Recent commentary highlighting the real threat fascist autocracy poses to peace, justice and progress worldwide must be taken seriously by all civilized people on this planet.
But as real as this external threat is, what concerns me more is the internal threat we pose to ourselves. President Grover Cleveland noted : “The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.”
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Is this another “don’t criticize my candidate” post?
I seem to remember there only being one candidate in the race who thinks the current VP is a “a decent man.”
I read the threadstarter as warning us of the dangers we face by doing nothing to stop the crimes, abuses, and treason of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, most of the cabinet, and the GOP Collaborators in the House and Senate.
I think “the internal threat we pose to ourselves” refers to those who repeat or defend the “Ukraine Intervention” propaganda, who ignore or deny the many close ties between Russia and the Donald Trump campaign and subsequent administration, those who threaten the whistleblower, who attack and threaten career diplomats who assert and defend truth before dogma, and so on.
I don’t think this thread-starter refers to any fellow Democrats.
You are right again,Tom.
Good to hear. I read it as the worry about not finding “unity” among democrats.
How can we advance democracy abroad if we betray it at home?
We don’t advance it abroad. Be real about what this country is and fight to make it better.
That’s the point. We can’t advance democracy abroad if we’re not practicing it here at home.
But the concept of advancing it abroad is jingoistic exceptionalist bs, always has been.
In my view, there is a middle ground more like Karma than “advancing”.
When we advance democracy (with a little “d”) at home and it works, then our own culture and nation becomes healthier. As we become healthy and strong, we become a beacon that both guides and attracts.
Foreign nations see that beacon and in some cases strive to emulate it. Our growing health makes us welcome those requests. Our growing resources, generated by our growing health, allow us to be generous in our response to those requests.
We make the world healthier and stronger by making ourselves healthier and stronger.
There is nothing exploitative or jingoistic about that.
It’s caring for the rights and liberties of everybody, but you are unfortunately correct above that we don’t always do it. We have been more than happy with dictators if it suits our purposes.
The funniest thing about this whole situation is that Trump could’ve just lived the rest of his life as a private citizen being rich and cheating on his wives if he weren’t so desperately jealous of the first black president. Feminist News
@Trump could’ve just lived the rest of his life…:
I think it has more to do with Mr. Putin calling in his chips than jealousy or other fleeting emotion.
The evidence that I see compels the conclusion that the lifestyle of Donald Trump and his family was and is dependent on decades of illegal and corrupt dealings with Russian organized crime. As Mr. Putin has done in so many other places worldwide, Mr. Putin keeps a worldwide portfolio of corrupt wealthy men and women ready to call into service when and as required. This practice is a well-documented aspect of Mr. Putin’s technique for forcing victimized nations to do his bidding (such as we see in Ukraine).
It is similar to the way a malware actor builds a network of compromised machines ready to do the the bidding of the actor. The users of those machines often don’t know they’ve been compromised. When the actor chooses to launch a Denial Of Service attack on some victim, each of those compromised systems begins sending email messages or web requests to the target system as quickly as it can, under the direction of the malware actor.
The evidence in this case compels the conclusion that Mr. Putin, using Russian organized crime as a tool, developed a portfolio of compromised American politicians and business people. It isn’t just Donald Trump and his family, it’s Paul Manafort, the NRA, and apparently key figures in the GOP.
We are seeing the consequences of a Russian attack that has been years in the making. It feels sudden and fast-moving because it’s full extent is just now being revealed.
I expect it to get much worse before it gets any better. It will take years, perhaps even generations, to undo the damage done by these traitors — if the damage is undone at all.
The fact that these Russian assets are still in complete control of the apparatus of government — at least of the Executive branch, and perhaps also the Judicial — is unnerving.
We’re only seeing the tip of the vast Trumpist / Russian destruction of our democracy.
When, and if, the full treachery is exposed it will shock the conscience of every decent human being on the planet.
Until then, we must prepare ourselves for years of chaos and political strife as we learn the painful lesson that democracy requires constant vigilance and must never be taken for granted.
What a mess!
So the question remains why did these Americans let themselves be used this way?
Why indeed. From the evidence, I can only conclude that a winnable plurality of the public has drunk the fascist / Russian / Trumpist criminal poison and that this corrupt destruction of our democracy will continue until they are forced back underneath the rock from whence they came — never to rise up again.
The actions men take — not their words — will echo through history.
I was actually referring to the very specific political and business people Tom mentioned. Why did THEY allow themselves to be used or compromised?
@why did these Americans let themselves be used this way:
In my view, the simplest explanation is that they were corrupted. Various sources like MSNBC, Atlantic Monthly, and others say that the strategy works as follows:
1. Entice a targeted business executive or political official by dangling something they are known to crave — money, power, beautiful men or women, whatever
2. Draw the mark in by accompanying small favors with large payoffs.
3. When the time comes arrange for someone from the organization (the “handler”) to visit the mark and convey the “ask” — often with a promise of even more money or whatever.
4. If there is any resistance from the mark, the handler explains to the mark that the organization will have no choice but to reveal the crimes and corruption if the mark refuses to cooperate.
The general scheme is to put the mark in a position where cooperation is lucrative and resistance is dangerous and expensive (in terms of money, reputation, power, or all of the above).
The reason why security organizations like the NSC or FBI do extensive background checks before granting important security clearances is that people with things to hide are MUCH more susceptible to manipulation than people with clean records.
Stalin called shills like Trump ‘useful idiots.’
So the mark needs to learn how to more strongly resist by at least step 2? I guess I just thought these folks might have a bit more backbone in the first instance. Maybe they should read Matthew 4 to see how it’s done.
The mark needs to be person of reasonable moral fiber. At one time, Americans expected that of their elected officials. The GOP hammered on “morality” for decades — until it was no longer politically convenient.
At least in the case of the GOP, it was always a fiction. In my sixty-seven years on this planet, it has always been the public figures who spoke most loudly about “morality” and “sin” that were themselves the most corrupt, especially venally.
Puke hypocrisy is the audacity to preach morality from a den of sin.