How do right wing extremist authoritarians take over a country? There is a playbook that is used over and over again. You see it in Russia, Poland, Hungary, China, Saudi Arabia, and.... MAGA/Tea-Party/Freedom-Caucus extremists in America as well.
A basic move is to destroy the free press. Drive it out of business. Take over the media space with authoritarian controlled/authoritarian colluding pretend free press.
Then, of course, control the brains of the country with endless, repetitious, insistent propaganda and lies --
- blame liberals by calling them socialists and communists,
- gaslight the news by claiming the news is fake,
- pump lie after lie after lie into the brains of the country,
- accuse the opposition to the authoritarian takeover of the same crimes the authoritarians are actually committing
- claim that only the right wing extremist authoritarians can save the country from the corruption and debauchery
- demonize all who aren't right wing authoritarian white supremacist men -
- gays
- transgenders
- blacks
- browns
- reds
- yellows
- women
- flood the media avenues with crime after crime, corruption after corruption, lie after lie - just wear the country out so as to make them turn away and shrug in confusion and despair
- Take over the judiciary - put right wing extremist judges throughout the judiciary, including the Supreme Court
- Take over the military and put right wing extremist soldiers and leaders in the military
- Prevent those that oppose the right-wing extremists from voting
We have seen The Former Guy do these things for eight years. Just because we are sick and tired of it doesn't mean that we can afford to turn away. Now, and now, and now, and now is the time to see the authoritarian attempts to destroy American democracy. And we need to stay sane, and to insist on the truth, the truth, the truth - and to stop these domineering men from ending the American experiment in self-government.
A key to it all is having a country that is governed by the rule of law, not the rule of a "king". The Former Guy still hasn't figured out that he is not a "king". But he'll get it, eventually.
I am so sorry America is learning this lesson via the hard path of internal experience. I just hope and pray we don't have to take it to the logical conclusion of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy in the '30s and '40s. Or of Putin today, who is likely to have a bad ending to his extremist, corrupt, domineering rule.
Prison please.
