Democracy under direct attack
The FGOP is now busy propagandizing the 1/6 coup attempt as honest,
decent, law-abiding citizens just peacefully exercising their 1st Amendment
rights, but being ruthlessly oppressed by evil, rampaging police
(Standard FGOP anti-democratic mendacity)
At the end of a winding answer on Thursday about competing with China and about his relationship with Xi Jinping, a man he said does not have a democratic “bone in his body,” President Biden offered up a revealing assessment of one of America’s most pressing challenges.
“This is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies,” he told reporters at his first news conference as president. “We’ve got to prove democracy works.”
China’s president, Mr. Xi, Mr. Biden said bluntly, was “a smart, smart guy” who shared with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a belief that “autocracy is the wave of the future and democracy can’t function” in the complexities of the modern world.
“We talked about China and the competition they’re engaging in in the Belt and Road Initiative,” Mr. Biden said. “And I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world.”
There is a striking similarity between Mr. Biden’s list and Mr. Xi’s “Made in China 2025” initiative — which was first announced six years ago as an effort to make China largely independent of Western suppliers for critical technology.
At the core of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure and supply-chain initiatives is an effort — parts of which began in the Trump years — to ensure the West is not dependent on Chinese technology. It is a battle that blossomed over Huawei, the maker of next-generation communications networks, but has now spread to fears that Chinese apps like TikTok could be a pathway for attacks on American infrastructure.
“China is outinvesting us by a long shot,” Mr. Biden said, previewing his argument, “because their plan is to own that future.”
In addition to FGOP (fascist GOP) efforts to obliterate free elections as much as they can wherever they can, the party literally hates government. The party leadership rabidly but blindly believes that deregulated markets solve nearly all problems better than government power ever could. In this regard, the FGOP is a powerful anti-democratic autocratic political force that Biden has to fight tooth and claw against.
It is clear that the FGOP's vision of deregulating markets causes power to flow from government to wealthy people and businesses. Republican brand deregulation removes restraints on the ability of special interests and wealthy people to make more money, e.g., they can ignore burdens like pollution, honest advertising, etc. The republican vision of commerce and government is not one where power flows to individuals. It is one where power flows up to special interests and wealth, not down to average people.[1] That is inherently autocratic, and if recent history is a reliable indicator, inherently corrupt, incompetent and lawless.
Obviously, most republicans and some or many independents do not agree with this vision of reality. But if one does at least understand the argument, the problem that Biden and democrats face in defending democracy is clear. How can democracy be defended when at least 35% of US citizens want a demagogic dictator in power? That is the case whether the authoritarians agree or not, or whether they know it or not. That authoritarian mindset doesn't seem to much mind the mendacity, crackpottery, corruption, incompetence and contempt for the rule of law that accompanies the FGOP's demagogic tyranny.
Does American Democracy Have a Good Chance to Succeed? Is the FGOP an anti-democratic political force working against democracy to build some form of a demagogic tyranny-Christian theocracy?
Footnote:
1. Of the several deregulations I have looked at that were implemented under the previous FGOP administration, all deregulated special interests and power flowed from government to the affected special interests. In no case did power flow to average people. Power flowed up and concentrated with wealthy people and businesses.
A moment in history the FGOP has clearly forgotten
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