Is it the siren call of authoritarianism?

[Yarddog]

Keep talking like that and you’ll have Trump as President

pknop has that kind of power really? You want him to deny reality? maybe this is the Reason Democrats find themselves in this position.

 

[Yarddog]

You are getting closer. Of course we reject the idea that Trump has ever done anything wrong. Democrats have lied so much that nothing they say will be believed, perhaps ever. There is no way to deal with that. Once credibility is dead, it's dead forever. Which is why democrats are desperate to replace voting Americans with illegal aliens.

Trump has flaws, but yes. Democrats have destroyed their own credibility, starting with the Russia Gate fiasco. There is no way in hell I will ever vote for such coordinated corruption, deceipt and people who are so full of themselves.

 

[scruffy]

A right wing fantasy

And gay butt sex on the floor of our Congress.

What a bunch of moral degenerates.

 

[Lesh]

And gay butt sex on the floor of our Congress.

What a bunch of moral degenerates.

What the fuck are you talking about?

 

[EvilCat Breath]

What the fuck are you talking about?

Only a loyal democrat would say that.

U.S. Senate staffer filmed in gay sex act in Senate hearing room

According to unverified posts on X and multiple conservative or right-leaning news outlets, the male staffer is an aide for Sen. Ben Cardin

www.losangelesblade.com

 

[Lesh]

Only a loyal democrat would say that.

U.S. Senate staffer filmed in gay sex act in Senate hearing room

According to unverified posts on X and multiple conservative or right-leaning news outlets, the male staffer is an aide for Sen. Ben Cardin

www.losangelesblade.com

Would it have been better if were a heterosexual encounter?

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Would it have been better if were a heterosexual encounter?

It would still be evidence of democrat depravity.

 

[Lesh]

It would still be evidence of democrat depravity.

Right. Because only Democrats have sex

Right

 

[WEATHER53]

It’s another fake scary dog whistle, the misuse and overuse of the word authoritarianism because it sounds spooky
Thinkers know this. Libs are trying to turn responsibility and a code of good behavior into a bad thing. Because…for them it IS as they don’t wanna. Children.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Right. Because only Democrats have sex

Right

They are the only ones that have sex on the Congressional floor. Right. And film it for a porn movie. Right. Can Democrats get any more disgusting? Yes. They can start giving blow jobs when Congress is in session. Right.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Many have struggled with trying to understand Trump's allure in the face of his moral degeneracy, his abject idiocy, and his anti-democratic impulses. It creates a degree of cognitive dissonance I can say personally I've never experienced. Here is one man's opinion I found compelling. My deepest apologies for the limited amount of the article I can paste due to board copywrite rules. It doesn't due the piece justice. Hopefully the theme comes through.

It was written by the NYT resident op-ed board conservative, David Brooks. For context, he begins by making reference to the notion NY will be a competitive state in the presidential race.

The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal​

The proximate answer of course is that many voters think Biden is too old. But that doesn’t explain why Trump was ahead even before the debate. It doesn’t explain why Trump’s candidacy is still standing after Jan. 6. It doesn’t explain why America is on the verge of turning in an authoritarian direction.

I’ve been trying to think through the deeper roots of our current dysfunction with the help of a new book by James Davison Hunter titled “Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis.” Hunter, a scholar at the University of Virginia, is (in my opinion) the nation’s leading cultural historian.

At the same time, science and reason failed to produce a substitute moral order that could hold the nation together. By 1981, in the famous first passage of his book “After Virtue,” the philosopher Alasdair Macintyre argued that we had inherited fragments of moral ideas, not a coherent moral system to give form to a communal life, not a solid set of moral foundations to use to settle disputes. Moral reasoning, he wrote, had been reduced to “emotivism.” If it feels right, do it. In 1987, Allan Bloom released his megaselling “The Closing of the American Mind,” arguing that moral relativism had become the dominant ethos of the era.

He goes on to say identity politics has filled the void of a lack of a cohesive moral order.

Was there anything that would fill this void of meaning? Was there anything that could give people a shared sense of right and wrong, a sense of purpose?

It turns out there was: identity politics. People on the right and the left began to identify themselves within a particular kind of moral story. This is the story in which my political group is the victim of oppression and other groups are the oppressors.

The problem with this form of all-explaining identity politics is that it undermines democracy. If others are evil and out to get us, then persuasion is for suckers.

In this climate, Hunter argues, “the authoritarian impulse becomes impossible to restrain.” Authoritarianism imposes a social vision by force. If you can’t have social solidarity organically from the ground up, then you can impose it from top down using the power of the state. This is the menace of Trumpism. If you read my recent interview with Steve Bannon, you’ll see that he talks like a character straight out of Hunter’s book.

Opinion | The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal

The problem with identity politics becoming our moral system is that it undermines democracy.

www.nytimes.com

I have felt for a very long time Trump's popularity transcends politics. That Trumpery must have an appeal on a psychological level. Because nothing else I can think of could allow his supporters to ignore his glaring shortcomings as a person and a politician. And not just ignore his shortcomings, but deny objective truths like his direction of the conspiracy to block Biden's certification as prez and install himself as an un-elected leader.

There being a psychological component to his supporter's devotion explains its unshakable nature. An unique feature of his base never seen before in US history. The vast majority of whom can not be persuaded the efforts to hold him accountable for his actions are not corrupt because they reject the idea he has ever done anything wrong. There is no way to deal with that.

It wasn't Trump who weaponized the justice system against the political opposition. But it will be done to democrats and I will cheer it on

 

[scruffy]

Right. Because only Democrats have sex

Right

And film it

And publicize it

Still waiting for those pee tapes.

