Did Anyone Else Read This And Feel Chilled?

[Nickyjo]

Yes I was mocking the way people feed in negatives.
How they are so willing to believe the worst . You know that's how brainwashing starts. I'm not telling you to like the guy hate him, but hate him for something real.

True. Plenty of “real” available to foster hate of the man.

 

[Pyrite]

I wasn't going to post about this but I couldn't let it go. This was in "The Washington Post" today. It doesn't belong in the "Breaking News" forum since it is an opinion piece. It is also behind a paywall so many people would have trouble gaining access to it. But I didn't want to read it and fail to mention it on Debate Politics because I found it so chilling. I wanted to know if other members had also read it and what they thought about it.

"A Trump Dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending." by Robert Kagan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

​

from the article:

...Nor will it be difficult to find things to charge opponents with. Our history is unfortunately filled with instances of unfairly targeted officials singled out for being on the wrong side of a particular issue at the wrong time — the State Department’s “China Hands” of the late 1940s, for instance, whose careers were destroyed because they happened to be in positions of influence when the Chinese Communist Revolution occurred. Today, there is the whiff of a new McCarthyism in the air. MAGA Republicans insist that Biden himself is a “communist,” that his election was a “communist takeover” and that his administration is a “communist regime.”

It’s therefore no surprise that Biden has a “pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agenda,” as the powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), put it this year, and is deliberately “ceding American leadership and security to China.” Republicans these days routinely charge that their opponents are not just naive or inadequately attentive to China’s rising power but are actual “sympathizers” with Beijing. “Communist China has their President … China Joe,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted on Biden’s Inauguration Day. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has called the president “Beijing Biden.” The Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire last year even called Republican Gov. Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist Party sympathizer.” We can expect more of this when the war against the “deep state” begins in earnest. According to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), there is a whole cabal determined to undermine American security, a “Uniparty” of elites made up of “neoconservatives on the right” and “liberal globalists on the left” who are not true Americans and therefore do not have the true interests of America at heart. Can such “anti-American” behavior be criminalized? It has in the past and can be again....

`````````````````

Kagan, of course, is correct about the smearing and railroading of the "Old China Hands", the cadre of experienced professionals within the State Department whose years of expertise was thrown out the window in the "Who Lost China?" hysteria of the late 1940's - early 1950's. I'm glad to see him connect it to today's baffling smearing of Biden as a stooge of the PRC/CCP.

I say, "baffling", because there's nothing there. They haven't even tried to come up with connections, however spurious. Just a slew of unspecified allegations, which are mostly name-calling.

It's funny, too, because we know that any "Commie" sympathizing, if not collusion (there's that word!), belongs to Biden's rival: trump, putin's puppet and super-fan of the PRC's Xi.

 

[Gozaburo]

Where does he classify himself as a liberal? You've provided no quote, no link to a quote that says this.

At this point, you've not corroborated your claim Robert Kagan is a liberal.

Too bad you didn't put any of this effort into reading and commenting on the article.

You do not know what liberalism is. Go read John Locke or any other enlightenment liberal philosopher and come back to this thread.

Thank you.

 

[Pyrite]

You do not know what liberalism is. Go read John Locke or any other enlightenment liberal philosopher and come back to this thread.

Thank you.

Lots of words from you, no corroboration of your claim that Robert Kagan is somehow a "liberal".

Not even that quote you mentioned....

Well, given the fact you spurned the article without having read it and on the flimsy basis it was written by an alleged "liberal", I'm not surprised.

 

[MamboDervish]

Yes I was mocking the way people feed in negatives.
How they are so willing to believe the worst . You know that's how brainwashing starts. I'm not telling you to like the guy hate him, but hate him for something real.

Hate who? Hate Trump? I don't hate Trump. I pity Trump. Just imagine how miserable the man is, every hour of every day.

Just look at what those closest to him, those who've worked with him day to day, have to say about him. If they can't stand working with him, if they have such an abysmally low opinion of him - "he's an idiot", "he's a dope", "he's dumb as shit", "he's a ****ing moron" - then just imagine how he feels about being with himself 24/7/365? He must be a very unhappy man. His first 2 marriages failed, his third wife won't even hold his hands, let alone live with him ... the poor bastard hasn't got a friend in this world that he can trust, because they all know him well enough to know that they can't trust him.

Trump is pitiable.

 

[Pyrite]

The more people who warn of the coming Trump dictatorship the more you learn his supporters are okay with that.

They would rather live in an authoritarian state with a leader they agree with that in a democracy with leaders they don’t.

Pretty much sums up MAGA Americans.

 

[Pyrite]

Hate who? Hate Trump? I don't hate Trump. I pity Trump. Just imagine how miserable the man is, every hour of every day.

Just look at what those closest to him, those who've worked with him day to day, have to say about him. If they can't stand working with him, if they have such an abysmally low opinion of him - "he's an idiot", "he's a dope", "he's dumb as shit", "he's a ****ing moron" - then just imagine how he feels about being with himself 24/7/365? He must be a very unhappy man. His first 2 marriages failed, his third wife won't even hold his hands, let alone live with him ... the poor bastard hasn't got a friend in this world that he can trust, because they all know him well enough to know that they can't trust him.

Trump is pitiable.

"the poor bastard hasn't got a friend in this world that he can trust, because they all know him well enough to know that they can't trust him."

The poster boy for you get back what you give.

 

[post]

Yes I was mocking the way people feed in negatives.
How they are so willing to believe the worst . You know that's how brainwashing starts. I'm not telling you to like the guy hate him, but hate him for something real.

The sentiment of an American? Not like any other I am familiar with.

 

[Bodi]

