a drift to a new kind of modern Dark Ages, in which public apathy has allowed idiocy to prevail. Trump is a symptom of a greater malaise, the kind that rained plagues down on ancient Egypt. You are right. Hope springs eternal, but it will take action and common sense to prevent yet another catastrophe.
In a posting on my blog, The Shouting Match in which I pushed the point that protests against Trumpism can be helpful, but that it can only be defeated at the polls, I noted that the scholars of authoritarianism, some of whom you mention, write as though we have already crossed the red line into autocracy. Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote, ”[H]istory shows us that electoral competition alone is insufficient to fend off extremist threats. Good ideas don’t always win out. And candidates seeking to subvert democracy don’t always lose…. Democracy’s last bastion of defense is civil society.”
No. Free and fair elections are the last bastion.
Timothy Snyder in his book On Tryanny, gives us 20 rules for resistance. For all of the important reminders Snyder provides of the power and importance of civic institutions and organizations to resist, there is no mention of reclaiming power from would-be authoritarians at the ballot box.
As long as we still have a democracy, the ballot remains stronger than the bullet.
We are not in the 1930s, but the crises we face now may prove just as serious. Donald Trump and his MAGA followers are edging closer to the fascist agenda. Trump's last performance on NBC's Meet the Press was definitely a case of 'non compos mentis.' Killing USAID will lead to increased famine and millions of deaths in the Third World. Iran is not yet a nuclear power, but North Korea is fast turning itself into a rogue Walmart for anyone who wants to buy ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. In Trump's rambling, narcissistic performance on NBC, he took credit for adjusting his supposed deal with Iran to include a ban on buying nuclear weapons as well as developing them. The only conclusion is that someone in U.S. intelligence told Trump about North Korea. Since Trump accuses the Iranians of lying and ignoring any deal they sign, it does not make sense to think that Trump believes that signing a deal now will accomplish much except as a public relations gimmick to escape from the mess he has created. Since Trump killed several levels of Iran's leadership, it is less than clear who he can negotiate with. All this is likely to be exacerbated by the upcoming super El Niño, which, combined with rising fuel and fertilizer costs, will make worldwide famine an even greater problem at precisely the moment when Trump has dismantled the protective mechanisms designed to alleviate this kind of emergency. You are correct. This is not 1929 or the 1930s; it may prove far worse. There is hope. We've learned a great deal in the last decades, and communications are far better than they were back then, but we've also seen a drift to a new kind of modern Dark Ages, in which public apathy has allowed idiocy to prevail. Trump is a symptom of a greater malaise, the kind that rained plagues down on ancient Egypt. You are right. Hope springs eternal, but it will take action and common sense to prevent yet another catastrophe.
In a posting on my blog, The Shouting Match in which I pushed the point that protests against Trumpism can be helpful, but that it can only be defeated at the polls, I noted that the scholars of authoritarianism, some of whom you mention, write as though we have already crossed the red line into autocracy. Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote, ”[H]istory shows us that electoral competition alone is insufficient to fend off extremist threats. Good ideas don’t always win out. And candidates seeking to subvert democracy don’t always lose…. Democracy’s last bastion of defense is civil society.”
No. Free and fair elections are the last bastion.
Timothy Snyder in his book On Tryanny, gives us 20 rules for resistance. For all of the important reminders Snyder provides of the power and importance of civic institutions and organizations to resist, there is no mention of reclaiming power from would-be authoritarians at the ballot box.
As long as we still have a democracy, the ballot remains stronger than the bullet.
What about 1848