An expert on fascism???? When the left says fascist, they mean "disagrees with the religious tenets of wokeness". Anyone who would vigorously thwart efforts to legislate wokeness is a threat to totalitarian socialism and therefore is labelled fascist thus completely tossing out the definition of fascist. These people would be just a joke if they were not blinded by their rabid "end justifies the means" efforts to divide and control the population. Don't blink. They won't.
This essay is a royal hoot, a textbook case of psychological projection, which is a hallmark of left-wing extremists in every nation. Everything that she attributes to DeSantis is in blatant evidence by Biden, Obama, and all national Democratic leaders such as Schumer and Pelosi. With respect, Ben-Ghiat needs to seek a psychological assessment by a competent professional who will explain to her that the principles and precepts of constitutional republicanism advocated by DeSantis were designed to, and continue to, secure and protect all American citizens' individual rights and liberties, not impose the hard elitist strictures of "woke" collectivism aka neocommunism that she would characterize as somehow "liberal." They are not; they are autocratic in every respect, and this is her quintessential blind spot. As a historian, she would do well to study the mad "equality" rantings of Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Pol Pot, Chavez/Maduro, and even Obama, not just Mussolini and Hitler, for some object lessons in totalitarian thinking.
Thanks again and again Ruth. I would very much appreciate hearing more from you on states like, but in particular Ohio - either publicly or privately. I've lived most of my life here. The city I live in is a bright red identity model. Thx ~
The guy DeSatanist...er, I meant the Governor of Florida, where I am a prisoner of the electoral map, looks like a thug. He purports to have an Ivy League education, but he sure is stupid. Ok, he ACTS stupidly, brutally, as if he doesn't care about people. He is the very danger that the founders feared most: a man with too much zeal for power, with his hands on the levers of government.
What scares me is the population at large. They have never had to be aware of an autocrat before. If they haven't had trauma in their own lives they have no idea how detrimentally manipulative people with no morals can be. It's a slow, insidious attack that works if you can't/don't/won't/don't-know-how-to fight back against it... if you don't think you have anything to fight back against, because you're not feeling the negative effects of their power yet, you're wrong. But. How. Do. We. Tell. Them. They. Are. Wrong. in enough time to get them to do something about it? DeSantis has been planning this for years; some, not all, of the public are just catching on now. A lot of the public is completely hoodwinked/gaslit. Is there time for the populace to stop him? If so, how?
Trump came to power with the use of effective propaganda and DeSantis is following suit. What they are selling is quasi-fascism and it's being done by polarizing people into clashing groups. Those not a part of their clan are considered the outside enemy, so outsiders cannot be trusted. Only their clan has the truth and can be trusted. Once this structure is established, anything can be sold as the truth, even the lies of fascism, especially when it is wrapped in the US flag.
DeSantis's template for his political activity is Trump, a man afflicted by secondary psychopathy (sociopathy). What a role model!
American voters need to pay attention to what these fools are selling and stop being so gullible.
Maybe the visiblity of Putin's authoritarian actions will convince many on the right that the path that Trump has lain out is dangerous?
Thank you Ruth for this focus on the danger of DeSantis and the danger breeding in state governance. With everything else going on, it's easy to become distracted! Thank you for the refocus.
The right candidate with an aggressive advertising strategy can beat DeSantis in Florida. But it will require that DeSantis be constantly attacked for his governing style, for the 70,000 preventable deaths from COVID, for the racism, for the hate and for the attacks on the education system that he has engineered. Ronnie may be popular in the GQP, but from what I hear, his act has worn thin with many Floridians.
Agree, and glad to know some Floridians may be growing wiser. Everytime there are attacks on Florida teachers and the educational system---a system that's run unchallenged for a century or so, it seems like petty governance -- but we know there's more to it.
It's like someone has too much time on their hands, digging up trouble for nothing.
Yikes....I've been following the nightmare in Florida, but hearing your analysis as an expert on authoritarianism just adds one more slice of anxiety, an American state that has gone full blown CoCoPuffs! Along with Texas, Idaho, Arizona, South Dakota, Iowa, etc. When I see this 'virus' of authoritarianism expanding in the United States, I think about how much access to information we have. I think about former Republicans who worked on campaigns (Nicolle Wallace, Steve Schmidt with Sarah Palin for instance). It was there job to shape and market these ideas. They've since talked about regret for promoting such an unwell woman. I'm not at all naive, but with so much information available, including yours, Tim Snyder's, Bandy Lee, and other experts, how does this fever break?
