Historian: Its pretty much inevitable that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy

[workinclasszero]

Historian Timothy Snyder: “It’s pretty much inevitable” that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy
Yale historian and author of the new book "On Tyranny" says we may have one year left to save American democracy
Chauncey DeVega Monday, May 1, 2017 11:00 AM CST

What can the American people do to resist Donald Trump? What lessons can history teach about the rise of authoritarianism and fascism and how democracies collapse? Are there ways that individuals can fight back on a daily basis and in their own personal lives against the political and cultural forces that gave rise to Trump’s movement? How long does American democracy have before the poison that Donald Trump and the Republican Party injected into the country’s body politic becomes lethal?

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/01/historian-timothy-snyder-its-pretty-much-inevitable-that-trump-will-try-to-stage-a-coup-and-overthrow-democracy/

[Achilleaze]

1. ...and republicans refuse to lift a finger to defend America

or American democracy. Deplorable.

[atreides1]

5. Of course not

The Republicans will be the new nobility under a Trump empire! The Republican party stopped believing in democracy the first time a voter backed a Tea Party candidate!!!

[workinclasszero]

8. Trump just bitched about having to follow the Constitution the other day

Where the fuck were all those constitution loving Reich wing republicans then? Plotting a fascist coup, that's where!

A Handmaid's Tale fascist theocracy is coming right up folks while we on the left are busy attacking each other, the monster grows stronger by the minute.

But hey, it can't happen here right?


Donald Trump doesn’t like the “archaic” Constitution: “It’s really a bad thing for the country”
Monday, May 1, 2017 10:37 AM CST
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/01/donald-trump-doesnt-like-the-archaic-constitution-its-really-a-bad-thing-for-the-country/

[RVN VET71]

34. I think this Orange Coiffed Anus is actually thinking about taking the Constitution down

Maybe he took a close look at what's happening in Syria -- the bombings, the gassing, the horrible slaughter and displacement of millions of innocent civilians -- and thought, hey, that could work here, too! I mean, Assad has consolidated his power and, with Putin's help, will surely prevail as a very wealthy ruler, a king without a crown. So why not here? Didn't the civil war in Syria begin after 100's of thousands of people took to the streets?

[workinclasszero]

35. They are just waiting for a tipping point

A nuclear exchange with NK?

A massive terrorist attack in the homeland that "requires" a suspension of constitutional rights for an undetermined amount of time? (forever of course)

It's coming. One way or another Putin will use Trump to turn America fascist so he can destroy NATO and neutralize the UN.

Putin's fascist Russia and puppet Amerika will rule Europe and the rest of the world with a iron fist.

What China's part will be I don't know but they have been fascist for decades already.

It just looks like western democracy is on its deathbed to me. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.

[NastyRiffraff]

38. He always praises dictators

Vladimir Putin ("at least he's a leader, unlike we have in this country&quot , Kim Jung Un ("he goes in, he takes over, and he's the boss&quot , Benito Mussolini (" "Mussolini was Mussolini... It's a very good quote.&quot , Sadaam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi (although he changed his mind on that one. "I was for something, but I wasn't for what we have right now,&quot

Our Democracy is in grave danger. We must continue to resist.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. They want to defund America.

The non-military bits.

[Phoenix61]

2. He's already set the stage for it

When he said the reason it's so hard to govern is because of those archaic laws and that we need to look at that. When he appointed people who are completely incompetent to run the agencies they are supposed to head. It's all right out there in the open.

[Achilleaze]

4. "The straight-on confrontation with the truth is at the center of the fascist worldview."

...and republicans are just fine with that. deplorable. un American. An outright bullshit betrayal of the Bible they 'claim' to believe in.

Here's a resonant quote from the article:
"I hate to sound like a self-help person but I’m going to. Every day you don’t do something, it makes it less likely that you will ever do something. So you’ve got to get started right away."

[workinclasszero]

9. That POS violated his oath of office with that traitorous statement

and should be impeached immediately!

The fact that that isn't going to happen shows how dangerously close we are to losing freedom and democracy in America.

[mopinko]

12. no kidding. the ass breaks his oath daily.

he has no clue what the constitution even fucking says.
couldnt pass the 8th grade civics test if he had it written on his sleeve.

[Kittycow]

13. If he read just the text. ..

without any titling on the Constitution or Bill of Rights, I bet he wouldn't recognize it. It's all just mumbo-jumbo to him!

[BSdetect]

3. It is predictable

He's a malignant narcissist. He will do anything to retain power.

[2naSalit]

6. K&R

[dalton99a]

7. Kick.

[Wounded Bear]

10. K & R ...... nt

[Demsrule86]

11. This is terrifying because the right: elected and their followers will embrace this as it is their

only true path to continued power.

[Kittycow]

14. You got that right!

And they would still be wearing their flag clothes and calling themselves the Truuue Patriots!

(Incidentally, in my day of first generation hippies, any type of wearing apparel resembling the Flag was a huge sin that was roundly condemned by conservatives. Now look at them all gussied up with their beer bellies hanging out from their Flag tees! )

[Demsrule86]

21. In the late 80's, my Dad burned my favorite jeans as I had sewed on a flag patch..

He said it desecrated the flag. He was a Korean vet...Navy Medic. I was actually born at Great Lakes Naval base.

