I prefer to stick to legal analysis, like last week’s posting (Illegal child labor is one legal route to shut down the family separations), and avoid fast publicizing of other people’s analysis.
But Garry Kasparov (yes, that Garry Kasparov), nailed a bunch of things about the rise of dictators, public reactions, and the behavior of Trump. It’s here:
The demagogue and the Democrats.
Kasparov recounts having to flee the post-Soviet dictatorships of the ex-USSR, his decision to move to “the greatest city in the greatest nation”, and notes that Trump is systematically weakening one pillar of democracy after another.
AND… the money quote:
For anyone horrified by where such hate-mongering may lead, by what such a crowd might be capable of, I’m afraid that there is no natural limit. Demagogues don’t find radicals to lead; they radicalize their followers one outrage at a time. Trump drags his supporters down by association every time they fail to disown him, to condemn him. Eventually they have no one else — and no one else will have them.
I’m sure that you’ve had a friend or relative who got red pilled… Kasparov really nails it on this point.
AAAANND….
This should serve as a warning to those Democrats like Joe Biden talking about winning over Trump supporters in 2020. While a few might be disappointed enough with him to stay home on election day, they are just as likely to double down, especially if Trump succeeds in making the Democrats’ most extreme members and most extreme positions into the face of the Democratic party.
Why are we arguing for investigation, and then impeachment of Trump?
Because no one will have any reason to vote for us if we pretend Trump is normal. Would you vote for us if we babble about health care in the face of a rising dictator?
And right on cue today, I see an awesome post by shaggydaahoud, “How ANY Dem nominee beats Trump”.
Yeah, it’s a long repost of a looong Twitter thread from Tim Wise, about combatting David Duke in Louisiana in the 1990s… but it’s also right on target.
(Discussing the 1990 election against Duke for Senate:) ...we had mainstream Democratic consultants who warned us against focusing too much on it. They said that "played into Duke's hands" and allowed him to set the agenda.…
...9/ I say "sadly" because doing that normalized Duke as a regular candidate. Attacking his generic character or bill paying habits (or even discussing his inadequate plans for job creation, etc) treated him like a normal candidate. But he was/is a NAZI…
...14/ But we bore some responsibility for that because we got suckered into playing this conventional game and "not playing into his narrative." Anyway, Duke gets 60% of the vote, black and white liberal turnout is lower than it should have been and Duke gets 44% of [the overall] vote… [and wins]
(Now, about the 1991 election against Duke, for Governor:) ...15/ In the Governor's race we dispensed w/ all that bullshit. We talked about Duke's ongoing Nazism and the moral/practical evil of his racist appeals. We discussed how that moral evil would have real world consequences (driving tourists and business away, rightly so, from LA)…
...17/ Now, did this flip any of Duke's 1990 voters? Nah, not really. Indeed he got 65k MORE votes in the Governor's race than the Senate race. But it was never about flipping them. We knew that would be almost impossible…
...21/ When it was over, Duke had gotten 65k more votes than in 90, but his white share went to 55 (from 60) and overall to 39 (from 44) because the anti-Duke turnout swamped him...So what does this have to do with 2020 and Trump? Do I really need to explain it?...
As Wise says: “Any Trump voters who regret their vote don’t need to be pandered to.”
And needless to say, any who do not regret their choice must simply be outvoted by motivated non-Republican voters.
***
Truly? I think that the “centrist” (read: Pro Wall Street) Democrats are banking on reassuring the nice banksters and billionaires that they won’t rock the boat, that the “centrists” will make sure the income inequality continues and Wall Street’s good times roll on… I don’t think ANYONE with two functioning neurons actually wants Trump anymore.
But they’re playing with fire. Don’t give a nation a CAUSE of opposing dictatorship, demagoguery and racism and that nation won’t take the cause up.