Midterms are paramount to our future - quality of life - livihoods, families ,,, it's all at stake. 99% of people are distracted, burnt out by covid etc etc
There are, and have been, many professionals working on this issue, for many years. This site is led by one of the elite. What should we do about the platform of hate. Putin knows how to handle it. Many, including myself, have been pointing towards incitement, now, we lost the SC. If we shut down FOX, Gray, Sinclair, OAN and so many others, we'll have a civil war on our hands. What about "The Family", CNP, Koch, Mercer, Citizens United. We are infested, at all levels. Good luck attacking the platform. It's literally like wackamole. All we can do is to continue to sound the alarm.
I'm thinking of Idaho and the anti-abortion billed just passed, fashioned after Texas. Governor and Senators, Republican. White male daddy types. The cream is going to start rising to the top now. The country will have plenty to pick from. Trump won't matter, and neither will DeSantis, or anyone that obvious. For the past 5 years we have been warning about the coming of the next Trump. Infrastructure is in place, SC in control. It has to be someone we don't expect. One who can carry the Independent vote and siphon the conservative Democrats. The individual cannot have much baggage. There needs to be a catastrophe. I don't think that person is in plain view yet. Someone like an American Marine LePen would be interesting. Whoever it is will have the ability that will make Mussolini and Hitler look tame, quietly. Depending on the next 2 years seems to depend on if we get another reprieve. I keep focusing on Jose Antonio Kast, Chile"s last election. Someone like that could sweep this country, given the right circumstances. In the meantime, we watch and keep up the local fight. Thanks Ruth.
Excellent piece! Agree that the ‘Free State of Florida’ is only free for DeSantis. Also, I note the state legislature elsewhere legislating that women cannot leave the state to travel elsewhere for an abortion if needed. Scary times.
I don't see DeSantis getting by Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. If Trump does actually run (I think he will assuming he has no medical or serious legal issues) I can see Trump possibly choosing DeSantis for his running mate. Setting up the Florida governor as his air apparent and future of the GOP.
A Trump/DeSantis ticket could not garner a popular vote majority or hope to win in the electoral college without the help of 19 states with republican dominated legislatures that have passed voter suppression laws that give partisans in the legislature and state election boards broad new discretionary power its a real possibility the final death blow to democracy will be dealt under a new regime of electoral autocracy. A Trump/DeSantis win in 24 would unleash a despotic reign of authoritarianism with a reactionary conservative majority on Supreme court and a corrupt justice department backing them up. In that nightmare scenario, America would be hollowed out and begin to resemble a neo fascist autocracy based on white male christian nationalism. We're at an inflection point in history. Biden will along with the rest of us have to find a way to save our precious democracy from falling over into an oligarchic tyranny of the minority.
I hope to God that tRump is in no position to run in 2024. If tRump is somehow eligible & gets the nomination (an abomination), tRump's huge ego would prevent him from agreeing to run with DeSantis (a true horror show) as VP.
Respectfully disagree. Trump's "candidacy" is among his greatest grifts in a long line of them. He's bilking his supporters for many millions of dollars to support a faux campaign. And even if he's never held criminally liable for his many crimes, his company faces financial ruin because the accounting firm that vouched for his loans has withdrawn its approval because they're based on lies. The banks that loaned him money will soon force him to repay, which he won't be able to do.
Thanks to today's installment of "Lucid," we know who now looms as the most villainous enemy of democracy.
I did say assuming no serious legal issues? We don't know how they will be resolved yet one way or the other? I do prey Trump gets justice. On the other hand Trump is a more divisive and polarizing figure than DeSantis and for that reason could be easier to beat.
Thank you for you very insightful post. I have an opinion that, while the awfulness of Trump will not soon be flushed from our body politic, the unique bundle of vulgarities that is Trump are not transitive to another. Imitators will try to imitate but the nihilistic vulgarity is a crown no imitator will wear.
An expert on fascism???? When the left says fascist, they mean "disagrees with the religious tenets of wokeness". Anyone who would vigorously thwart efforts to legislate wokeness is a threat to totalitarian socialism and therefore is labelled fascist thus completely tossing out the definition of fascist. These people would be just a joke if they were not blinded by their rabid "end justifies the means" efforts to divide and control the population. Don't blink. They won't.
This lady scares me.
I quote her "Success in today's GOP means embracing extremism, bullying peers, and silencing and punishing political enemies"
Let's get real.
She sounds like what the democrat's, the media, and Black Lives Matter have been doing for years.
This lady is delusional! The left are the ones that try to control people to conform to their ways.
