How Democracy Dies

 

Democracy dies when an autocratic demagogue subverts democratic institutions such as the Constitution or the Rule of Law.

Democracy dies when an autocratic leader punishes those who dare to tell the truth and protects those who assist in hiding the truth. 

Democracy dies when the free press, the defender of truth, is called the enemy of the people.  Thomas Jefferson once stated that the free press was essential to a functioning democracy. It is an organic necessity of democracy itself.

Democracy dies when political opponents are labeled human scum and threatened with imprisonment, or worse.

Democracy dies when fear is stoked which leads to the encroachment of extremism into the mainstream of an established political party.

Democracy dies as Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia, etc. rise.

Democracy dies when religion and government are intertwined.

Democracy dies when a an autocratic leader appoints friends, associates and family members to government positions and uses governmental power and authority to protect each other from accountability.

Democracy dies when corporate wealth and power are protected and enhanced while labor power is suppressed.  When the rich get richer and the poor get poorer democracy is weakened.

Democracy dies when asylum seeking refugee families, fleeing persecution in their homeland, are turned away or separated, parents from children, and concentration camps are created to house the children.

Democracy dies when the right of people to peacefully protest against injustice is squelched by force and intimidation.

Democracy dies when an autocratic leader lies to the people with such regularity that a large percentage of the people believe the lies, facts become fiction, and,  as Orwell stated it, “war becomes peace, freedom becomes slavery, ignorance becomes strength” in the eyes, hearts and minds of those who follow the leader.

Democracy dies when a large percentage can be lead to believe that free, secure, democratic elections are fraudulent or corrupt.

Democracy dies when a demagogic leader refuses to accept the results of a free, secure election and refuses to abdicate power.

Democracy dies, when in the face of evil, good people become apathetic, stand by, say nothing, do nothing.

 

 

Why Is One Not Like The Others?

An Algebra teacher walks into a classroom at the beginning of the school year....hands out a syllabus and says to the students, “The first test is next Wednesday.  I expect you to pass it.  If you don’t all pass this test it will not be my fault, it will be your fault.  Maybe it will also be your parents fault, because it is up to them to see that you study,  but it won’t be mine.  I take no responsibility for your failures.  Good luck,  you’re on your own so get to it!”  Wednesday comes and everyone fails the exam.  Eventually students and parents complain to the school administration.  The teacher boasts to the administration about his superior teaching methods and he says many people have told him that he is a great teacher.  He says that if the students failed it was because it was due to their lack of effort and inferior ability.  He says he should not be expected to teach algebra to such stupid kids. The teacher is fired.

A football coach holds a team meeting prior to the first scheduled practice, hands out equipment, but there is a shortage of helmets, shoulder pads and mouth guards.  The coach says not to worry, protective equipment is overrated anyway. The coach tells the team, “Here’s the schedule.  We play Central City in two weeks, on the 25th.  I’m expecting you to get yourselves in game condition and I expect you to win that game.  I’ll see you on the 25th!” The night of the game the team is unprepared and they lose 72 to 0.  Seven players are carted off the field with concussions  or shoulder injuries due to lack of proper protective equipment.   The next morning the coach is bragging about the great coaching decisions he made the night before, but blames the loss on the game officials and on the opposing coach for cheating.  Before the next Friday night the coach is fired.

A President of the United States, in the time of a growing, worldwide pandemic deals with the situation in virtually the same way as the teacher and the coach, giving inconsistent directions, or none at all as to how to survive and overcome the disease.  He claims no responsibility and blames others.  He refuses to listen to, or support, the medical experts.  He refuses to supply front line workers with the equipment that they need to protect themselves.  He downplays the threat and boasts of self perceived achievements while more and more people become infected and more and more people die.  He is adored by over one third of the people, and supported by the people with the power to remove him.  The rest of the people have only their fears and anxieties to guide them.

Why is one not like the others?

The Cult of Trumpism

I've been giving this some thought today and I'd like to make a point. I've seen a few memes on Facebook in the last two days, and I've re-posted a couple of them, that deal with this issue of Trump vs Dr. Fauci, asking the question, "Which one do you trust for information regarding the pandemic?" It is amazing to me that there are large number of people who trust Trump to give better factual information on the virus and how to handle the pandemic more than they trust Dr. Fauci to do so.

It would surprise no one that I have tremendous respect for the integrity and the intelligence of Barack Obama. In fact I have had respect for most of the Presidents that have served during my lifetime. Some more, and some less than others, but I can say with complete sincerity that I would not have trusted President Obama or any other President in my lifetime more than I would trust Dr. Fauci or any other medical/science expert to give the best factual information available to proceed with life in our present day situation.

Now we have Trump and the White House staff going after Dr. Fauci trying to convince the American public that Dr. Fauci has been wrong and Trump has been right throughout the ordeal of the last five months or six months and there are many who believe what they are peddling. And so, to me the evidence is clear that we are dealing with cult mentality here.

A cult can be defined as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader who has fostered the belief in the followers that "we have the truth and you do not." If you study the more famous cults of recent history, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones and The People's Temple (Jonestown), Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate, several things are clear and consistent, the unyielding loyalty and support for the cult leader, the total rejection of factual information that contradicts the cult leaders message, opposition to critical thinking, belief that they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for questions such as good vs. evil, etc., and an "us' vs "them" mentality.

