The rise of American authoritarianism

originally posted by: Whodathunkdatcheese
a reply to: ketsuko

Like I said, it cuts both ways. For every anecdote from the right, there will be an anecdote from the left.

What's more, private business owners are free to do whatever they please within the law. They do not owe their employees a living. Maybe you're in favour of even more government telling people how to run their businesses?

Well you know, now business owners have to comply with all kinds of bureaucratic regulations not to mention the ACA. Laws can be used in a very autocratic way to bludgeon people. How about the whole forcing people and institutions to cover abortifacients. Our government is becoming more and more authoritarian as the years roll by.

originally posted by: Spiramirabilis
a reply to: theantediluvian

It's an interesting thing - this whole thing

I know all we can do is speculate and opine. So, here is more of that:

Is America’s Democracy Ripe for a Dictatorship?

I don't want to be defeatist. I want to believe we're smarter and better than this - that we won't actually allow this to just happen. I have to admit though - a part of me is starting to understand that Trump might be our future king

I hope I'm wrong - and in November we can look back on this thread and have a good laugh

I think many people get what they asked for without even realizing it.

a reply to: mOjOm

Trump is in fact running on the RNC ticket and is running Conservative. So you can try and avoid reality all you want but that is a fact. Doesn't mean he is what you would call Right Leaning or Conservative but that is what he's calling himself and what party he is running for so you're just gonna have to deal with it.

Soo in other words like how Sanders is running as a Democrat but is a ahem democratic socialist? Yet the man and his followers whine about being mistreated by the system they are playing under! The problem is not so much authoritarianism but the breaking down of the populace into categories to wring votes from them. The black vote, the hispanic vote, the womans vote, the g/l/t vote and my favorite the white blue-collar vote. Each one has a particular cause/concern that politicians just love to pander to. Too many conflicting wants there.

a reply to: hangedman13

Pretty much yes.

Realistically though they have no other choice. Because we've allowed money to simply buy elections unless you have the backing of one of the two major parties you won't have the funds needed to be heard and certainly not enough to win.

We need one honest person who wants to change that to get in there and change it. Otherwise that is all we'll ever see.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: mOjOm
These authoritarian candidates are composites of what they think their followers want them to be. They are illusions. They say, I can be who you want me to be. I can say the things you want me to say. I can be your voice. Now hear me. I speak for you, I lead for you, I suffer for you. Follow me and I will follow you. It's all cultish behavior.
The cult of Donald.
I'ts no joke.
The cult of Hillary.
That,s no joke either.

I just don't know how people can say this about candidates now without seeing what we've already had... Cults check executive orders going around congress check autocratic dictates overrunning even their own cr$$8 legislation check using departments in gov to attack certain groups of people hated for political or religious reasons check sending in the Feds to seize private land check murdering US citizens abroad check and then there's all the stuff they didn't get to they wanted. Like taking the guns from citizens and climate change tax but they still have a few months
Yah no reason to like trump at all
Oh yah o forgot about nationalizing education and indoctrinating the youth with insane common core stuff and setting up tracking of children in school cradle to grave and storing that data in giant data warehouses going to war without express consent from congress and lying in court while on the sly processing illegals for citizenship arming and training the police against the citizens allowing UN troops on our soul and TSA groping and forcing people to go through back scatter machines and forcing people to wait in lines for three hours at busy airports. etc etc as nauseum and stuff we my how we forget what is in our recent past

7 months old but still holds true.

The inmates have taken over the asylums

From Wikipedia:

Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms. Juan Linz's influential 1964 description of authoritarianism[1] characterized authoritarian political systems by four qualities:

limited political pluralism; that is, such regimes place constraints on political institutions and groups like legislatures, political parties and interest groups;
a basis for legitimacy based on emotion, especially the identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat "easily recognizable societal problems" such as underdevelopment or insurgency;
minimal social mobilization most often caused by constraints on the public such as suppression of political opponents and anti-regime activity;
informally defined executive power with often vague and shifting powers.[2]


Let's look through these:

Trump has said that many things should be handled at the state level. That the states have lost power. So that's unathortian by trump

Why did they state lose power? Healthcare is now national, marriage is now national over local, even bath room usage is now national

If you are keeping track at home

Obama 1 Trump 0

2) trump says all ISIS members are Muslums. Therefore, all incoming Muslums should be checked out.

All illegal aliens are breaking American laws and are criminals.

Both of those statements are facts over emotion, but they do play to emotion

Vs Obama

One person goes on a mass shooting, nobody supports the mass shooting. Some thing has I be done with guns. Ignoring the logical argument that there are many ways to do mass damage and plays in the emotional

OBAMA 2 TRUMP 0.5

3) neither ones have really tried to stop mass mobilization. One could make the argument that some area are trying to stop religious groups from meeting, but not really from the top

OBAMA 2 Trump 0

4) trump has said things like, if that was legal.
Obama has shifting and increasing powers. The judge said that DOJ over stepped their power. The courts have said that Obama has installed people while congress was in session and his appointments are illegal. He has not followed the court orders

So the final count is

Obama 3 Trump 0.5

a reply to: theantediluvian

This Country has been experiencing Authoritarianism for the last 7 Years . I am Speaking of Progressive Liberal Political Correctness . I don't see Mr. Trump continuing that Trend , in Fact , he is the polar opposite of it .

a reply to: flyingfish

Heh, soulfly and slayer and fear factory say it all raw and aggressive. I like am all but thinking of taking a long break cause so much despair is burned in my brain from a decade and a half of reading about it and listening to the music about it.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
...
The literature on authoritarianism suggests this is not just simple Islamophobia, but rather reflects a broader phenomenon wherein authoritarians feel threatened by people they identify as "outsiders" and by the possibility of changes to the status quo makeup of their communities. This would help explain why authoritarians seem so prone to reject not just one specific kind of outsider or social change, such as Muslims or same-sex couples or Hispanic migrants, but rather to reject all of them.
...

This thread is an obvious piece trying to define conservative values as "authoritarian"...

Didn't you know that there are minorities and what you call "outsiders" who are actually in favor of Trump?...

This thread should be trashed as it is nothing more than political biting.

You hate your parents that much heh?... or is that a made up story?