This essay is a royal hoot, a textbook case of psychological projection, which is a hallmark of left-wing extremists in every nation. Everything that she attributes to DeSantis is in blatant evidence by Biden, Obama, and all national Democratic leaders such as Schumer and Pelosi. With respect, Ben-Ghiat needs to seek a psychological assessment by a competent professional who will explain to her that the principles and precepts of constitutional republicanism advocated by DeSantis were designed to, and continue to, secure and protect all American citizens' individual rights and liberties, not impose the hard elitist strictures of "woke" collectivism aka neocommunism that she would characterize as somehow "liberal." They are not; they are autocratic in every respect, and this is her quintessential blind spot. As a historian, she would do well to study the mad "equality" rantings of Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Pol Pot, Chavez/Maduro, and even Obama, not just Mussolini and Hitler, for some object lessons in totalitarian thinking.
Thanks again and again Ruth. I would very much appreciate hearing more from you on states like, but in particular Ohio - either publicly or privately. I've lived most of my life here. The city I live in is a bright red identity model. Thx ~
The guy DeSatanist...er, I meant the Governor of Florida, where I am a prisoner of the electoral map, looks like a thug. He purports to have an Ivy League education, but he sure is stupid. Ok, he ACTS stupidly, brutally, as if he doesn't care about people. He is the very danger that the founders feared most: a man with too much zeal for power, with his hands on the levers of government.
What scares me is the population at large. They have never had to be aware of an autocrat before. If they haven't had trauma in their own lives they have no idea how detrimentally manipulative people with no morals can be. It's a slow, insidious attack that works if you can't/don't/won't/don't-know-how-to fight back against it... if you don't think you have anything to fight back against, because you're not feeling the negative effects of their power yet, you're wrong. But. How. Do. We. Tell. Them. They. Are. Wrong. in enough time to get them to do something about it? DeSantis has been planning this for years; some, not all, of the public are just catching on now. A lot of the public is completely hoodwinked/gaslit. Is there time for the populace to stop him? If so, how?
Indeed Jem.
Thank you, Ruth, for writing this. I have lived in Florida since 1995, and you are right on target. DeSantis is truly dangerous.
Trump came to power with the use of effective propaganda and DeSantis is following suit. What they are selling is quasi-fascism and it's being done by polarizing people into clashing groups. Those not a part of their clan are considered the outside enemy, so outsiders cannot be trusted. Only their clan has the truth and can be trusted. Once this structure is established, anything can be sold as the truth, even the lies of fascism, especially when it is wrapped in the US flag.
DeSantis's template for his political activity is Trump, a man afflicted by secondary psychopathy (sociopathy). What a role model!
American voters need to pay attention to what these fools are selling and stop being so gullible.
Maybe the visiblity of Putin's authoritarian actions will convince many on the right that the path that Trump has lain out is dangerous?
lets hope so!
I haven't seen enough of DeSantis's behavior to be able to tell if he is a sociopath. Time will tell.
Thank you Ruth for this focus on the danger of DeSantis and the danger breeding in state governance. With everything else going on, it's easy to become distracted! Thank you for the refocus.
The right candidate with an aggressive advertising strategy can beat DeSantis in Florida. But it will require that DeSantis be constantly attacked for his governing style, for the 70,000 preventable deaths from COVID, for the racism, for the hate and for the attacks on the education system that he has engineered. Ronnie may be popular in the GQP, but from what I hear, his act has worn thin with many Floridians.
Agree
Agree, and glad to know some Floridians may be growing wiser. Everytime there are attacks on Florida teachers and the educational system---a system that's run unchallenged for a century or so, it seems like petty governance -- but we know there's more to it.
It's like someone has too much time on their hands, digging up trouble for nothing.
It's always good to unravel and untie the knot way down on the totem pole at the local level. If you can stop it there -- what a relief.
Yikes....I've been following the nightmare in Florida, but hearing your analysis as an expert on authoritarianism just adds one more slice of anxiety, an American state that has gone full blown CoCoPuffs! Along with Texas, Idaho, Arizona, South Dakota, Iowa, etc. When I see this 'virus' of authoritarianism expanding in the United States, I think about how much access to information we have. I think about former Republicans who worked on campaigns (Nicolle Wallace, Steve Schmidt with Sarah Palin for instance). It was there job to shape and market these ideas. They've since talked about regret for promoting such an unwell woman. I'm not at all naive, but with so much information available, including yours, Tim Snyder's, Bandy Lee, and other experts, how does this fever break?
You can add Indiana to that list of nightmare states.
I must say, I'm not optimistic. The depth of the autocratic system is deep and entrenched in this country. Very well funded.
