Political Blue Gene

July 30, 2020

Who Wants To Be a Dictator?

I have been inspired by an article that appeared in this past Sunday’s Sacramento Bee concerning the many signs of authoritarianism that we have seen.  Here are my top candidates for inclusion in this kind of list.  I’m sure you have some more.

#1:  Postponing Elections

President Trump has said that maybe we should postpone the November election.  A would-be dictator would want an election postponed until either he was assured of victory or … forever.  Trump would be happy either way.

#2:  Undermining the Election

Nearly every day Trump rails against the non-existent likelihood that the election will be rife with voter fraud and says he may not accept the results.  What happens if he refuses to leave the White House? Or if he encourages his supporters to rise up against the “illegitimate” president?

#3:  Setting Up a Secret Police Force

First, Trump sends Federal agents to Portland ostensibly to protect Federal facilities, then sends or gets ready to send agents to other American cities without even the pretense of protecting Federal buildings.  One doesn’t have to be so heavy-handed as to call your secret police the KGB, Staasi or Gestapo.  The benign sounding “Homeland Security” will do nicely.

#4:  Rewarding Those Who Protect You

Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn have protected Trump and he has supported them, even commuting Stone’s sentence and getting the AG to drop the case against Flynn (still to be decided by the US Court of Appeals).  Of course, the worst is Stone, who not only was convicted of lying but of witness tampering.  A dictator has no respect for either the rule of law or protecting the criminal justice system.

#5:  Setting Up Conflicts Between People Based on Race, Religion or Ethnicity

Trump’s racism towards Blacks, LatinX, Muslims and Jews are well-documented.  In fact, some of his core supporters are attracted to him because of this.  Most would-be dictators set up the “other” as their target for whatever is wrong in the country.  From the day he descended the escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015, this has been the cornerstone of who Trump is.

#6:  Trump Makes Money By Being President

There are numerous instances of his profiting by being President.  Here are 2 examples. Which is more egregious?  Having Vice-President Pence stay at his hotel in Ireland even though it is 180 miles from Pence’s meetings or making sure that military personnel stay at his expensive resort in Scotland?  And he says he is a good guy because he claims that he is not taking his presidential salary.

#7:  He Likes and Works With Dictators

Dictators are his kind of people.  His affinity for Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Recip Erdogan are well known.  Many people want to know why he always takes Putin’s word on every issue and refuses to even mention to Putin the issues of bounties on our soldiers’ heads or that Russia is arming the Taliban.  He has spoken with Putin 7 times since the end of March and never mentioned either one.  If only he had as good a relationship with our friends. And how many times has he spoken to Merkel, Macron or even Boris Johnson in the same period?  I’ll wager it was fewer than 7.

And the list goes on and on and on and…

And this list doesn’t even touch on the coronavirus and how or why he has denied its severity and all the science surrounding it.  When he said the other day that he doesn’t understand why Dr. Fauci has high approval ratings and he does not, I believe that for once, he was being truthful – he really doesn’t understand.  How sad for him, but more importantly, how sad for us.