Democrats embrace authoritarianism

Matt Taibbi writes in part,

Barack Obama continued or expanded Bush-Cheney programs like drone assassination, rendition, and warrantless surveillance, while also using the Espionage Act to bully reporters and whistleblowers.

Republicans throughout this time were usually as bad or worse on these issues, but Democrats have lately positioned themselves as more aggressive promoters of strong-arm policies, from control of Internet speech to the embrace of domestic spying. In the last four years the blue-friendly press has done a complete 180 on these issues, going from cheering Edward Snowden to lionizing the CIA, NSA, and FBI and making on-air partners out of drone-and-surveillance all-stars like John Brennan, James Clapper, and Michael Hayden. There are now too many ex-spooks on CNN and MSNBC to count, while there isn’t a single regular contributor on any of the networks one could describe as antiwar.

...Nowhere has this been more evident than in the response to the Covid-19 crisis, where the almost mandatory take of pundits is that any protest of lockdown measures is troglodyte death wish. The aftereffects of years of Russiagate/Trump coverage are seen everywhere: press outlets reflexively associate complaints of government overreach with Trump, treason, and racism, and conversely radiate a creepily gleeful tone when describing aggressive emergency measures and the problems some “dumb” Americans have had accepting them.

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"What they would do to others, they assume others would do to them."

In The Federalist, Nathanael Blake writes,

Declaring that America is on the verge of authoritarianism is normal, even expected, in prestigious publications. It has been conventional since President Trump was elected.

For all his faults, however, Trump has done little to expand or consolidate presidential power. If Trump appears as a plausible strongman, then the government in general and the presidency in particular have too much power. Much of the progressive anxiety about authoritarianism results from projecting their own philosophy of government onto their political opponents. What they would do to others, they assume others would do to them.

...Fascism and other forms of authoritarian government require concentrated and unconstrained state power. Thus, genuine anti-fascism opposes the expansion and consolidation of government power, and by this measure the American Constitution is one of the most successful anti-fascist systems of government ever established. Above all else, the Founders feared arbitrary power and the elevation of will over law. This fear was rooted in knowledge of history, human nature, and their experiences with self-government and the British.

...From the protestors to the pundits, progressives should reflect on the wisdom of a limited and divided government. An unlimited government is only a bad leader or cabal away from authoritarianism, but there is little reason to fear a government that is constrained within our constitutional limits. Adherence to our constitutional system of government remains the surest prophylactic against authoritarianism.

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Populism, authoritarianism, extraconstitutional government and the cult of personality

Have you read anything anywhere that explains the populism expressed in the popularity of Trump with Republicans and Sanders with Democrats? Neither have I. Their popularity may be rooted in a desire to speak the truth instead of the manufactured progressive truth about every subject that touches Americans. Politically correct speech and concepts are overwhelmingly false narratives. We are not all racist and sexist. We do want the U.S. to stand up for itself when being constantly taken advantage of, such as defending Europe and Asia when they won't spend the money to defend themselves. Majority rules used to be the case, but now America is governed by false moralistic narratives about the victims du jure.

Perhaps some of the populist anger is directed at the incredible amount of attention given to the social ills experienced by very small minority populations. The liberal elite have become authoritarians, who indenture bakers, florists, and photographers to create works of art for homosexual culture events. Authoritarian elites let grown males into the bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers of our daughters. Authoritarians elites issue unconstitutional executive orders when they don't get their way. Ever higher taxes, over regulation and a nanny state infringe on our freedoms more than ever. Couple that what we see on university grounds where free speech, if not in agreement with politically correct thought, is being shut down at an alarming rate.

Many writers correctly warn against the authoritarianism of Donald Trump, but few warn about the authoritarianism of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. One who does issue such a warning is David Harsanyi at the Federalist. He writes about his own family's experience with the Holocaust.

Certainly, anti-Semitism — and Marx was a heavyweight — is often a precursor of authoritarianism. Yet not once have I heard or read Sanders push back against the rising of anti-Semitism within the progressive movement — which is flourishing, not on the Twitter fringe, but in the heart of American college campuses. For that matter, neither has “progressive” Clinton, who was part of an administration that coddled the BDS movement and helped create a nuclear Iran.

Both of these Democrats traveled to Harlem to have a sit down with anti-Semitic mob-inciter (and Trump pal) Al Sharpton. To me, and I suspect many others, he’s no better than David Duke.

So Bill Maher, Louis C.K., or “Saturday Night Live” can all equate today’s political environment to the German 1930s — a ridiculous overstatement — because they’re comedians using rhetorical excesses. (Oh, how brave they are, right?) But if Trump’s rise deserves this kind of sort of ominous warning, others do as well.

At Vox the other day, Amanda Taub took an entire chilling deep dive into the rise of “authoritarianism” without once mentioning the socialist Left. Yet, using the benchmarks of authoritarianis — strong centralized power and limited political freedoms — we can just as easily describe the modern Democratic Party’s agenda as we can Trumpism. Almost every policy position of the contemporary Left relies on some form of state coercion, mostly through Washington. It’s only relativism that blinds people to this fact.

...Liberals have spent years decimating norms of discourse. Pushing through a generational reform bill without half the country participating degrades the norms of democracy. When they lost Congress over this abuse, not only did they accuse Republicans of standing against the American people (even though the GOP kept expanding its majority) but said their position comprised nothing more than racism. Conservatives were no longer political opposition, they’re people who hate decency, democracy, the poor, the black, the infirm, America, and the system. As this thinking coagulated on the mainstream Left, Democrats had the moral justification to do what they liked.

Nearly the entire Obama presidency has been an exercise in figuring out ways to work around checks and balances. Unilaterally changing the status of millions of illegal immigrants because you can’t achieve your political goals may strike you as morally sound, but it oversteps any conception of executive power found in the Constitution. If you’re a fan of that executive action, you aren’t nervous about authoritarianism, you’re worried about how Trump would use it.

If you support a candidate like Hillary, who pushed the administration to get involved in the Libyan war without congressional approval, you’ll have little moral standing to be upset when Trump bombs people to “take their oil.” If you believe Obama has the right to assassinate suspected terrorists abroad without a trial, you have less authority to be upset when Trump threatens those associated with terrorists.

If you’re nervous about Trump’s plans to “open up” U.S. libel laws to punish journalists who unfairly attack him, I definitely join you. Unlike some people, I’ve never supported Fairness Doctrines. It’s unlikely this effort could get past the Supreme Court. Then again, consider how the First Amendment has being degraded—at every campaign stop and every speech, in fact—by Democrats who promise to undo a Supreme Court decision that bars government from dictating what people can hear, see, and read during elections.

Overturning Citizens United would allow the state in certain instances to control political books and movies—like the one that was critical of Hillary. Democrats believe Americans can be bought off with an ad buy and some flyers. The progressive Left, once home of free-speech absolutism, is now home to safe spaces, microaggressions, IRS oversight of speech, and Justice Councils ferreting out thought crimes.

Democrats would be a lot more believable on Trump’s rise if they hadn’t succumbed to the cult of personality in 2008, which was no less creepy. The attacks on dissent, the chilling of speech (remember the White House’s efforts to collect “fishy” comments from dissenters; one could easily imagine Trump setting up the same kind of system), and the accusation of unpatriotic behavior were all unhealthy for a free society. Yes, Americans are increasingly willing to accept extraconstitutional government if it accomplishes the things they desire. That includes Democrats.

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People do not choose to take personal responsibility to become well informed and involved in our republican form of government.