Authoritarianism: The political science that explains Trump

I find this disturbing, to be honest.

When the whole Bush/Cheney transformation was taking place, the thought occurred to me - what if some strong-man dictator type comes along as President and wishes to make use of all these new levers of power for the pursuit of authoritarianism taken to old/new heights?

Maybe the office of the President should not have all these powers, for the sake of liberty, as if giving in to the militarization of the bureaucracy in pursuit of "security", but it's all muscular, strong-man talk designed to play on people's fears and prejudices with hyperbole and demagoguery.

Can a staunch individualism hide in the fist of authoritarianism?

Donald Trump is counting on it.

Absolutely true.

Accept the majority of the long term power resides with a Congress that despises the guy... So I think its a little early to crown him dictator for life.

Gee, hillary has her own personal assassination squad and she destroyed Libya and wasn't even potus.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

AnkhMorpork,

Although you are right to be concerned about a Trump presidency, and the overt effect that may have on the social conversation in your country, I feel it is improper to be concerned about a strongman dictatorial type, as you state it, to any greater degree than you ought to be concerned about the invisible tyranny which currently breeds in the shadows, behind the scenes.

Your liberty does not exist. It is a lie that is told in order to control the people who are fooled by it, who outnumber the wary and the witty by vast numbers, if today's discourse on matters political is anything to go by. A private bank controls your money supply, owned by people you are not permitted to know the identities of. The intelligence services can acquire your information without probable cause, your internet traffic and phone calls be recorded without any provocation. Your political discourse can be used against you by companies and government alike, even if you do not realise that it is happening. Your rights and freedoms are a sham, they do not exist. You could be imprisoned without charge simply for disagreeing with the establishment, and there are prisons specifically designed for this purpose, on the very soil of your nation, despite those institutions going against the constitution on which your nation was founded.

The fact is that your nation is owned by financial interests so powerful that near enough every business either owes them money or fealty, and yet the vast majority of people cannot even name one of their facets reliably when asked to do so. Your nation is already authoritarian, its just that there are many effective obfuscations at work to hide the fact from the people, who would justly rise up were they to be aware of it en masse. This election is just one of the smoke screens, as has been every election since 1913 for sure, and probably before that too. Things are only going to get worse, until people realise that whether your tyrant is obvious or concealed, you have one to deal with, and you MUST deal with it, because if you do not, your nation and the entire world to boot, will suffer for it.

America is so large that its problem, is the worlds problem, because more than any other nation on the face of this planet, America projects its troubles onto other nations as surely as the sun directs its radiation to all the planets in our solar system, with the major difference that its effects are often felt most keenly further away from its shores than close in. Trump is scum, but Hillary is also scum, and they are scum for largely the same reasons, differently presented. But they are not the real problem. The problem is that your people do not own their nation, their government, or any singular process which keeps either their nation or their government running. The people have no power as a consequence of this. Voting does not give you power. Campaigning does not give you power, nor does political activism of any kind, nor even attaining political office. Owning the structures which allow the operation of government and infrastructure, these are what places power in the hands of people. That power should always rest in the hands of the population as a whole, not any small number of them. And yet, the entire system in your country funnels money toward financial black holes, centered around individuals you are not permitted to know the names of, concentrating the ownership of, and the benefits attributed to operation of such a financial powerhouse as the US, in the laps of people you did not vote for, whose morality you can only guess at, whose intentions are not like unto your own, or those of any of the regular working people in your nation.

Meanwhile the scapegoats are trotted out, the millennials, the liberals, the Muslims, the commies, the socialists, the propaganda machine ploughs on, backed by CIA assets that the modern media refers to as ISIS, giving the people something to militate against, despite the fact that your government paid for both the war machine that your nation sends against the "threat", AND the threat itself. No one pays attention to the correct hand, no one has their eye on the correct shell, not enough people are prepared to even entertain the idea that their self imposed ignorance could be harming themselves or their nation, or their planet. They have been so utterly deluded by the propagandists that actual thought, reason, and rationality are dying out under peer pressure, pressure to become and remain stupid, vacant, unaware of and uninterested in the process by which ones personal freedoms and liberty are afforded them, if at all.

So many people seem unwilling to confront the thing they fear the most, a lack of agency in their lives, and the mechanism which steals it from them. Fear aside, that mental weakness that can only be explained and appeased by more weakness, there can be no excuse for continuing this charade.

Er, isn't the presidential system based on authoritarianism? The president is just the replacement for the monarch, albeit non-hereditary. However, the fact that is that political families (Clinton, Bush etc) seem to be making the non-hereditary angle a non-argument.

