Authoritarianism

The media is again failing the American public in its early coverage of the 2020 presidential campaign

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If you want your news from a Republican perspective, there is Mike Allen, co-founder and executive editor of Axios and former chief political reporter for Politico. Today he has a post with Jonathan Swan who covers the Trump presidency and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill for Axios. The GOP grabs socialism as 2020 lifeline: For the … Read more

‘The Enemy of The People,’ Mitch McConnell, surrenders the Senate to ‘Dear Leader’

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With his executive order declaring a national emergency so that he can do an end-run around the congressional power of the purse in the Constitution, Trump’s national emergency declaration once again highlights his affinity for strongmen — and authoritarianism, the authoritarian wannabe tinpot dictator Donald Trump Is Trying to Hollow Out the Constitutional System of … Read more

Anti-democratic authoritarian Republicans reject the will of the voters on citizen initiatives (Updated)

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Voters in the red state of Utah last November voted to expand Medicaid coverage to 150,000 uninsured people in the state, with 53 percent in favor. But the Republican state legislators they also elected to office in November had other ideas. “We will decide, and you will obey!” Utah Voters Approved Medicaid Expansion, But State Lawmakers Are Balking.

Authoritarian Republicans rejected the clear will of the voters, and greatly curtailed the Medicaid expansion plan that voters believed they had approved in November. Utah Governor Signs Plan To Minimize Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion, Offering Road Map To Other Red States. “This is a dark day for democracy in Utah,” said Andrew Roberts, a spokesman for the group Utah Decides.

Something similar is happening here in Arizona. Arizona voters voted overwhelmingly in favor of the referendum rejecting the “vouchers on steroids” bill passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature in 2017 (Prop. 305). The Voter Protection Act should protect the will of the voters expressed in this ballot measure.

But authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona Legislature reject the will of the voters — and piss on the Voter Protection Act — by pursuing yet another expansion of school vouchers to privatize public education. “We will decide, and you will obey!” Senate panel OKs new school voucher bill, despite recent rejection by Arizona voters:

Rejecting claims it was ignoring the will of voters, a Senate panel voted Wednesday to advance SB 1395 (.pdf) to alter the rules governing the use of vouchers of state dollars by parents to send their children to private and parochial schools.

Sen. Sylvia “The earth is 6000 years old” Allen, R-Snowflake, acknowledged many of the provisions in her SB 1395 were sent to voters last year as part of Proposition 305, which was rejected by voters by a 2-1 margin.

But Allen told members of the Senate Finance Committee she is not trying to override that vote (oh yes, she is). Allen said what’s in her bill wasn’t the focus of voters — or the cause of defeat for changes in the program formally known as empowerment scholarship accounts.

“What they were focused on and heard over and over again was this was expanding the program to all families, that rich people were going to benefit from these ESAs, and that this money was going to religious schools,” she said. All were part of Proposition 305.

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GOP scaremongering over socialism – going back to an old playbook

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In his State of The Union Address, President Trump rolled out a “new” 2020 campaign theme that in actuality is a very old campaign theme that the GOP has been using in campaigns since the 1936 election — that Democrats are “socialists” (this is in response to self-described Democratic Socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

Keep in mind this is coming from the political party which has abandoned traditional Republican values and transformed itself into an authoritarian personality cult of Donald Trump, and which has openly embraced all the early warning signs of fascism. Donald Trump is a Russian asset and puppet of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accurately diagnosed, Donald Trump engages in psychological projection. Trumpism, the new American fascism is the genuine threat to America.

Franklin D. Roosevelt ran on traditional economics in 1932, the New Deal only emerged during his first term. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Socialist or “Champion of Freedom”?:

The use of such tactics to discredit those who believe in government intervention in the economy is not new, of course. Franklin Roosevelt faced similar charges when he ran for re-election in 1936. Like President Obama and those in Congress who favor government programs to put people to work and ensure that all Americans can enjoy a healthy and productive life, FDR’s New Deal — including his passage of unemployment insurance and Social Security — was attacked as “undisguised state socialism” by one senator. Others went so far as to insist that FDR was a communist, including FDR’s erstwhile colleague Al Smith, who, as one of the founders of the right-wing American Liberty League, warned in the 1936 election that “the people could either breathe the clear fresh air of America, or the foul breath of Soviet Russia.”

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