There are some good points in that article. One of the most important is: "We prevent that possibility when we dehumanize potential defectors, make sweeping statements like 'the police won’t help,' never encourage people to join our side and create chaotic scenes on the street."
One of my biggest fears is that if there is a coup, it will be answered by smashing people's property, by declaring all Republicans evil, by intimidating people on the streets. Those moves will convince people their choice is between two dictatorships, and they'll prefer the devil they know.
Problem is, a lot of the Republican Trumpites are already convinced that the Democrats will become Dictators. They are seriously afraid there will be a "white genocide" if Biden is elected. So they figure, why wait? They are primed to jump straight to violence as way of 'pre-empting' what they think will happen.
The problem part with that is, if there's a coup, they may well act as if that already happened ... i.e getting revenge for what they thought the BLM and Dems would have done.
Yeah, I know that makes no sense, but that's the way they are talking.
This whole election is about fear. The central problem is that one person has so much power. If everyone is afraid of the other side holding that power, that's not unreasonable. However, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans wants to reduce it; they want their candidate to have it. The Democrats jabbered for a while about "resistance," as if they were going to oppose the concentration of power. As soon as the election campaign came around, all thoughts of "resistance," which were never anything but a smokescreen in the first place, vanished. Obama complained that Trump showed "no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends."
Whoever wins, this isn't going to change soon. Trump exposed the dangers of concentration of power, but the only lesson the Democrats learned was that they should have all that "awesome power." Before 2016, the Republicans claimed to oppose the Imperial Presidency. Now they're its most ferocious champions.
Yup.. agreed.. I said back when Bush W was elected, he's not the guy you need to be worried about, but the next Republican President.
Typically Democrats won't dis-empower the POTUS, when in office, but they don't em-power the position either. Republicans though will concentrate power as much as they can, even illegally now.
Trump's at the tipping point in terms of Presidential power, where he's got as much as is legal, and is edging into illegal power grabs. IF he doesn't go full dictator, the next one will.
The thing is.. for all the checks and balances, nothing seems to stop this process. I think America as a whole has largely given up on the ideas or ideals framed in the Constitution. Certainly, none of the politicians seem to be interested in getting along and working together for the betterment of the people. Politics is basically just a team sport with no referees now.
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madfilkentist - (no subject) +3 responses
no subject
Date: 2020-09-25 05:40 am (UTC)One of my biggest fears is that if there is a coup, it will be answered by smashing people's property, by declaring all Republicans evil, by intimidating people on the streets. Those moves will convince people their choice is between two dictatorships, and they'll prefer the devil they know.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-26 09:02 am (UTC)Problem is, a lot of the Republican Trumpites are already convinced that the Democrats will become Dictators. They are seriously afraid there will be a "white genocide" if Biden is elected. So they figure, why wait? They are primed to jump straight to violence as way of 'pre-empting' what they think will happen.
The problem part with that is, if there's a coup, they may well act as if that already happened ... i.e getting revenge for what they thought the BLM and Dems would have done.
Yeah, I know that makes no sense, but that's the way they are talking.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-26 09:31 am (UTC)Whoever wins, this isn't going to change soon. Trump exposed the dangers of concentration of power, but the only lesson the Democrats learned was that they should have all that "awesome power." Before 2016, the Republicans claimed to oppose the Imperial Presidency. Now they're its most ferocious champions.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-26 09:45 am (UTC)Yup.. agreed.. I said back when Bush W was elected, he's not the guy you need to be worried about, but the next Republican President.
Typically Democrats won't dis-empower the POTUS, when in office, but they don't em-power the position either. Republicans though will concentrate power as much as they can, even illegally now.
Trump's at the tipping point in terms of Presidential power, where he's got as much as is legal, and is edging into illegal power grabs. IF he doesn't go full dictator, the next one will.
The thing is.. for all the checks and balances, nothing seems to stop this process. I think America as a whole has largely given up on the ideas or ideals framed in the Constitution. Certainly, none of the politicians seem to be interested in getting along and working together for the betterment of the people. Politics is basically just a team sport with no referees now.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-25 05:52 pm (UTC)