Welcome back to Lucid, and hello to all new subscribers. Today is the last day of our first-ever membership drive, and I am publishing an essay from Sept. 2021 on a theme that, as predicted, has become a major Republican talking point. If you present Biden as an agent of tyranny and Jan. 6 as freedom from that tyranny then you might see the criminals who assaulted the Capitol as “hostages” of an evil regime. And you see their eventual pardon, if Trump returns to the White House, as more than justified.
So let me get this straight: caring about people and trying to do right by them makes one an authoritarian? Tyrannical? My head is spinning worse than the girl's head in The Exorcist. I had no idea what I've missed out on by not watching Fox "news", but I will continue to miss out because I can't deal with their constant jackhammer style of presentation. That gets me stirred up, but in very unpleasant ways.
Reminding us of these essays from a couple of years ago is good strategy. It allows everyone to see how prescient you were. I hope more readers will sign up for paid subscriptions and support this work.
The right-wing media bubble is still pushing the same narratives as they were 3-4 years ago. The disturbing thing is that their audience is still lapping it up.
The acceptance of this nonsense by tens of millions of Americans points to the deep alienation that these people must feel towards the government, and to their ignorance. Supporting politicians that will do nothing for them. I remember during the tea party era seeing a poster held up at a tea party rally that said “ keep the government out of my Medicare” !!
Attacking the basic social safety net as Marxist/socialist, yet never addressing corporate subsidies nor complete industry bailouts, our tax dollars going to private energy, big oil, big pharma, and big insurance; nor bailing out the banking and finance industry is a double standard. Notice the language and which descriptors are utilized. Money and programs to help the individual is labeled “welfare” while money and programs to help industry is labeled a “subsidy” or “ bail out”.
It seems to me unAmerican to judge and demean a fellow citizen down on their luck. That our “Christian” right wingers fall for the “welfare queen” tactic time and time again is more than upsetting. The right thing to do is to provide a pathway out of poverty and into human flourishing that is the American Dream. That takes investment in education, job training and/or retraining and so much more. Government has a big role to play in democratic society and “every reform is not Communism”- President Kennedy
Biden as an authoritarian is the ultimate "I know you are but what am I?" childishness. I encounter replies citing Biden's tyranny often when I post comments to Wall Street Journal articles. But here is the most encouraging thing I've heard in a long time: Chris Quinn, the editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote an editorial that is the most sane, most real, most true thing I've read perhaps ever in a newspaper: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html. I hope that this can be shared far and wide. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for amplifying truth in this dark night of lies that surround us all.
I just finished viewing the documentary God and Country - all about Christian Nationalism which I highly recommend (it's on Amazon Prime). In the film they mention the role that Christian nationalists in Weimar Germany played as the heaviest backers of Hitler and the backbone of the electorate that voted him into power. I had never heard this history before but in watching God and Country and reading up more on Christian Nationalism in our country I can see how powerful this movement has been in indoctrinating and politicizing working class voters on steroids who are so resentful of liberal "elites" and who feel that their country has been taken from them. The narrative of Christian nationalism tells them that their country will be destroyed if they don't take it over. It's an us vs them of biblical proportions and so well supported by the massive organizational infrastructure funded by billionaire ultra free market extremists as well as their hard earned grass roots contributions. How do these mega churches which seem less focused on religion and more on indoctrination of MAGA extremism get away with having a non profit status? How is that possible? They are focused on getting all their members out to vote passing out voters guides of MAGA candidates up and down the ballot. This seems so illegal to me and I dont understand why there aren't multiple lawsuits fighting to take away their non profit status.
President Biden as an authoritarian? Really now, how much more absurd can these Trumpists get?
For any members of the Lucid community who have not yet seen it, this reader would recommend an article by The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik that first appeared online March 18 and in the print edition dated March 25. Titled "The Forgotten History of Hitler's Establishment Enablers/The Nazi leader didn't seize power; he was given it.", the article is a thorough – and thoroughly frightening – review of historian Timothy W. Ryback's new book, "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power," which Mr. Gopnik describes as "an aggressively specific chronicle of a single year, 1932." (Which for us could be 2024.)
Here's a passage worth sharing:
"Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following. Ryback shows how major players thought they could find some ulterior advantage in managing him. Each was sure that, after the passing of a brief storm cloud, so obviously overloaded that it had to expend itself, they would emerge in possession of power."
Referring to Germany's demagogue, Mr. Gopnik writes, "The decent right thought that he was too obviously deranged to remain in power long, and the decent left ... thought that, if they forcibly stuck to the rule of law, then the law would somehow by itself entrap a lawless leader." (Sound familiar?)
Mr. Gopnik concludes his essay by saying, "Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies in bright midafternoon light, where politicians fall back on familiarities and make faint offers to authoritarians and say a firm and final no—and then wake up a few days later and say, Well, maybe this time, it might all work out, and look at the other side! Precise circumstances never repeat, yet shapes and patterns so often recur. In history, it’s true, the same thing never happens twice. But the same things do."
