[View here as a Twitter thread]
(thread) There are rumors that Trump has reached a “turning point” and (with Nunes and others) is looking to shut down Mueller’s investigation–which will create our second greatest constitutional crisis (after the Civil War). So how did we get to this point?
1/ I’ll cull a few insights from some of what I’ve read recently. From On Tyranny: Modern Russian history in a nutshell: In 1990 Russians elected Putin. That was their last meaningful election (elections since have been rigged). Since 1990, Russia has been ruled by oligarchs…
2/ whose foreign policy objective is to destroy Western style democracies that rely on rule of law. From Can it Happen Here?: It turns out that destroying rule of law isn’t hard. As Putin said, democracy is “messy.” It requires compromise. Checks and balances create gridlock.
3/ Democratic institutions cost money to maintain. It’s easy to stir up discontent by denouncing compromise, trashing politicians & Washington, D.C., & calling the entire government wasteful and corrupt. All of this set the stage for an authoritarian uprising in America.
4/ From Right Wing Authoritarian Scale (study by Saunders & Ngo): 1/3 of the population prefers a strong leader who sanctions aggression toward “out groups” (minorities). They see the world as a fearful place, and are willing to fall in line behind a strong leader.
5/ This NYT article gives a good overview of how the Republican party changed from a conservative party to an authoritarian party, beginning with Gingrich, who ushered in “discipline.”
6/Our current authoritarian moment was helped along by Russia. Collusion doesn’t begin to describe the level of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. From the indictments so far we learn about widespread and well-financed propaganda campaigns. Even “lock her up”
7/..is from tactics used by Putin in the Ukraine. Most books agree that to right this ship, Democrats can’t imitate Republican scorched earth tactics but must strive to maintain rule of law and democratic processes. I most recommend HDD, summarized here: https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/968588263911927808 …
