Trump is using the government as a bargaining chip – like a dictator would - Robert Reich

[JacksinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ernment-shutdown-democracy-power-dictatorship

Trump’s entire presidency to date has sacrificed the means of democracy to preserve his personal power, and the shutdown over the border is no different

“I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want,” Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

The wonderful thing about Trump’s presidency (I never thought I’d begin a sentence this way), is he brings us back to basics. The basic difference between a democracy and a dictatorship comes down to means and ends.
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Reich: 'A dictatorship, by contrast, is only about ends. Those ends are the goals of the dictator – at a minimum, preserving and accumulating personal power. To achieve those ends, a dictator will use any means necessary.' Democracy is about means, not ends.

Trump is on his way to being a dictator.

 

[SoCal]

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ernment-shutdown-democracy-power-dictatorship

Trump’s entire presidency to date has sacrificed the means of democracy to preserve his personal power, and the shutdown over the border is no different

“I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want,” Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

The wonderful thing about Trump’s presidency (I never thought I’d begin a sentence this way), is he brings us back to basics. The basic difference between a democracy and a dictatorship comes down to means and ends.
===================================================
Reich: 'A dictatorship, by contrast, is only about ends. Those ends are the goals of the dictator – at a minimum, preserving and accumulating personal power. To achieve those ends, a dictator will use any means necessary.' Democracy is about means, not ends.

Trump is on his way to being a dictator.

I agree it's what he would prefer, but I don't think he'll ever get there.

It's a sad fact that conservatives and their Repub party never have been concerned about means. It's just not in their DNA, it's not who they are. They have a twisted view of what principles are all about.

The latest example is the means they're using for the ends of their immigration policy. Most conservatives have little time for empathy. It's why they couldn't care less about Central American refugees or the trauma they're inflicting on their children when they strip them from their parents. Trump is just taking their disgusting world view to an extreme we 've never seen before, at least not in our highest levels of our government.


"Who needs a majority—or democracy—when you just know that your cause is the most righteous? ...

...A very important point. It has to do, too, with the almost opposite definitions liberals and conservatives affix to the word "principle." For liberals, generally speaking, honoring procedures—means—is the core of what being "principled" means. For conservatives, fighting for the right outcome—ends—even at the expense of procedural nicety, is what being "principled" means.

Think of it it, allegorically, this way: imagine in Washington DC, near Capitol Hill, a little old lady is crossing a hazardous street. A fastidious liberal congressmen, proud of always acting in a principled way in all things, stops to help her across the street—even though that means he might be late for a key vote (the sacrifice of an end, in itself, confirms his principled nature).

A fastidious conservative congressman, on the other hand, leaves the lady to her fate and makes the vote (because the upholding of the end, in itself, is where honor lies—and dishonor rests, in the ultimate term of derision righties reserve for each other, in being a "squish")…"

I hope and believe that Trump's coming declaration of an emergency when there isn't one, will be the closest he gets to being an autocrat...