Again, there is no way that I, or any of my more progressive, liberal leaning friends would ever have taken President Obama's word over Dr. Fauci's word regarding public health information, but today we have, and I know a few personally, people who have rejected the expertise of Dr. Fauci, the Center for Disease Control and other medical and scientific experts while buying totally in to the messages that Trump and his minions are selling. That's why we have diminishing numbers of people wearing masks, increasing numbers of people rejecting social distancing, large gatherings of people not following the guidelines put forth be the real experts, promoting "COVID parties, and who knows what else.

Trumpism is a cult just like the Branch Davidians and the people who drank the Kool Aid at Jonestown. The difference is that it is negatively effecting far more people this time, a whole country. A country that today has 3,506,453 cases of COVID19 and 138,700 related deaths all brought to you by a cult leader, perhaps the most dangerous cult leader of our times.

History Lesson Unlearned

Today I was moved to deliver the following history lesson, since it is a pretty significant day in the history of Europe as well as America.  We faught so long and hard to defeat fascist oppression in Europe and helped to liberate so many souls. I have concluded the lesson with what some might call a “rant” with my own opinions and concerns about the significance of tomorrow’s historical remembrance and just what lessons I think we can learn....or better said....SHOULD HAVE LEARNED...from it.

This past Monday, January 27, marked the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. Auschwitz was one of a network of concentration and death camps operated in Poland by the Nazis during World War II. The first of these was established in 1933 at Dachau shortly after Hitler’s appointment as Germany’s Chancellor. It originally housed political prisoners, those who had opposed the fascist Nazi movement. As time went on more camps were set up for the primary purpose of housing those who were deemed undesirables by the Nazi party, including Jews, homosexuals, foreigners, people of other than German ethnicity, and various types of political prisoners.

The main purpose, originally, for these camps were to incarcerate people whom the Nazi regime perceived to be a security threat. Eventually the camps came to be used to eliminate individuals and small, targeted groups of individuals by murder, away from the public and judicial review, and to exploit forced labor of the prisoner population.

Eventually the Auschwitz complex was built and became part of Hitler’s “Final Solution “. The term “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was a euphemism used by Nazi Germany’s leaders. It referred to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. It brought an end to policies aimed at encouraging or forcing Jews to leave the German Reich and other parts of Europe. Those policies were replaced by systematic annihilation which resulted in the death of over one million human beings at that camp alone. It should be duly noted that Auschwitz only played a part in this “final solution”. The Holocaust museum puts the total number of murdered during the Holocaust at 17 million: 6 million Jews and 11 million others, including foreigners, political opponents or dissidents, homosexuals, and people with disabilities.

During the time that these concentration and death camps were being built and, then in full operation,  the vast majority of German citizens continued to go about their daily lives seemingly oblivious to the atrocities being carried out around them. A large majority of them were fully taken in by the lies being told to them about the danger to their way of life that the Jews and other “undesirables” presented.  Hitler’s support among the German citizenry was massive and as it grew no one who opposed it was safe to express their opposition. Hitler would hold rallies regularly to preach his evil agenda to the willing ears of his faithful followers who, because of the fears and resentments that he had stoked within them, began to worship him almost as if he was God. They came to view him as the Savior of the German people.

When I see how the Trump supporters in America today react to the lies that Trump tells them through his tweets and at his rallies, it is easy to be reminded of the lessons I’ve learned from studying the history of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Trump stokes the same fears, resentments and hatred in the hearts and minds of his followers today as Hitler did to the German masses 80 some years ago. Trumps followers, including the most fervently, self proclaimed “Christian” people in the land have bought what he is selling 100%. Some believe he was sent by God to save America’s soul. The blasphemy is astounding to me. The one thing that we have working in our favor is that the percentage of the citizenry in America today who support their tyrannical, demagogic leader, seems to be around 40%, which pales to the 90% of Hitler’s cultish followers.

Still, whether it be 40% or 90%, isn’t it just as evil to support evil in either case? When those first individuals were packed off to Dachau in 1933 the German people seemed either unaware or uncaring, for the most part, and some, I’m sure were in full support. How is that any different than today’s America where we now have, on any given day, over 2,000 children, of all ages, infant on up, separated from their families and housed in concentration camps? Our government is careful to call them detention centers, but history tells us what they really are. Only 40% of our people claim to support Trump, but by my best estimate, based on the blatantly abhorrent lack of outrage and protest against it, over 90% of Americans just... don’t ....care...that this is happening in America, and far too many are in full support of it.

How is that different from Germany 80 plus years ago? The answer is, it is not, it is the same. Shame on us! Are we not better than this? Evidently not! Are we not America, the home of the free and the brave were liberty and justice prevails? The shining city on the hill, and a refuge for those yearning to be free?  Evidently not anymore! If this is what we have become today, what are we to become tomorrow.  I must tell you, it scares the hell out of me and it should you too.

~ Dane Knutson, Progressive, Christian, Patriot.