What do the free nations of the world think of what has so quickly happened in America?

[elocs]

In just over 100 days our democracy has proven to be fragile and is crumbling without bullets, bombs, or missiles being fired. I wonder if European nations are shocked about how quickly it has happened, seeing Trump issue executive orders with impunity and largely unchallenged. Who will stop him if and when he just decides to arrest the judges who stand in his way? This has been largely an ineffectively challenged shock and awe.
I wonder what the future history books of the free nations of the world will say about this time in America and if they will learn a lesson from it?

[Prairie_Seagull]

1. This is an outstanding question.

Be nice if there were a page on DU where this kind of info could be shared when run across.

[Prairie_Seagull]

4. Like all of us, I like to keep my finger on the pulse.

Having some trouble finding the heartbeat.

[Jit423]

25. I wonder if the "free" world cares?

Seems it doesn't care for democracy, justice, or humanity anywhere.

[Blues Heron]

2. He already arrested a judge, nobody stopped him. He has immunity.

[thesquanderer]

12. Interesting article putting forth that the arrest of the judges actually was not an abuse of power...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-judges-dugan-cano-arrest-immigration.html

(no paywall https://archive.ph/34ulj )

[Wiz Imp]

16. Total Bullshit. It was an absolute abuse of power.

the argument here is total nonsense.

[WmChris]

3. History rhyming

We evidently didn't learn enough from 1930's Germany or the modern day examples now we are becoming one.

[chouchou]

5. Had dinner with my Scottish friend last night. She's here for 3 weeks. Of course, she's not the..

..encyclopedia of American knowledge but her words seemed to have many truths.
To start with, she thinks the rich don't pay enough taxes. The problem is the rich have the money to buy the propaganda to
make sure that the rich in America get-what-they-want. They buy the exact type of people that SHOULDN'T be leaders.
They buy the media to have everything that the rich want (Talking about Fox News, AM radio liars and other assorted disgusting
humans) She said the schools don't seem to teach civics. They sprinkle a few words about how government works but, the students
know how their country works akin' like a 10 year-old can paint a car. (Her words)
Americans are WAY too surface people. 5ft. 6 inches man.....6 ft. 2 inches man. who will win the Senate, or Mayor....
Ha! we know that one.
She loves Americans but also says: Too many people are not book-learned and sadly, not street learned at the same time..
There's more of what she said but others have their thoughts.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. In a parliamentary system, would this have led more quickly to serious consequences ? Like a "no confidence" vote ?

Americans tend to think of parliamentary gov'ts as weak and unstable. But maybe the American system -- particularly the Imperial POTUS -- is a little *too* stable for our own good.

I don't think parliaments stopped either Hitler or Mussolini, so there's that.




And what could provide a way out ? Impeachment by a minority would be a sure road to disaster, as Uglicans would hold impeachment hearings every day. TBOMK there is no such thing as a popular Federal referendum for impeachment; do we need one ?

Obviously, getting rid of the Electoral College would be a BIG step forward, as Uglicans rely on it to win despite their overall unpopularity. And getting rid of gerrymandering is more complicated than most people realize. Personally, I think only highly fractured, randomly generated districts could ever be sufficiently proof against such tampering -- and new (random) districts for *each* election might eventually prove necessary.

Maybe the ancient Athenians had it right -- bring on the ostrakoi.

[elocs]

7. I have a young man in The Netherlands who is like once was called a pen pal.

I need to ask him the question of what they think about in Europe about what has happened here in the US since Trump became president. We're shut off from our immediate neighbors while in Europe that just travel freely from one country to another.

[SheltieLover]

8. Prettt sure they recognize this for what it is.

Europe has seen shitler 1...

[Wounded Bear]

9. Well, we know what the people of Canada and Australia think...

Hopefully, this helps other democracies find ways to survive.

[Meowmee]

10. I think they are not happy for sure obviously

The truth is this didn’t begin in the past 3-4 months or so, although the speed of the chaos etc. has been different… it began in 2015 or so when this lunatic was accepted as a candidate and eventually put in power with the help of the media… and then nothing he did was ever properly challenged and addressed, and then the gov failed to put a stop to it all by stopping him from running again.

His murder of millions with covid has never even been addressed.

Until people start talking about him realistically I don’t see a political way out of this yet. The only hope is enough R and supporters turn against him and d win the house etc.

