Trump’s Stifling of Dissent Reaches a New Level
The crackdown on dissent and speech in Minnesota this winter follows a pattern that is common in countries that slide from democracy to autocracy: A leader enacts a legally dubious policy. Citizens protest that policy. The government responds with intimidation and force. When people are hurt, the government blames them and lies about what happened.
The New York Times editorial board published an index in October tracking 12 categories of democratic erosion, based on historical patterns and interviews with experts. Our index places the United States on a scale of 0 to 10 for each category. Zero represents the United States before President Trump began his second term — not perfect, surely, but one of the world’s healthiest democracies. Ten represents the condition in a true autocracy, such as China, Iran or Russia.
Based on recent events, we are moving our assessment of one of the categories — stifling speech and dissent — up one notch, to level four:
The wide-ranging abuses in Minnesota are the main reason for the change. The Trump administration is conducting a military-style operation in an American city under dubious pretenses.
Measuring America’s slide toward democratic erosion.
www.nytimes.com
The sister piece to this one with a link in the second paragraph is.............
Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law. His actions have raised a chilling question.
ARE WE LOSING OUR DEMOCRACY?
Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.
Our country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march often continues. We offer these 12 markers as a warning of how much Americans have already lost and how much more we still could lose.
Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has.
www.nytimes.com
The other categories are as follows.
1. Persecuting political enemies. 5
2. Bypassing the legislature. 4
3. Defying the courts. 3 (That should be higher after the 100 times ICE defied court orders in MN)
4. Declaring false emergencies. 5
5. Using the military at home. 3
6. Vilifying marginalized groups. 6
7. Controlling information. 2
8. Trying to take over universities. 2
9. Creating a cult of personality. 6
10. Using power for personal profit. 7
Authoritarians often turn the government into a machine for enriching themselves, their families and their allies. Mr. Trump glories in his administration’s culture of corruption.
He openly uses the presidency as an opportunity to pad his bottom line, in ways that range from the comically petty (like charging the Secret Service up to $1,200 per night for rooms at his hotels) to the shamelessly greedy (like the $40 million that Amazon paid for the rights to a Melania Trump documentary or his recent demand that the government pay him $230 million because he was investigated for breaking the law). He solicits favors from foreign governments, including an airplane from Qatar. His children also profit from their father’s position, through real-estate deals, crypto, a private club in Washington and more. And he rewards those who enrich them, recently pardoning the head of a cryptocurrency firm who worked with the Trump family.
In the first six months of this year, the Trump Organization’s income soared to $864 million, up from just $51 million a year earlier, according to a recent Reuters analysis. It’s worth noting that recent Supreme Court decisions have made corruption harder to police.
11. Manipulating the law to stay in power. 2 (In other words, lawfare)
We can quibble about where the levels are set but not the facts underlying the concern. As difficult as it is, given our long history as a democratic republic, to grasp the full extent of the direction trump is taking us the evidence is indisputable. Though trump fans will no doubt employ all the tools of denial, false comparisons, and lies in an effort to credibly dispute it. They will fail.
