'THE WARNING SIGNS ARE REAL': NYT column questions whether American democracy can survive Trump (NO)

[CousinIT]

http://www.businessinsider.com/can-american-democracy-survive-trump-presidency-2016-12

Writers Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt laid out a particularly sobering assessment of the incoming president's authoritarian temperament and dismissal of political and social norms.

They arrived at this conclusion: "Mr. Trump is not the first American politician with authoritarian tendencies. ... But he is the first in modern American history to be elected president."

The authors attributed the rise of Trump to a decades-long breakdown of civility among America's elected officials. They cited legislative obstruction and "the decline of partisan restraint" as cracks that have weakened America's democratic foundation. (NOTE FROM CousinIT: the legislative obstruction and decline of partisan restraint all came from the GOP - we just suffered EIGHT YEARS of unprecedented obstruction from the GOP against Obama and look what they just did in NC - 99% of blame for this lies at the feet of the GOP!)

Comparing Trump to other authoritarian figures like former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the late Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, The Times called Trump a "serial norm-breaker" who, among other things, routinely sidesteps journalists and news organizations whose job it is to publicly hold him to account.

[Jacob Boehme]

1. Has Der Gtterdmmerung begun?

The Trump slogan throughout the campaign was “Make America Great Again.”

But with almost no details on how this so called “greatness” was to come about, America was left to wonder wither we were bound if Trump were elected.

Now, in the post-electoral reality of Trumpworld, we finally learn the methods to be employed in “Making America Great Again.”

Kneel to your new masters America…. and fail to obey them at your peril.

Because the real slogan has always been: "Arbeit macht frei"

[gordianot]

2. Try the "Dictators Handbook".

An in depth study of Dictators "authors have a web site". The central theme for Dictators is "bad behavior is good politics" an apt description for Trump. I am reading it now and it fits Trump like a glove considering this creep has not yet been sworn into office.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. Thanks for the rec. I'll check it out.

[ffr]

3. Great, more anxiety as this never ending nightmare fails to be untrue.

I've lost my appetite and will to live. Come what may.

[gordianot]

4. My motto is soldly becoming spit in their eye even if it comes back.

They are going to eat the same shit sandwich you do but their tender constitution allows them to be more easily conned. I intend to carry a shaker of rhetorical salt to make the pain sharper and do not care how they respond. Expect little gain nothing to lose.

[JudyM]

6. MSM has done an enormous, grave disservice to democracy by drawing false equivalence between

Rethug's bad faith obstructionism and partisan destructiveness and anything Dems try to do... so the general populace feels we're just as responsible for the problems.

[AmericanActivist]

7. K n R nm

[bdamomma]

8. K&R