It's now 219 days before an election that may be fatal to our own democracy. And we've been warned.
"Unlike Democrats, Republicans have a formidable media machine that dispenses disinformation such as this to hundreds of millions every day. "
I will say it again: the failure of the executive and legislative branches controlled by Democrats at all levels of government to take any meaningful action to suppress demonstrable lies and punish the sources has made our liberal constitutional democracy extremely vulnerable to takeover by Trump and his gang of authoritarians.
Democrats and those who want to protect our form of government have made little or no progress in changing MAGA minds by shouting down or yelling over the Republican propaganda machine. That marketplace of ideas? It's now the abandoned mall that blights its surroundings. Those incisive newsletter opinion pieces that never-Trumpers regard as game-changers? At best they're speaking to the Democratic choir.
But shouldn't we be worried about the slippery slope? Well, our jurisprudence has found ways hold wrongdoers responsible for the consequences of their lies for centuries without creating an totalitarian censorship state. The law provides remedies when, among other things, falsehoods harm the reputations of people and products; when one party to a transaction relies to their detriment on the other party's misrepresentations; and when a wrongdoer's pattern and practice of providing false information has yielded him ill-gotten gains. A party seeking relief in a defamation case must prove that the offending statement was indeed false. That's what protects us from the much-feared slippery slope.
In the political arena today Trump and his enablers are burying the truth under a never-ending avalanche of demonstrable, patent lies because we have failed to protect the integrity and accuracy of political speech as zealously as we protect people's reputations and business transactions from falsehoods. If there ever was a time when it was appropriate to extend charity to political fibs in the form of First Amendment protection, those days are long gone. The Ivy-League educated free-speech Brahmins who continue to counsel restraint in the face of total information warfare must surely know that.
This oversight isn't just negligent. It is reckless and extremely dangerous. Our democracy is facing an aggressive adversary in Trump. He is actively taking advantage of our inexplicable unwillingness to hold him and his allies accountable for polluting our political discourse with lies. He is enjoying tremendous success.
Ruth, thank you for your Zoom presentation this evening… I found it very informative and enlightening. One fact that I really zeroed in on was your statement that even though Orban portrays himself as the protector of white Christendom he in fact closed 300 churches… And Orban gives advice to CPAC and the GQP…scary events to say the least.
So let me get this straight: caring about people and trying to do right by them makes one an authoritarian? Tyrannical? My head is spinning worse than the girl's head in The Exorcist. I had no idea what I've missed out on by not watching Fox "news", but I will continue to miss out because I can't deal with their constant jackhammer style of presentation. That gets me stirred up, but in very unpleasant ways.
Reminding us of these essays from a couple of years ago is good strategy. It allows everyone to see how prescient you were. I hope more readers will sign up for paid subscriptions and support this work.
The right-wing media bubble is still pushing the same narratives as they were 3-4 years ago. The disturbing thing is that their audience is still lapping it up.
The acceptance of this nonsense by tens of millions of Americans points to the deep alienation that these people must feel towards the government, and to their ignorance. Supporting politicians that will do nothing for them. I remember during the tea party era seeing a poster held up at a tea party rally that said “ keep the government out of my Medicare” !!
Attacking the basic social safety net as Marxist/socialist, yet never addressing corporate subsidies nor complete industry bailouts, our tax dollars going to private energy, big oil, big pharma, and big insurance; nor bailing out the banking and finance industry is a double standard. Notice the language and which descriptors are utilized. Money and programs to help the individual is labeled “welfare” while money and programs to help industry is labeled a “subsidy” or “ bail out”.
It seems to me unAmerican to judge and demean a fellow citizen down on their luck. That our “Christian” right wingers fall for the “welfare queen” tactic time and time again is more than upsetting. The right thing to do is to provide a pathway out of poverty and into human flourishing that is the American Dream. That takes investment in education, job training and/or retraining and so much more. Government has a big role to play in democratic society and “every reform is not Communism”- President Kennedy
Biden as an authoritarian is the ultimate "I know you are but what am I?" childishness. I encounter replies citing Biden's tyranny often when I post comments to Wall Street Journal articles. But here is the most encouraging thing I've heard in a long time: Chris Quinn, the editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote an editorial that is the most sane, most real, most true thing I've read perhaps ever in a newspaper: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html. I hope that this can be shared far and wide. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for amplifying truth in this dark night of lies that surround us all.
