Elixir
Made in America
Good article at Patheos.
{bold added}
That is what is most worrisome; Trump makes no bones about wanting to be that strongman, allowing only a space between the words strong and man - which takes the edge off it for those not inoculated against seeing through the code. He admires Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Un, and especially Vladimir Putin for their "strength". Let's not look at what makes those "great leaders" strong, though. Murdering and "disappearing" anyone who vocally opposes them, their policies or their actions isn't so bad anyhow. Killing newspeople who might tell stories - no matter how true - about their heinous acts or the devastating effects they have upon the populace at large, is just a necessary evil to remaining strong. Trump cites his buddy Vlad's 83% popularity among the Russian people, and derides Clinton for having a poll-based approval rating of around half that. Never mind that Putin's supposed popularity is the stated product of Putin-controlled media that have been de-privatized and now work exclusively on behalf of their vaunted leader, while those in the media who dissented have been either cowed into silence, murdered or made to disappear.
Yes, those are great leaders by the metric that Trump applies. Clinton and Obama (along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln) are pathetically weak figures by comparison.
Trump supporters might very well get exactly what they want - the sort of great leadership that has was so successful in making Germany Great Again in 1938. But probably not, because while Trump has the camera charisma and acting experience required, he is dumb as a creosote post without the creosote, and has the attention span of a lit match. More likely, he will simply don the trappings of such autocrats, and run the entire country into the ground with expenditures on wars, walls and the militarization of internal Law Enforcement. And who will get hurt the most and the soonest? Those very non-elites whose suffering he promises to alleviate. But they will probably feel okay about it, as long as Trump assures them that they feel okay about it...
"Fascist leaders like Mussolini, like Trump, understood that their struggle for power could only work through recourse to clearly identified external or internal foes. These foes didn’t have to be real because fascists knew that imagination is more powerful than reality, as anyone knows who has argued with today’s conspiracy theorists, say those who believe that the US government was “behind” 9/11. It isn’t true but it’s a fun and entertaining idea. It is more thrilling than boring mere reality.
The identified enemies of fascism, were the Communists or the red proletariat, that became “the Other” lying outside the totalitarian fascist state. For Trump it’s Mexicans, Obama and Clinton– branded Other, UN-American- a threat. For Trump supporters it is the US Government itself that is the enemy. They want it replaced by a strong man in whom all our hopes and dreams reside. They arm themselves as possible “insurrectionists” to “take back” America from “Them.”"
The identified enemies of fascism, were the Communists or the red proletariat, that became “the Other” lying outside the totalitarian fascist state. For Trump it’s Mexicans, Obama and Clinton– branded Other, UN-American- a threat. For Trump supporters it is the US Government itself that is the enemy. They want it replaced by a strong man in whom all our hopes and dreams reside. They arm themselves as possible “insurrectionists” to “take back” America from “Them.”"
{bold added}
That is what is most worrisome; Trump makes no bones about wanting to be that strongman, allowing only a space between the words strong and man - which takes the edge off it for those not inoculated against seeing through the code. He admires Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Un, and especially Vladimir Putin for their "strength". Let's not look at what makes those "great leaders" strong, though. Murdering and "disappearing" anyone who vocally opposes them, their policies or their actions isn't so bad anyhow. Killing newspeople who might tell stories - no matter how true - about their heinous acts or the devastating effects they have upon the populace at large, is just a necessary evil to remaining strong. Trump cites his buddy Vlad's 83% popularity among the Russian people, and derides Clinton for having a poll-based approval rating of around half that. Never mind that Putin's supposed popularity is the stated product of Putin-controlled media that have been de-privatized and now work exclusively on behalf of their vaunted leader, while those in the media who dissented have been either cowed into silence, murdered or made to disappear.
Yes, those are great leaders by the metric that Trump applies. Clinton and Obama (along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln) are pathetically weak figures by comparison.
Trump supporters might very well get exactly what they want - the sort of great leadership that has was so successful in making Germany Great Again in 1938. But probably not, because while Trump has the camera charisma and acting experience required, he is dumb as a creosote post without the creosote, and has the attention span of a lit match. More likely, he will simply don the trappings of such autocrats, and run the entire country into the ground with expenditures on wars, walls and the militarization of internal Law Enforcement. And who will get hurt the most and the soonest? Those very non-elites whose suffering he promises to alleviate. But they will probably feel okay about it, as long as Trump assures them that they feel okay about it...
