"I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!"

[dajoki]

So is this the way our military leaders feel? They just don't like Democrats and they are not afraid to shout it out loud at some type of formal function, imagine how they speak in private. They seem to be forgetting the decades of repub nonsense that brought us to this point and are willing to disparage an entire political party without giving it a second thought. It appears that these generals would prefer any other repub over any Democrat despite their illiberal behavior. Something is very wrong here!!!
---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/trump-mcraven-syria-military.html?te=1&nl=david-leonhardt&emc=edit_ty_20191018?campaign_id=39&instance_id=13189&segment_id=18021&user_id=ca02b127fa17b8d676fde27e367a12bb®i_id=89651072

These men and women, of all political persuasions, have seen the assaults on our institutions: on the intelligence and law enforcement community, the State Department and the press. They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own. They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, “I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!”

Those words echoed with me throughout the week. It is easy to destroy an organization if you have no appreciation for what makes that organization great. We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. We are the most powerful nation in the world because our ideals of universal freedom and equality have been backed up by our belief that we were champions of justice, the protectors of the less fortunate.

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[dewsgirl]

2. K and R

[TheBlackAdder]

3. They don't like Democrats? Well, it's Trump and most all Republicans who are destroying America!

[world wide wally]

4. The Democrats won WWII, numbnutz

[awesomerwb1]

5. Typical republican

Has to say something negative about the Dems before criticizing his corrupt, treasonous colleagues.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. David Brooks pathetic NYT Op Ed indicates given a Warren Trump

choice he may have to stick with Trump because there's no candidate for him.

truly pathetic

[Celerity]

7. no, he says he would vote for Warren, just that she is a bad option to have as the choice

versus Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/trump-warren-2020.html

snip

And yet, if it comes to Trump vs. Warren in a general election, the only plausible choice is to support Warren. Over the past month Donald Trump has given us fresh reminders of the unique and exceptional ways he corrupts American life. You’re either part of removing that corruption or you are not. When your nation’s political system is in danger, staying home and not voting is not a responsible option. Politics is downstream from morality and culture. Warren represents a policy wrong turn, in my view, but policies can be argued about and reversed. Trump represents a much more important and fundamental threat — to the norms, values, standards and soul of this country.

Last week, Trump all but greenlighted the ethnic cleansing of Kurds without an ounce of remorse. He normalizes dishonesty and valorizes cruelty. His letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminds us yet again that we have a president whose professional competence is at kindergarten level. Once a nation has lost its heart, mind and soul, it is very hard to get these things back.

Furthermore, Trump is an unprecedented threat to democratic institutions. Over the past few years, I’ve thought the progressive fears of incipient American fascism were vastly overblown. But, especially over the past month, Trump has worked overtime to validate those fears and to raise the horrifying specter of what he’ll be like if he is given a second term and is vindicated, unhinged and unwell.

In their book “How Democracies Die,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that authoritarians undermine democracy in several ways. They reject the democratic rules of the game, the unwritten norms we rely upon to make the political system work. They deny the legitimacy of their political opponents, using extreme language to deny them standing as co-citizens. They tolerate or even encourage violence, threatening to take legal action against critics in rival parties. Trump has been guilty of all three sins, and given a second term he will feel free to stomp where up until now he has merely trod.

This election is about whether we can hold together as a functioning nation, across our economic, racial, geographic and ideological divides. In such circumstances, a bad option is better than a suicidal one.

snip

[dajoki]

8. But he frames it as a difficult choice n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. yes, agreed, but that it is a tough choice for him is the pathetic part

I put him in the Susan Collins "perpetually concerned" grouping

[real Cannabis calm]

9. K&R