I just finished viewing the documentary God and Country - all about Christian Nationalism which I highly recommend (it's on Amazon Prime). In the film they mention the role that Christian nationalists in Weimar Germany played as the heaviest backers of Hitler and the backbone of the electorate that voted him into power. I had never heard this history before but in watching God and Country and reading up more on Christian Nationalism in our country I can see how powerful this movement has been in indoctrinating and politicizing working class voters on steroids who are so resentful of liberal "elites" and who feel that their country has been taken from them. The narrative of Christian nationalism tells them that their country will be destroyed if they don't take it over. It's an us vs them of biblical proportions and so well supported by the massive organizational infrastructure funded by billionaire ultra free market extremists as well as their hard earned grass roots contributions. How do these mega churches which seem less focused on religion and more on indoctrination of MAGA extremism get away with having a non profit status? How is that possible? They are focused on getting all their members out to vote passing out voters guides of MAGA candidates up and down the ballot. This seems so illegal to me and I dont understand why there aren't multiple lawsuits fighting to take away their non profit status.
Phony people are good at making phony talking points!
“Designed to take polarization to the next level.” Ominous and true.
President Biden as an authoritarian? Really now, how much more absurd can these Trumpists get?
For any members of the Lucid community who have not yet seen it, this reader would recommend an article by The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik that first appeared online March 18 and in the print edition dated March 25. Titled "The Forgotten History of Hitler's Establishment Enablers/The Nazi leader didn't seize power; he was given it.", the article is a thorough – and thoroughly frightening – review of historian Timothy W. Ryback's new book, "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power," which Mr. Gopnik describes as "an aggressively specific chronicle of a single year, 1932." (Which for us could be 2024.)
Here's a passage worth sharing:
"Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following. Ryback shows how major players thought they could find some ulterior advantage in managing him. Each was sure that, after the passing of a brief storm cloud, so obviously overloaded that it had to expend itself, they would emerge in possession of power."
Referring to Germany's demagogue, Mr. Gopnik writes, "The decent right thought that he was too obviously deranged to remain in power long, and the decent left ... thought that, if they forcibly stuck to the rule of law, then the law would somehow by itself entrap a lawless leader." (Sound familiar?)
Mr. Gopnik concludes his essay by saying, "Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies in bright midafternoon light, where politicians fall back on familiarities and make faint offers to authoritarians and say a firm and final no—and then wake up a few days later and say, Well, maybe this time, it might all work out, and look at the other side! Precise circumstances never repeat, yet shapes and patterns so often recur. In history, it’s true, the same thing never happens twice. But the same things do."
It's now 219 days before an election that may be fatal to our own democracy. And we've been warned.
"Unlike Democrats, Republicans have a formidable media machine that dispenses disinformation such as this to hundreds of millions every day. "
I will say it again: the failure of the executive and legislative branches controlled by Democrats at all levels of government to take any meaningful action to suppress demonstrable lies and punish the sources has made our liberal constitutional democracy extremely vulnerable to takeover by Trump and his gang of authoritarians.
Democrats and those who want to protect our form of government have made little or no progress in changing MAGA minds by shouting down or yelling over the Republican propaganda machine. That marketplace of ideas? It's now the abandoned mall that blights its surroundings. Those incisive newsletter opinion pieces that never-Trumpers regard as game-changers? At best they're speaking to the Democratic choir.
But shouldn't we be worried about the slippery slope? Well, our jurisprudence has found ways hold wrongdoers responsible for the consequences of their lies for centuries without creating an totalitarian censorship state. The law provides remedies when, among other things, falsehoods harm the reputations of people and products; when one party to a transaction relies to their detriment on the other party's misrepresentations; and when a wrongdoer's pattern and practice of providing false information has yielded him ill-gotten gains. A party seeking relief in a defamation case must prove that the offending statement was indeed false. That's what protects us from the much-feared slippery slope.
In the political arena today Trump and his enablers are burying the truth under a never-ending avalanche of demonstrable, patent lies because we have failed to protect the integrity and accuracy of political speech as zealously as we protect people's reputations and business transactions from falsehoods. If there ever was a time when it was appropriate to extend charity to political fibs in the form of First Amendment protection, those days are long gone. The Ivy-League educated free-speech Brahmins who continue to counsel restraint in the face of total information warfare must surely know that.
This oversight isn't just negligent. It is reckless and extremely dangerous. Our democracy is facing an aggressive adversary in Trump. He is actively taking advantage of our inexplicable unwillingness to hold him and his allies accountable for polluting our political discourse with lies. He is enjoying tremendous success.
The time to try to stop him is now.
I don’t think I’ve predicted anything in my own life so accurately :-)
Ruth, thank you for your Zoom presentation this evening… I found it very informative and enlightening. One fact that I really zeroed in on was your statement that even though Orban portrays himself as the protector of white Christendom he in fact closed 300 churches… And Orban gives advice to CPAC and the GQP…scary events to say the least.
Every time I see Kayleigh McEnany I want to vomit.
This is really spot on as is all of the essays that Ruth writes. Truly a remarkable woman.