[jalan48]

15. And a complicit corporate media will allow it to happen.

[Left-over]

17. Every citizen who cares needs to refuse to honor the MSM.

[workinclasszero]

30. Yes they will because ratings, access to Duh Fuhrer and

money worshiping republicans own the MSM.

Hell they got Dump elected, he's their boy!

[Left-over]

16. All the more reason

This is a callout to all progressives, liberals, democrats, green party members, moderates, or whatever you label yourself to unite for better country. There are more of us than there are of the deplorables. If democracy, which now is almost plutocracy, is to be salvaged we MUST put aside petty differences and resist as one bigger stronger unit.

[Mountain Mule]

33. Agree - UNITE!

We on the left seem to be spending a lot of our time on petty bickering - this distracts us from focusing on the siege under which our democracy is crumbling. I have done my best as an individual to RESIST in every way possible way - from attending rallies and protest marches to a non-stop barrage of calls and e-mails to my elected representatives in congress. I would hope that everyone here is doing the same.

[NightWatcher]

18. He doesn't need to. Republicans will defend him and support anything he does or says.

If/when they are confronted with facts that show him to be lying or treasonous they scream "fake news" and put on their Chinese made "make America great again" hats.

[gordianot]

19. Someday we may have the luxury to discuss policy not today.

There is one issue on our plate Donald Trump and his enablers. Resist nothing else matters.

[L. Coyote]

20. Might be more inevitable that he is overthrown.

This kind of criminality in seizing executive power could easily evoke a extra-constitutional solution if that is all that remains to save democracy, either the masses in the streets in an American Spring or the military and intelligence commands who are privileged to classified evidence. All the mass demonstrations already look like an American Spring, we just don't call it that because it isn't some other country.

[snort]

22. Yes, there is a way.

You take up arms and you kill the Un-American bastards. It is what it is.

[keepthemhonestO]

24. yeah he might try

but seeing as they had trouble turning the lights on in the white house, I don't see how he could do that.

He's not very smart. He may have been a smart businessman at one point in his life but I don't see that now.

[workinclasszero]

32. Putin is smart as a serpent though

Herr Dumpf is just a marionette.

You see, Putin declared war on America.

His weapons of mass destruction are Trump, an online army of trolls and fake news, the traitorous republican party and the lapdog MSM.

His ultimate victory is at hand. We are just waiting for our Nuremberg fire right now.

[keepthemhonestO]

36. true

I would worry about him. Look at what he has done to undermine elections around the world. I do worry.

[workinclasszero]

37. Repeatedly in human history, a new weapon or way of waging war comes along and sweeps all before it

The Greek Hoplites and the phalanx of Alexander the Great, Caesar and the Roman legions, Hitler's blitzkrieg.

It seems to me that the Russian's have invented the latest superweapon/system and the most cunning of them all because it produces no casulties for them at least.

Its total cyberwar. An online army that can sway and subvert democratic elections in America, Britain and the EU. Putin can bring about the death of all democracies without firing a shot, and he is doing it.

Empires rise and empires fall, is the US empire immune to this fact of history?

This world is about to enter a vast darkness. Hopefully I'll be dead before it goes fully into effect.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu

IMO, Putin has achieved the supreme art of war Sun Tzu spoke of but we are still blind to it for the moment.

[keepthemhonestO]

39. well put

I am astounded at the way he has orchestrated these thefts of Democracies around the world and upended Brexit. Who knows what's next. From what I can tell the Dutch were the only smart ones to vote on paper after they saw what happened in America.

[Hekate]

25. KnR

[dchill]

26. K&R.

[Chemisse]

27. He'll try but he'll fail.

He's not smart enough; he's not popular enough; and he doesn't have the drive or focus.

All he does is flail about, whine, and make ludicrous stabs at it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. I disagree with the projection, but not the warning and the need for preparation.

I don't think there will be a serious coup attempt in the classic fascistic sense, but there will be actions where they will test to see how much they can get away with. If the tests succeed they will go farther. The tests must not succeed.

One such test is the trial balloon floated on the weekend about amending the First Amendment and making other modifications to the Constitution.

That is why I endorse Timothy Snyder's call for preparation.

Be informed. Be aware.

Keep the media held to account. CNN is growing a bit of spine. Encourage them. Support the Washington Post, NYT, Newsweek and several primarily digital media outlets who are relentlessly pursuing the Trump-Russia-Turkey-Emoluments-Hacking scandal/treason.

When wavering or apostate ex-Trump voters make themselves known DO NOT shame them or scorn on them. Embrace them for seeing the light, for seeing through tRump's lies, for rejecting the RepubliCON lies and the lies of McCONnell. However late their epiphany, don't drive them away.

DO heap derision, parody, scorn, schadenfreude and shame on the true Trumpanzees who are still sucking up to the wanna-be leader.

Discuss developments in the light of Reichstag fire scenarios whenever applicable. Skepticism is healthy but going too far into cynicism and complex conspiracy theories is counter-productive. So maintain a grip on reality and don't give into paranoia or defeatism.

Be prepared for more marches as needs arise, so that the voices of democracy will be heard.

Resist. Resist especially the new "normalization".

Persist.

Triumph.

[Cryptoad]

29. "will Try"???????

hell it has already happen and its on TV!

[tenorly]

31. Worked for Dubya.

[center]

"What we did bothered me this much." "That much, huh?"[/center]