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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Drumpf is a fundamentally bad man with authoritarian tendencies....
Donald Drumpf is a fundamentally bad man with authoritarian tendencies... Members of his cabal are like minded or opportunists. There are a scant few , like General Mattis, who seem like decent men who will try to curb Drumpf's , Flynn's, and Bannon's most misanthropic tendencies. The fact we have to pin our hopes on a general who earned the moniker "Mad Dog" illustrates our predicament. But as Al Gore once said "we have to pick up the basketball where we find it."
That is where we are. But it is up to us to lead the nation to where it should be; inclusive, proud, and forward looking. All this "woe is me" and the "sky is falling " talk does nothing to improve our condition. There is no point to scaring posters with talks of pogroms and mass internments. There aren't going to be pogroms and mass internments because we won't let them and even the fascist junta in Washington is not that crazy.
"The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice." Let's go forward in the knowledge history is on our side.
Resist.
unblock
(52,306 posts)he's full-on authoritarian. our institutions aren't completely bending to his will, for now, anyway.
but *he* is just plain authoritarian.
he makes shrub's musings about dictatorship look quaint by comparison.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)My point is as bat shit crazy and racist as they are nobody is getting thrown into ovens.
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(52,306 posts)nobody was getting thrown into ovens in 1933. at first, they only restricted their rights. freedom to travel, e.g. requiring them to carry their papers at all times. eventually taking away their businesses and their homes and putting them in ghettos.
most of europe, and most of germany, couldn't have imagined that the first week hitler took power.
we can certainly hope that things will not move as quickly here as they did under hitler, but donnie is clearly trying to move us in that direction, and these things have a momentum all their own.
so what if donnie would never order gas chambers? what do you think would happen after 4 years or even 8 years of this level of hatred and contempt for certain disfavored groups?
should we feel any better "merely" treating these people as second class citizens?
should we feel any better if the killing doesn't start until donnie's successor comes to power?
we should absolutely be *very* concerned with the toxic nature of donnie's hate.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)unblock
(52,306 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)There is a huge difference between saying Drumpf is a despicable guy and the people around him are despicable and saying him and they are going to turn your Muslim buddy into a lampshade. There are so many things that would have to happen for that to occur. That's my overarching point.
And Stalinism with its attendant and often pointless cruelty was an aberration, even for a totalitarian nation like the former Soviet Union.
unblock
(52,306 posts)donnie is busy pouring fuel all over; foxnews is egging him on; and a huge, pissed off and frustrated minority is cheering wildly.
now he's moving from rhetoric to action, treating disfavored groups like second class citizens.
a bit more of this and these "second class citizens" might resist. the vast majority peacefully.
then *one* idiot does something violent, because there are always idiots around doing stupid things.
the right-wing crazies go nuts and demand a clampdown, and even if you think donnie has no interest it going further where he's at now, he's can't possibly go tell his supporters to just calm down. no, he'll pass more and more restrictive laws and get increasingly brutal enforcement to keep those disfavored groups down.
the downward spiral to genocide can be stopped, but only if people have eyes wide open to what needs to be done.
saying it can't happen here is a *very* dangerous, enabling position.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028549814
Historic NY
(37,452 posts)they are not.