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With all due apologies to Jeff Foxworthy for lending me the “framing” device ...
by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Authoritarianism, principle of blind submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action.
In government, authoritarianism denotes any political system that concentrates power in the hands of a leader or a small elite that is not constitutionally responsible to the body of the people.
Authoritarian leaders often exercise power arbitrarily and without regard to existing bodies of law, and they usually cannot be replaced by citizens choosing freely among various competitors in elections.
The freedom to create opposition political parties or other alternative political groupings with which to compete for power with the ruling group is either limited or nonexistent in authoritarian regimes.
Authoritarianism — en.wikipedia.org
Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms. Under an authoritarian regime, individual freedoms are subordinate to the state, and there is no constitutional accountability and no rule of law.
Authoritarian regimes can be autocratic, with power concentrated in one person, or can be a committee, with power shared among officials and government institutions.[1] The political scientist Juan Linz synthesized authoritarian political systems as possessing four qualities: [2]
- Limited political pluralism, realized with legalistic constraints on the legislature, political parties, and interest groups;
- Political legitimacy based upon appeals to emotion, and identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat enemies of the people, socio-economic underdevelopment, and guerrilla insurgency;
- Minimal social mobilization consequent to legalistic constraints, such as political suppression of all anti-regime activities;
- Informally defined executive powers, which extend and allow government authority into every sphere of life.[3]
[...]
Current
The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples of states which are currently (or frequently) characterized as authoritarian:
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You just might have an aspiring Authoritarian problem, WHEN:
Trump in Helsinki:
"I have great confidence in my intelligence people. But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said. "Dan Coats [the director of national intelligence] came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."
Trump on Kim Jong Un:
Reporter: What surprised you most about Chairman Kim?
Mr Trump: “Great personality and very smart. Good combination. He’s a worthy negotiator. He’s negotiating on behalf of his people, a very worthy, very smart negotiator, absolutely. And we had a terrific day, and we learned a lot about each other and about our countries.
“I learned he’s a very talented man. I also learned that he loves his country very much.”
Trump praises China’s President Xi on their “very effective” Death Penalty:
In his speech, Trump said, "Their criminal list, a drug dealer gets a thing called the death penalty. Our criminal list, a drug dealer gets a thing called 'how about a fine?' And when I asked President Xi, I said do you have a drug problem? ‘No, no, no.’"
[...]
"‘No, we don't have a drug problem,'" he quoted Xi as saying. "I said why? ‘Death penalty. We give death penalty to people that sell drugs, end of problem.’"
[...]
“So if we want to get smart, we can get smart," said the president. "You can end the drug problem – you can end it a lot faster than you think."
Trump’s initial take on the question of abortion:
“There has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions [...]
Trump stands behind Saudi Crown Prince, implicated in the murder of a Journalist critical of his authoritarian regime:
Donald Trump has expressed his unstinting support for Saudi Arabia and claimed there was “nothing definitive” linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In the extraordinary statement issued on Tuesday – which begins with the words “The world is a very dangerous place!” – Trump quotes Saudi officials as describing Khashoggi as an “enemy of the state”.
Trump on Putin’s “leadership” skills:
Trump made the remark during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart.
"But he's a killer," O'Reilly said to Trump.
[...]
"[Putin]'s running his country and
at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country," Trump told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in December 2015.
When a wantabee Authoritarian tells you ‘who they are’ — Believe them, the first time.
It just might save you a lot of grief in the long run.
It just might save your nation too. From their “unchecked ambitions,” when they finally proclaimed their “Above the Law” intentions publicly. For all to see …
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You just might be a Strongman Apprentice — when you tell the Congress: “Go F—Yourself!”
Last night Donald Trump and his family filed a lawsuit to prohibit Deutsche Bank and Capital One from turning over his financial information to congressional investigators. The legal basis for the lawsuit, in layman’s terms, is as follows: Congress is mean and only wants the information because it hates Trump. Or, to quote the only-slightly-more-sophisticated language of the lawsuit, “The subpoenas were issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses and the private information of the president and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage. No grounds exist to establish any purpose other than a political one.”
This same argument runs nearly all of Trump’s refusals to abide congressional subpoenas. “These aren’t, like, impartial people,” the president declared of Congress. “The Democrats are trying to win 2020.”
The first thing to understand about this legal theory is that it is not a legal theory. Congress is a coequal branch of government which has a legal right to conduct investigations, including of the Executive branch and its officials. [...]
Or in other words: “So there! Neener Neener. So sue me, goodie-two-shoes Morons.”
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