 

[Lesh]

They are the only ones that have sex on the Congressional floor. Right. And film it for a porn movie. Right. Can Democrats get any more disgusting? Yes. They can start giving blow jobs when Congress is in session. Right.

It wasn’t even in the Capitol ya morons

 

[Lesh]

It’s another fake scary dog whistle, the misuse and overuse of the word authoritarianism because it sounds spooky
Thinkers know this. Libs are trying to turn responsibility and a code of good behavior into a bad thing. Because…for them it IS as they don’t wanna. Children.

So you stand by Project 2025?

Just checking

 

[Seymour Flops]

Many have struggled with trying to understand Trump's allure in the face of his moral degeneracy, his abject idiocy, and his anti-democratic impulses. It creates a degree of cognitive dissonance I can say personally I've never experienced. Here is one man's opinion I found compelling. My deepest apologies for the limited amount of the article I can paste due to board copywrite rules. It doesn't due the piece justice. Hopefully the theme comes through.

It was written by the NYT resident op-ed board conservative, David Brooks. For context, he begins by making reference to the notion NY will be a competitive state in the presidential race.

The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal​

The proximate answer of course is that many voters think Biden is too old. But that doesn’t explain why Trump was ahead even before the debate. It doesn’t explain why Trump’s candidacy is still standing after Jan. 6. It doesn’t explain why America is on the verge of turning in an authoritarian direction.

I’ve been trying to think through the deeper roots of our current dysfunction with the help of a new book by James Davison Hunter titled “Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis.” Hunter, a scholar at the University of Virginia, is (in my opinion) the nation’s leading cultural historian.

At the same time, science and reason failed to produce a substitute moral order that could hold the nation together. By 1981, in the famous first passage of his book “After Virtue,” the philosopher Alasdair Macintyre argued that we had inherited fragments of moral ideas, not a coherent moral system to give form to a communal life, not a solid set of moral foundations to use to settle disputes. Moral reasoning, he wrote, had been reduced to “emotivism.” If it feels right, do it. In 1987, Allan Bloom released his megaselling “The Closing of the American Mind,” arguing that moral relativism had become the dominant ethos of the era.

He goes on to say identity politics has filled the void of a lack of a cohesive moral order.

Was there anything that would fill this void of meaning? Was there anything that could give people a shared sense of right and wrong, a sense of purpose?

It turns out there was: identity politics. People on the right and the left began to identify themselves within a particular kind of moral story. This is the story in which my political group is the victim of oppression and other groups are the oppressors.

The problem with this form of all-explaining identity politics is that it undermines democracy. If others are evil and out to get us, then persuasion is for suckers.

In this climate, Hunter argues, “the authoritarian impulse becomes impossible to restrain.” Authoritarianism imposes a social vision by force. If you can’t have social solidarity organically from the ground up, then you can impose it from top down using the power of the state. This is the menace of Trumpism. If you read my recent interview with Steve Bannon, you’ll see that he talks like a character straight out of Hunter’s book.

Opinion | The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal

The problem with identity politics becoming our moral system is that it undermines democracy.

www.nytimes.com

I have felt for a very long time Trump's popularity transcends politics. That Trumpery must have an appeal on a psychological level. Because nothing else I can think of could allow his supporters to ignore his glaring shortcomings as a person and a politician. And not just ignore his shortcomings, but deny objective truths like his direction of the conspiracy to block Biden's certification as prez and install himself as an un-elected leader.

There being a psychological component to his supporter's devotion explains its unshakable nature. A unique feature of his base never seen before in US history. The vast majority of whom can not be persuaded the efforts to hold him accountable for his actions are not corrupt because they reject the idea he has ever done anything wrong. There is no way to deal with that.

What, in Trump’s actions or speech, are more authoritarian than actions and speech of other politicians, Dems or Reps?

“Authoritarian” seems to have become a meaningless catch phrase to describe a disliked person with a chance to become president.

 

[SweetSue92]

Yes. This goes far beyond politics. This is deeply, profoundly personal for them.

Quasi-religious, cultural, sociological. He was familiar to them because of his celebrity.

This person, of all people, is like family to them. Their patriarch, their protector.

Come around Mac, and stand up to the thousands and thousands of posts you made just like this. Where are you, Mac?

 

[Mac1958]

Come around Mac, and stand up to the thousands and thousands of posts you made just like this. Where are you, Mac?

Yes, I nailed it.

Neither your approval nor your agreement are required. As usual.

 

[SweetSue92]

Yes, I nailed it.

Neither your approval nor your agreement are required. As usual.

I look forward to your ongoing commentary about how Orange Man Bad deserved this and etc

Don't wuss out now

 

[Mac1958]

I look forward to your ongoing commentary about how Orange Man Bad deserved this and etc

Don't wuss out now

Why in the world would I do that?

My mind is not dark like yours. Sorry.

 

[berg80]

What, in Trump’s actions or speech, are more authoritarian than actions and speech of other politicians, Dems or Reps?

This recent example comes to mind.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4766748-donald-trump-viktor-orban-meeting-mar-a-lago-nato-summit/

Other examples include his encouragement of violence at his rallies. His use of words like vermin to describe immigrants. When he assumed office as president, he demanded complete loyalty and attacked the press conjuring up memories of notorious autocrats. And when he lost a free and fair election in 2020, he discontinued a 200-year-old tradition and a hallmark of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. He also incited an insurrection when he unsuccessfully overturned the election’s results.

Authoritarians favor centralized power in the hands of the leader. Like, oh I don't know, having the prez be immune from prosecution making him above the law. Or the P2025 proposal of the prez being able to overrule the chairman of the Fed on monetary policy. They emphasize nationalism (MAGA) and use immigrants as scapegoats. They want to impose obstacles to voting. Any of this ring a bell?