Dictatorship? Generally occurs when there is social upheaval and discontent with people's daily lives... ... Life in America is pretty ****ing great. The vast majority will not put up with his bullshit this time, much less he tries to stay in power after 4 years.

 

[Pyrite]

I wasn't going to post about this but I couldn't let it go. This was in "The Washington Post" today. It doesn't belong in the "Breaking News" forum since it is an opinion piece. It is also behind a paywall so many people would have trouble gaining access to it. But I didn't want to read it and fail to mention it on Debate Politics because I found it so chilling. I wanted to know if other members had also read it and what they thought about it.

"A Trump Dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending." by Robert Kagan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

​

from Robert Kagan's wapo article:

...What is certain, however, is that the odds of the United States falling into dictatorship have grown considerably because so many of the obstacles to it have been cleared and only a few are left. If eight years ago it seemed literally inconceivable that a man like Trump could be elected, that obstacle was cleared in 2016. If it then seemed unimaginable that an American president would try to remain in office after losing an election, that obstacle was cleared in 2020. And if no one could believe that Trump, having tried and failed to invalidate the election and stop the counting of electoral college votes, would nevertheless reemerge as the unchallenged leader of the Republican Party and its nominee again in 2024, well, we are about to see that obstacle cleared as well. In just a few years, we have gone from being relatively secure in our democracy to being a few short steps, and a matter of months, away from the possibility of dictatorship....

 

[post]

I wasn't going to post about this but I couldn't let it go. This was in "The Washington Post" today. It doesn't belong in the "Breaking News" forum since it is an opinion piece. It is also behind a paywall so many people would have trouble gaining access to it. But I didn't want to read it and fail to mention it on Debate Politics because I found it so chilling. I wanted to know if other members had also read it and what they thought about it.

"A Trump Dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending." by Robert Kagan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

​

 

[Aristaeus]

No?

Well add armed soldiers in the streets to 'protect' voting and you'll have a much clearer picture.

"We're sorry, but due to all the violence in the streets the election will have to be postponed until another date. And the senate and congress will have to remain in jail for their own safety.

It was all agree to over dinner with President-for-life Trump and his Supreme court for life.

Check out a book written in the 50's called "It Can Happen Here."

Trump would cease to become President on 5th Jan regardless of whether there had been an election or not.

 

[CLAX1911]

The sentiment of an American? Not like any other I am familiar with.

That didn't make me clutch my pearls.

 

[CLAX1911]

Hate who? Hate Trump? I don't hate Trump. I pity Trump. Just imagine how miserable the man is, every hour of every day.

Just look at what those closest to him, those who've worked with him day to day, have to say about him. If they can't stand working with him, if they have such an abysmally low opinion of him - "he's an idiot", "he's a dope", "he's dumb as shit", "he's a ****ing moron" - then just imagine how he feels about being with himself 24/7/365? He must be a very unhappy man. His first 2 marriages failed, his third wife won't even hold his hands, let alone live with him ... the poor bastard hasn't got a friend in this world that he can trust, because they all know him well enough to know that they can't trust him.

Trump is pitiable.

Whatever you want to call your hatred I don't care.

Just whatever it is do it for something real.

What's your engaging in is the first step in brainwashing.

 

[CLAX1911]

True. Plenty of “real” available to foster hate of the man.

When you put real in scare quotes it means not that.

 

[CLAX1911]

If we're talking trump, his sneering at McCain's military service was despicable.

That's a very real thing I hate about trump. All Americans should have rejected him for that. But too many didn't. And don't.

Same goes for trump's orchestrating the violent attempted coup on Jan 6th.

You're clutching your pearls over nonsense.

I said something real.

This is the first step in brainwashing to get you to believe alternative realities.

You're bitterness is making you fall for it.

Sad really.

 

[Ambig]

What’s the Trump dictatorship going to do that’s so chilling?

Undermining democracy is pretty high on my list.

 

[MamboDervish]

Whatever you want to call your hatred I don't care.

Sounds like hatred is the only thing you can relate to. Noted.

Just whatever it is do it for something real.

There can be nothing more REAL than the reasons I oppose Trump's candidacy. His very REAL incompetence. His very REAL psychopathologies. His very REAL immorality. His very REAL misogyny and racism. But most of all, his very well documented and very, very REAL CRIMINALITY!
One would think that Trump's recidivist criminal history alone would be enough to disqualify him in the minds of any educated adult. Why isn't it for you? How much more real does it need to be for you?

What's your engaging in is the first step in brainwashing.

What I'm engaging in is the education of Trump's mindless minions, and I hope to continue with that at every opportunity, ceaselessly if need be, until he is far and fading fast in the American political rear view mirror .... which shouldn't take more than perhaps another year and a half.

 

[EMNofSeattle]

Undermining democracy is pretty high on my list.

There is no actual democracy in America, the left doesn’t believe in democracy if it opposes left goals, see prop 8

 

[jmotivator]

I wasn't going to post about this but I couldn't let it go. This was in "The Washington Post" today. It doesn't belong in the "Breaking News" forum since it is an opinion piece. It is also behind a paywall so many people would have trouble gaining access to it. But I didn't want to read it and fail to mention it on Debate Politics because I found it so chilling. I wanted to know if other members had also read it and what they thought about it.

"A Trump Dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending." by Robert Kagan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

Nah, I didn't get chills because it is rank demagoguery.

 

[Ambig]

There is no actual democracy in America,

It's pretty close. Especially before Trump starting taking a dump on it.

the left doesn’t believe in democracy if it opposes left goals, see prop 8

I got no idea what you're talking about, but I watched a Pub president lie about election fraud and refuse to gracefully leave office.

He's still got a bunch of his cult followers thinking the 2020 election was illegitimate.