Republican and authoritarianism
Let's follow the news for signs the Republican party is abandoning democracy and the rule of law for authoritarian rule.
Scott Walker, always against the best interests of the people of Wisconsin, just signed a bill stripping the incoming Democratic Governor of most of his power. The people of Wisconsin just elected the new governor to govern their state, as Walker had before him. They elected him to change the policies of the past governor. So, against the wishes of the people of the state, the outgoing Governor and the Republican legislature changed the rules of what a governor can and can't do.
The Republican are losing so they are changing the rules in their favor. When you can't give a rational, convincing argument to support your position you can either resort to cheating or be a good loser and try to defend you opinion in the next round of elections. Because the Republicans have chosen to cheat means they are have to arguments to support their position and therefore have resorted to authoritarianism, the rule by authority rather than by convincing evidence.
Then we have our president, a Republican, who is lying about his involvement of paying hush money to women with whom he had extra-marital affairs, so their stories wouldn't come out before the election. Both lying to the electorate and scoffing at the laws he has violated are typical of authoritarians. And the Republican party continues to support him, which is supporting both the tilt toward an authoritarian government and away from a democracy. Every time the Republicans have a choice, they choose to ignore the existing law and make new rules to keep themselves in power in spite of the tide against them. The question is always will the military follow the president and the Republican party or will it side with the citizenry.
In North Carolina, Mark Harris an evangelical baptist minister who was narrowly elected to the House from the North Carolina ninth district, is under investigation for election tampering. Is the old saying 'the end justifies the mean' a christian saying? Has this fundamentalist minister chosen to replace the choice of the voters with his own ideology? Does this sound like rule by religious doctrine rather than secular law? We'll see how this turns out, but the smoke smells of the Republican authoritarian fire.
This morning on the front page of the New York Times is an article about McKinsey and
Company consulting for the Chinese government as they had for Yanukovich in Ukraine. Both these are authoritarian regimes. It isn’t illegal to do business with them but it shows that businesses in the United States are not adverse to helping non-Democratic governments. Perhaps that is okay from a business-for-profit model but makes one wonder about the public tolerance toward fascist style governments.
Judge O'Connor in Texas has stated his opinion that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. He stated this as a legal opinion, which it is not. It is a political opinion. Many legal experts have weighed in on his reasoning and shown it to be irrational and biased, typical of this Republican appointed judge.
Also today in the Washington Post, Comey's testimony to the House Judicial committee was reported. Comey directly accused the president of attempting to damage the reputation of the FBI with lies and false accusations. Trump's motive, of course, is to attempt to avoid paying the price for the laws that he has violated by undermining the institutions that support the law. And the Republican party has said nothing to contradict Trump, which is essentially siding with him. This attack on the rule of law is an authoritarian technique for obtaining power.
And these are just a few of the ongoing story of the Republican party's decision to subvert our democracy and replace it with an authoritarian system. If you can't hold on to power using the normal rules, then change the rules. Read the paper with this in mind, please. Our democracy depends on it.
Scott Walker, always against the best interests of the people of Wisconsin, just signed a bill stripping the incoming Democratic Governor of most of his power. The people of Wisconsin just elected the new governor to govern their state, as Walker had before him. They elected him to change the policies of the past governor. So, against the wishes of the people of the state, the outgoing Governor and the Republican legislature changed the rules of what a governor can and can't do.
The Republican are losing so they are changing the rules in their favor. When you can't give a rational, convincing argument to support your position you can either resort to cheating or be a good loser and try to defend you opinion in the next round of elections. Because the Republicans have chosen to cheat means they are have to arguments to support their position and therefore have resorted to authoritarianism, the rule by authority rather than by convincing evidence.
Then we have our president, a Republican, who is lying about his involvement of paying hush money to women with whom he had extra-marital affairs, so their stories wouldn't come out before the election. Both lying to the electorate and scoffing at the laws he has violated are typical of authoritarians. And the Republican party continues to support him, which is supporting both the tilt toward an authoritarian government and away from a democracy. Every time the Republicans have a choice, they choose to ignore the existing law and make new rules to keep themselves in power in spite of the tide against them. The question is always will the military follow the president and the Republican party or will it side with the citizenry.
In North Carolina, Mark Harris an evangelical baptist minister who was narrowly elected to the House from the North Carolina ninth district, is under investigation for election tampering. Is the old saying 'the end justifies the mean' a christian saying? Has this fundamentalist minister chosen to replace the choice of the voters with his own ideology? Does this sound like rule by religious doctrine rather than secular law? We'll see how this turns out, but the smoke smells of the Republican authoritarian fire.
This morning on the front page of the New York Times is an article about McKinsey and
Company consulting for the Chinese government as they had for Yanukovich in Ukraine. Both these are authoritarian regimes. It isn’t illegal to do business with them but it shows that businesses in the United States are not adverse to helping non-Democratic governments. Perhaps that is okay from a business-for-profit model but makes one wonder about the public tolerance toward fascist style governments.
Judge O'Connor in Texas has stated his opinion that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. He stated this as a legal opinion, which it is not. It is a political opinion. Many legal experts have weighed in on his reasoning and shown it to be irrational and biased, typical of this Republican appointed judge.
Also today in the Washington Post, Comey's testimony to the House Judicial committee was reported. Comey directly accused the president of attempting to damage the reputation of the FBI with lies and false accusations. Trump's motive, of course, is to attempt to avoid paying the price for the laws that he has violated by undermining the institutions that support the law. And the Republican party has said nothing to contradict Trump, which is essentially siding with him. This attack on the rule of law is an authoritarian technique for obtaining power.
And these are just a few of the ongoing story of the Republican party's decision to subvert our democracy and replace it with an authoritarian system. If you can't hold on to power using the normal rules, then change the rules. Read the paper with this in mind, please. Our democracy depends on it.
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