About DJT & American authoritarianism -- another warning

Notice: For people who don't want to hear more criticism of DJT or warnings about the threat of American radical right authoritarianism, ignore this post.

CONTEXT

On Jan. 6, 2021 I posted this in intense anger and moral outrage:

Trump's Attempted Coup Is In Progress Right Now

2:25 PM EST

News sources are reporting now on the attack on the US Capitol by enraged Trump supporters. Capitol police have been overwhelmed and pushed back. Congress has been told to shelter in place until more police can be brought in. Meanwhile, the seditionist Trump does nothing because he is a tyrant who wants to topple democracy.

All blood that will be shed, if any, is on Trump's filthy, treasonous tyrant hands. Radical right GOP Republicans in congress are also fully culpable for all violence and deaths, even the ones who feebly pretended to be distressed by this possibility.

At the time, people who called it a coup attempt were criticized as alarmist, liars, hyperbolic, brainwashed, communists, Democrats, traitors, stupid, etc. Some Americans today, e.g., most Republicans (~95% ?), still do not see it as a violent coup attempt or as fomented by a morally rotted, kleptocratic dictator and America's lying fraud and Fornicator-in-Chief. I still see it that way.

American authoritarianism

The American Autocracy Threat Tracker analyzes commitments by autocratic actors to implement in our country in 2025. History teaches us that threats to assault core democratic principles should not be taken lightly. On the contrary, contemporary lessons from backsliding democracies like Hungary, Turkey, and Poland, not to mention from more ominous historical parallels, are that autocratic plans must be taken seriously. Conversely, social science data and lived experience teach us that big tent pro-rule of law coalitions that are multi-ideological and multi-partisan are an antidote to autocratic advance and have a proven record of success.

The Autocracy in America conference will sound the alarm on this rising threat in the United States— and advance both short- and long-term responses.

A WaPo opinion (not paywalled) by Jennifer  Rubin opines:

Last week, I participated in the Anti-Autocracy Conference. I was joined by a bipartisan assortment of academics, activists, whistleblowers from the Trump administration, lawyers, journalists, civil society leaders, and current and former elected officials, plus a lively audience, all to discuss the looming threat to pluralistic democracy.

Many participants noted that the authoritarian threat is well underway. The MAGA GOP rationalizes a violent coup and refuses to commit to respecting the election results; its nominee dabbles in Hitlerian language; a radical, right-wing Supreme Court damages our constitutional system by granting the president broad criminal immunity; and, an array of state laws aim to suppress voters.

Kicking off the proceedings, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a leading scholar on totalitarianism, explained:

This is an anti-autocracy conference because autocracy is what we are looking at if Donald Trump is reelected.

I know many Americans feel this is hyperbole, even after MAGA attempted to overthrow the government to keep Trump in office illegally. In my line of work, we call this a coup attempt. Even now, Trump is continuing to use his rallies to market strongman rule to Americans. Just a few days ago he praised Xi Jinping, a Communist dictator, as “brilliant” because he rules with an “iron fist.”

She explained: “Project 2025 is a recipe for mass chaos, abuses of power, and dysfunction in government. It aligns not only with the agendas of present foreign autocracies, especially the Hungary of Viktor Orban … but also with the policies of past dictatorships.”

Norm Eisen, co-founder of State Democracy Defenders Action✓ .... told me, “There is much more that unites us as Americans than divides us.” He laid out 10 principles at the conference that “define what a long-term right, left and center coalition would look like to unify the vast majority of Americans against Trump’s authoritarianism and ensure that the American democratic tradition continues — and that Trump led autocracy is permanently banished from the American political scene.” These principles boil down to:

1. Democracies rest on rule of law; someone who denies the sanctity of the Constitution and serially violates our laws cannot be president.

2. Democracy cannot survive without truth, facts, science and evidence.

3. Free and fair elections are the essence of democracy, where power resides in the people.

4. Civil discourse must be the means to resolve differences; compromise is essential to governance.

5. A democratic government cannot operate without an independent, nonpartisan civil service, and subject matter expertise is essential to good government.

6. An ethical government free from corruption and self-interest is essential to our democracy.

7. The United States is the indispensable nation for international stability, economic prosperity and democracy. Our military takes an oath to the Constitution, not to a single leader.

8. Democracies require and ensure widespread prosperity. Democracies that deliver economically for citizens require a domestic calm, commitment to the rule of law and opposition to cronyism.

9. A vibrant, independent press is vital to democracy.

10. Equality and civil rights (“All men [and women] are created equal”) are foundational to our American creed.

The good news: These ideas might provide the glue to hold together the anti-autocracy coalition if they can gather support across the ideological spectrum.

One can quibble with some of those principles or how they are worded, but in them and the other parts of the opinion I quoted, the key moral values and warnings I have been arguing for years are all there. Democracy over authoritarianism, rejection of DJT and MAGA, respect for the rule of law, civil liberties (we are all equal), and truth, facts, science and evidence, transparency in government (anti-corruption), free and fair elections, etc.