How did this happen?

[AverageOldGuy]

How did a vibrant, powerful, wealthy democratic republic descend into a dictatorship in less than a year?

Make no mistake about it: Trump's dispatch of National Guard troops to cities has nothing to do with crime. No. It's a dry run for the 2026 and 2028 elections when military force will be used to seize voting equipment and records after which Republicans will be installed in the White House and Congress as well as in state offices. Future elections will be pro forma, for show only.

Somewhere at some point in the future historians will ask how did this happen?

I wish I knew hope it happened because, if I did, then maybe others do and if there's enough of us we can stop it. But we can't stop it. The Courts were our last resort and Trump is simply ignoring the courts.

We were warned.
-- We had the lessons of history. Every republic that has fallen to a dictator has been turned inside out by historians. Their books are there to be studied. Maybe we didn't study them enough. Or, more likely, we studied them then declared "It can't happen here . . . we are special."
-- We had the warnings. From Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" to dozens of other works over the past few years -- especially since Trump was elected in 2016 -- all of them warned us that the threat was here, inside the house, and we could lose. Maybe we ignored them. Or maybe we declared "It can't happen here . . . we are special."
-- We had lots of people with rose-colored glasses. "Don't worry," they told us, "The courts will stop him." "We will win this election, don't worry." "When everyone reads Project 2025, they will run away from Republicans." They were blind. And, of course, we all knew "It can't happen here . . . we are special."

Sternly-worded letters mean nothing when faced with bayonets.

Court orders? Let the court enforce their orders -- Trump has the military, the Courts have nothing.

Do the right thing? Give me a break -- when did an up-and-coming dictator give a damn about the right thing?

An informed citizenry? Where is this informed citizenry?

It's over. You have three choices:
-- Get your passport and leave the country.
-- Do as the German people did in the 1930's -- shrug your shoulders and go on about your business.
-- Resist as best you can and risk Alligator Alcatraz or a bullet in the head.

Have a good evening. Sleep tight.

[kacekwl]

1. We were warned. We knew what wss

coming. What I feared happened. The entire Republican party and the Republican Congress completely folded to a dictator they ceded their responsibility to govern to Stephen Miller and a small group of power hungry lunatic, racist, assholes who want it all for themselves. And here we are.

[markodochartaigh]

3. And the Republicans knew what they were doing.

They were going to have a brokered convention to choose another candidate in 2015. And a number of their leaders refused to support Trump. They knew that if they put an authoritarian Strong Leader who was not committed to democracy at the head of their party they were endangering democracy. But the Republican party put party before country.

[markodochartaigh]

2. "Or,

more likely, we studied them then declared "It can't happen here . . . we are special."


B.I.N.G.O.

[Skittles]

4. when you allow someone who could not pass a background check to be president

ALL BETS ARE OFF

[Eko]

5. I'll go with the third choice.

[usonian]

6. Read your history.

I read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" when I was an impressionable kid.
Never lost the impression.
I see the pattern all over.
Fascists create a hated group and build a hate army against it.

Recommended reading.

Fascist Playbook. step by step.

10 Small Steps: Executing the Fascist Playbook
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-small-steps-executing-the-fascist-playbook_b_585dfec2e4b04d7df167cfab

The Fascists’ Playbook
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/08/the-fascists-playbook/


THE BOOK! It's a CHECKLIST

[J_William_Ryan]

7. "How did a vibrant, powerful, wealthy democratic republic descend into a dictatorship in less than a year?"

The consequence of democracy’s greatest flaw: the voters – their fear, ignorance, and stupidity; their racism, bigotry, and hate.

The people are ultimately responsible for the bad government they get.

[newdeal2]

8. People didn't think it could get so bad or they could ride it out

We still have a little bit of time to turn this around, but not much and not if everyone capitulates.

[BWdem4life]

9. Fourth option exists for some

Namely secession.

[unblock]

10. less than a year? it took decades

the right wing spent trillions of dollars and decades harassing, distorting, corrupting, and to a large extent just plain owning the media, until it became a suitable propaganda network.

a portion of it is blatantly right-wing propaganda, from rush limbaugh to others on AM radio, to foxnews, to oan, newsmax, right-wing podcasters, etc., and the rest of it has been at best bullied into allowing those right-wingers to dominate discourse, in terms of topic, framing, catch-phrases, word choices, and the terms of debate (republicans must be given equal or more time, and equal or more respect, etc, no matter how much they lie or disrespect others or the process, etc.).

if you can dig up some political news reporting or discussions shows from the 1970s, you'd be blown away at how different it was back then. mutual respect, politeness, cooperation, it was considered poor form not to end the show with some point of agreement, etc. and they agreed on the basic facts. none of this "fake news" crap.


once they had a favorable news environment in place, then they were able to turn to corrupting parts of the government, which is what the first donnie adminstration was all about. by the time he got back into office, especially after the media largely brushed off his felony convictions, it was obvious he could get away with murder, and it was obvious he would govern as an actual autocrat, as opposed to merely a wannabe in his first term.

and all this was made possible by the steady consolidation of wealth starting with reagan.

it took decades, during which the left noticed all this with alarm, but weren't able to do anything effective at all other than call it out. we needed to raise billions to protect the media or at least counter them. we didn't.