Anyway, the president is authoritarian by nature. However, the degree of authority is somewhat tempered and constrained by the Senate and the House of Representatives. I am no expert on the US political set up, but presidents without support from either house are fairly powerless to do anything except fly around in Air Force One.

In the UK parliamentary system the monarch has been relegated to ceremony and last-resort "have the whole lot shot" oversight i.e. to prevent a government governing without support.

Having watched the booooringly endless and embarrassing presidential contest, by two people that are unfit to govern, I think I am happy with my county's approach.

I though it was scary when he said " I have a pen and a phone and I'm going to bypass congress to get what I want done".... ooops wrong guy

originally posted by: burgerbuddy
Gee, hillary has her own personal assassination squad and she destroyed Libya and wasn't even potus.

Except that this thread is not about Hillary.
You Trump lovers seem to have developed some kind of weird Hillary fetish. Tell me, do you dream about her as well?

a reply to: TrueBrit

I would like to applaud this post and give you far more stars then one!

You have eloquently described our situation quite throughly!

Meanwhile the scapegoats are trotted out, the millennials, the liberals, the Muslims, the commies, the socialists, the propaganda machine ploughs on, backed by CIA assets that the modern media refers to as ISIS, giving the people something to militate against, despite the fact that your government paid for both the war machine that your nation sends against the "threat", AND the threat itself. No one pays attention to the correct hand, no one has their eye on the correct shell, not enough people are prepared to even entertain the idea that their self imposed ignorance could be harming themselves or their nation, or their planet. They have been so utterly deluded by the propagandists that actual thought, reason, and rationality are dying out under peer pressure, pressure to become and remain stupid, vacant, unaware of and uninterested in the process by which ones personal freedoms and liberty are afforded them, if at all.

This right here my friend is the truth that people spend their lives living vicariously through their TVs to avoid facing and doing something about.

Spot on assessment TrueBrit

originally posted by: paraphi
Er, isn't the presidential system based on authoritarianism? The president is just the replacement for the monarch, albeit non-hereditary. However, the fact that is that political families (Clinton, Bush etc) seem to be making the non-hereditary angle a non-argument.

Anyway, the president is authoritarian by nature. However, the degree of authority is somewhat tempered and constrained by the Senate and the House of Representatives. I am no expert on the US political set up, but presidents without support from either house are fairly powerless to do anything except fly around in Air Force One.

In the UK parliamentary system the monarch has been relegated to ceremony and last-resort "have the whole lot shot" oversight i.e. to prevent a government governing without support.

Having watched the booooringly endless and embarrassing presidential contest, by two people that are unfit to govern, I think I am happy with my county's approach.

Wow! A great idea! lol!

Imagine the look on their faces!

"Hahaha just kidding, this time"

a reply to: paraphi

Er, isn't the presidential system based on authoritarianism? The president is just the replacement for the monarch, albeit non-hereditary.

Wrong; the Presidency is referred to as "the Executive Branch." The President does not make law, he sees to it that it is executed. The Congress makes the laws, and can remove the President if he fails to execute his responsibilities. The President can submit bills to create laws, but it is the Congress that decides whether to make the bill into law.

That said, there has been a growing trend to cede more and more power to the President. Their ability to issue Executive Orders has become a de facto way of passing laws. As Executive, the President can order government organs to do things that affect citizens indirectly. (This is a subtle distinction, I know.) Because of the polarization in Congress since the end of the Establishment Consensus at the end of the First Cold War, the Executive branch has assumed powers never intended by the Founders.

In the case of a Trump presidency, Congress will likely unite against him and prevent him from becoming a demagogic Leader.

originally posted by: avgguy
I though it was scary when he said " I have a pen and a phone and I'm going to bypass congress to get what I want done".... ooops wrong guy

Well, I seem to recall, the "Unitary Presidency" being one of those brilliant Republican ideals.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Interesting. And yet, they think they are victims of others trying to tell them what to do.

They want to:

A) bomb the shins off of everyone they don't like,

B) prevent:
entry into the US,
the existence of gays (not to mention their marriage)
women from having sex or using birth control and also from making personal decisions,
taxes to take care of the resulting unwanted children
Muslims from being able to walk about
environmental care and maintenance
IN SHORT, THEY WANT TO PREVENT EVERYTHING THEY DON'T LIKE; and

C) force:
everyone to do what they say
liberals to not talk about anything
starvation on those who don't work
IN SHORT, THEY WANT TO FORCE EVERYONE ELSE TO DO WHAT THEY WANT THEM TO.





meh.