The weakest links (county level corruption) must be loosened or broken. That is our (difficult, tedious) task. That's how the larger puzzle buckles.
In Broadway analogy, the star of show can't perform without his/her supporting cast. Counties need to be brought to non-corrupt status.
Tedious work is needed at the most local level by humble servant citizens to observe, educate, pressure and make corrective successful change.
And then re-educate community again.
We are quickly running out of time. Midterms will tell. Local votes friends.
Midterms are paramount to our future - quality of life - livihoods, families ,,, it's all at stake. 99% of people are distracted, burnt out by covid etc etc
Educate, educate-- you are right.
There are, and have been, many professionals working on this issue, for many years. This site is led by one of the elite. What should we do about the platform of hate. Putin knows how to handle it. Many, including myself, have been pointing towards incitement, now, we lost the SC. If we shut down FOX, Gray, Sinclair, OAN and so many others, we'll have a civil war on our hands. What about "The Family", CNP, Koch, Mercer, Citizens United. We are infested, at all levels. Good luck attacking the platform. It's literally like wackamole. All we can do is to continue to sound the alarm.
I'm thinking of Idaho and the anti-abortion billed just passed, fashioned after Texas. Governor and Senators, Republican. White male daddy types. The cream is going to start rising to the top now. The country will have plenty to pick from. Trump won't matter, and neither will DeSantis, or anyone that obvious. For the past 5 years we have been warning about the coming of the next Trump. Infrastructure is in place, SC in control. It has to be someone we don't expect. One who can carry the Independent vote and siphon the conservative Democrats. The individual cannot have much baggage. There needs to be a catastrophe. I don't think that person is in plain view yet. Someone like an American Marine LePen would be interesting. Whoever it is will have the ability that will make Mussolini and Hitler look tame, quietly. Depending on the next 2 years seems to depend on if we get another reprieve. I keep focusing on Jose Antonio Kast, Chile"s last election. Someone like that could sweep this country, given the right circumstances. In the meantime, we watch and keep up the local fight. Thanks Ruth.
Excellent piece! Agree that the ‘Free State of Florida’ is only free for DeSantis. Also, I note the state legislature elsewhere legislating that women cannot leave the state to travel elsewhere for an abortion if needed. Scary times.
Idaho is becoming worse than Missouri. The crazies are picking up steam.
I don't see DeSantis getting by Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. If Trump does actually run (I think he will assuming he has no medical or serious legal issues) I can see Trump possibly choosing DeSantis for his running mate. Setting up the Florida governor as his air apparent and future of the GOP.
A Trump/DeSantis ticket could not garner a popular vote majority or hope to win in the electoral college without the help of 19 states with republican dominated legislatures that have passed voter suppression laws that give partisans in the legislature and state election boards broad new discretionary power its a real possibility the final death blow to democracy will be dealt under a new regime of electoral autocracy. A Trump/DeSantis win in 24 would unleash a despotic reign of authoritarianism with a reactionary conservative majority on Supreme court and a corrupt justice department backing them up. In that nightmare scenario, America would be hollowed out and begin to resemble a neo fascist autocracy based on white male christian nationalism. We're at an inflection point in history. Biden will along with the rest of us have to find a way to save our precious democracy from falling over into an oligarchic tyranny of the minority.
We shall see!
I hope to God that tRump is in no position to run in 2024. If tRump is somehow eligible & gets the nomination (an abomination), tRump's huge ego would prevent him from agreeing to run with DeSantis (a true horror show) as VP.
Perhaps tRump would run with fellow loser Palin.
I wish he would choose Palin. Would help ensure defeat. Nikki Haley and Kristi Noem are other possibilities.
Respectfully disagree. Trump's "candidacy" is among his greatest grifts in a long line of them. He's bilking his supporters for many millions of dollars to support a faux campaign. And even if he's never held criminally liable for his many crimes, his company faces financial ruin because the accounting firm that vouched for his loans has withdrawn its approval because they're based on lies. The banks that loaned him money will soon force him to repay, which he won't be able to do.
Thanks to today's installment of "Lucid," we know who now looms as the most villainous enemy of democracy.
I did say assuming no serious legal issues? We don't know how they will be resolved yet one way or the other? I do prey Trump gets justice. On the other hand Trump is a more divisive and polarizing figure than DeSantis and for that reason could be easier to beat.
Thank you for you very insightful post. I have an opinion that, while the awfulness of Trump will not soon be flushed from our body politic, the unique bundle of vulgarities that is Trump are not transitive to another. Imitators will try to imitate but the nihilistic vulgarity is a crown no imitator will wear.
Thank you