XPost: alt.politics.usa, stl.general, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.politics.nationalism.black   
   From: NoOne@private.corp   
      
   On 1/13/2024 1:12 AM, Bill Steele wrote:   
   > In article    
   > David Hartung  wrote:   
   >>   
   >> The FBI is a corrupt organization of political sycophants.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Democrats grow increasingly desperate as they continue to fail,   
   > so they’re hysterically attempting to brand Republican leaders   
   > as “authoritarian.”   
   >   
   > People on the right are calling Joe Biden’s vicious “MAGA   
   > Republicans” speech “unpresidential” and “divisive” when in   
   > reality, it was simply desperate. That’s a new theme on the left   
   > that has become obvious on a comical level.   
   >   
   > The national media have spent the last several weeks insisting   
   > that after enduring months of record inflation, unaffordable gas   
   > and electric bills, plus a completely avoidable war costing   
   > taxpayers billions (and counting), the country is now feeling a   
   > new sense of affection for Biden. I’m sure. Now they’re hyping   
   > up the Democrat line about some “extreme MAGA ideology” (what?)   
   > and “authoritarian leaders” who “represent an extremism that   
   > threatens the very foundations of our republic.”   
   >   
   > Those are all quotes that Biden slurred his way through last   
   > week in Philadelphia, but the sentiment was just as sweetly   
   > captured the previous day in a New York Times column by Thomas   
   > Edsall. But instead of targeting the unnamed yet ever-so-   
   > fearsome “MAGA Republicans,” Edsall and a round of scholars went   
   > after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, aka God’s Chosen One.   
   >   
   > “The fact that Ron DeSantis … is favored to win re-election is a   
   > clear warning to those worried about declining support for   
   > democratic institutions and values in the United States,” wrote   
   > Edsall.   
   >   
   > A popular governor might be chosen by voters in his state for a   
   > second term. That certainly doesn’t sound like cause for worry.   
   > But maybe Edsall has a bigger point.   
   >   
   > Should DeSantis win reelection, he wrote, it would indicate that   
   > voters in a major swing state “will tolerate, if not actively   
   > embrace, the abuse of traditional political norms by domineering   
   > leaders.” It’s unclear what Edsall meant by “abuse of   
   > traditional political norms,” but he noted that the governor   
   > “has made no secret of his intent to use executive authority to   
   > the fullest extent.”   
   >   
   > If an elected official’s use of authority “to the fullest   
   > extent” is “the abuse of traditional political norms,” it would   
   > be interesting to know what Edsall makes of Biden unilaterally   
   > spreading hundreds of billions of dollars of student loan debt   
   > among taxpayers, including many who never went to college and   
   > many who had already paid off their own. It would be interesting   
   > to know what he makes of Biden’s failed attempt at coercing   
   > millions of workers to inject themselves with an experimental   
   > drug.   
   >   
   > Those weren’t an abuse of traditional political norms. Those   
   > were bold progressive actions!   
   >   
   > Edsall went on to cite some of DeSantis’s more widely known   
   > achievements in office, including his crackdown on public   
   > schools that were teaching children that to be white is a   
   > problem; punitive measures he took against corporations that get   
   > tax breaks and then get mouthy about politics; and his removal   
   > of a state attorney general who openly said he would not adhere   
   > to a Supreme Court ruling.   
   >   
   > It was “surprising” to Edsall that the productive governor   
   > hadn’t been the subject of a more focused political pushback   
   > from Florida Democrats. But he also admitted he knew why that   
   > was: “One answer is that his policies have substantial support.”   
   >   
   > Ah, so it’s difficult to successfully take down an elected   
   > official who is actually supported by the people he represents,   
   > even if some of that support is begrudging. Who knew?!   
   >   
   > This is where Edsall introduced his trusty gang of “experts” to   
   > make the case that despite DeSantis having broad appeal among   
   > the people who would have to hand him any higher office he has   
   > designs for — we call this an “election” — such a victory would   
   > mean certain doom for democracy.   
   >   
   > Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli   
   > Institute for International Studies, told Edsall that what would   
   > worry him about a “Trump Republican” like DeSantis in office is   
   > “the extreme politicization and abuse of federal government   
   > power, the targeting of political enemies and the mobilization   
   > and emboldening of the violent, well-armed, extremist fringe of   
   > Trump followers.”   
   >   
   > UCLA law professor Richard Hansen was then allowed by Edsall to   
   > dream up a scenario where former president Trump runs for a   
   > second term and “fails to win legitimately but finds a route to   
   > being installed as president,” which, according to Handsen,   
   > would mean the United States “ceases to be a democracy.”   
   >   
   > As to what sneaky, illegitimate “route” Trump, or anyone else,   
   > might take to being allowed into the White House while everyone   
   > sits on their thumbs is unclear. Hansen either didn’t say, or   
   > Edsall failed to include that part of his quote.   
   >   
   > The piece went on like this at length, with various scholars and   
   > professors consulting their dream diaries about what a future   
   > second term for Trump or first term for DeSantis would mean.   
   >   
   > —“Certain groups would be more vulnerable. These include   
   > historically marginalized groups, who might find new   
   > restrictions on voting. Or members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community   
   > who are treated as second-class citizens.”   
   >   
   > —“One might imagine the [Republican Party] in power during   
   > unified government would seek to dramatically expand the number   
   > and size of the federal courts, then fill these new positions.”   
   >   
   > —“There could also be soft or harder controls over the media.   
   > There would be tremendous uncertainty over what a postdemocracy   
   > period would look like in the United States.”   
   >   
   > Edsall concluded his piece by asserting that whether DeSantis   
   > wins a second term as governor, it will be “a referendum on   
   > democracy, and the odds do not look good.”   
   >   
   > That we got from Point A — DeSantis is an exceptionally skilled   
   > and popular policy executive — to Point B — DeSantis as   
   > president would turn America into an authoritarian hellscape —   
   > should leave everyone reading this with severe neck pain from   
   > straining to find the logic.   
   >   
   > To call this talk “divisive” is to give it way too much credit.   
   > This is panicked. Democrats have surely spotted a threat, but   
   > not to our system of government. The threat is to them.   
   >   
   > https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/09/democrats-arent-divisive-   
   > theyre-desperate/   
   >   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)