No one will stop him. How many court orders/ verdicts against him and doge etc. have we seen so far, and how many were ignored and not enforced?

[RandomNumbers]

13. "when this lunatic was accepted as a candidate"

you nailed the timing right there.

[JHB]

15. Not 2015. Stop focusing on Trump and look at his support system: it goes much farther back

This ball started rolling back in the 70s, when Conservative/RWers launched outfits like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, when they began courting the religious right, when they started using focus groups to identify hot-button issues they could use to break up the Democrats' New Deal coalition, when they started outrage campaigns about "liberal bias" in the press.

Project 2025 is the wish list of these people. Trump didn't come up with that. Trump hasn't spent the past several decades pressuring Republican presidents to put RWer-approved judges on the federal courts. Trump didn't spend decades building a RW media bubble that addicted people to foam and bile and get them to mistrust other sources. Trump didn't spend decades calling Democrats "the enemy."

Trump took advantage of what had been built, and the builders took advantage of him as a vehicle to finally carry it out. But it took a half-century of preparing the ground for things to get to where they are now. An earthquake may seem short, but the pressure-building that makes it happen occurs over a much longer span of time.

[Meowmee]

20. Yes I am aware it goes farther back- I am talking about the recent events that caused it

One of which is allowing a lunatic to take power. Or the more recent events. The whole system is responsible as well.

I will focus as I see fit, thank you 😁

[JHB]

21. Fine. Revise my wording to "Don't" rather than the damand-y-sounding "Stop".

[Myrddin]

22. JHB & DetlefK

You both share equal honours for the best answers here.

The rot started long before Trump's presidency.

[RockCreek]

24. This deserves its own post for further discussion

[Meowmee]

28. Yes agree, ty 😁

[Martin Eden]

11. Future history books depend on whether or not we defeat this Orwellian nightmare

If we fail, truth gets flushed down the memory hole.

[Doodles]

14. Think we're nuts!

In 2016 we toured around Great Britain. Without any urging, many taxi drivers & others would say What’s happening in the US? They surely aren’t going to elect this clown are they? Not one said Trump’s the man.

[DetlefK]

17. German here: It didn't happen quickly. The rot and decay began on 9/11, 24 years ago.

The excitement of finally having an excuse to commit cruelty. Finally an excuse to hate.
"Get a brain, morans."
Branding people who disagree as traitors.
The birth of cancel-culture: cancelling musicians like the Dixie Chicks, cancelling french wine, canceling the word "french fries".
Building the torture-prison Abu Ghraib and insisting that torture is not torture if the President says so.

The "swiftboating" of John Kerry, insisting that his military record is illegitimate.

The birth-certificate smear of Barack Obama, insisting that his candidacy is illegitimate.

When John McCain gave a campaign-speech about a hypothetical young man whose live could have been saved if only he had invested in affordable health-insurance. And the republican audience screamed: "LET HIM DIE!"

Mitch McConnell making up the Senate-rule he dubbed "the Biden-rule" as an excuse why Barack Obama does not deserve to nominate Supreme Court Justices.

Smearing Joe Biden by tying him to a crime that Hunter Biden supposedly committed but that happened years before Hunter Biden even went to Ukraine.




Facts stopped mattering 20 years ago.

As Bill O'Reilly of Fox News so eloquently adressed the question whether torturing people is unconstitutional: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION. THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT HERE!"

[dalton99a]

19. +1. The rapist felon didn't become our dictator overnight

[Skittles]

23. I honestly think it started with Reagan

Last edited Mon May 5, 2025, 04:51 AM - Edit history (1)

he made greed and idiocy fashionable; America has never recovered from his bullshit

[Ping Tung]

18. They now realize that "the land of the free, and home of the brave." is false advertising.

[C_U_L8R]

26. I don't think they see it as a quick change

The outside view is often clearest. They see us for who we really are.

[Lovie777]

27. Like many of us here in the USA, Europe and other countries prepared...............

for this. They new it would be bad. RWers were able to lie their asses off and sink PR Trudeau of Canada. Orban visited the US and was advising the RWers here and the world. Orban and Putin are allies, and their goal is to destroy NATO and make it in their own image.

Over 40 years of planning and making the today's RWers in the USA. They hit the jack box with shithole. shithole will hopefully bring the RWers down, everything he touches eventually dies.