Suddenly, Salon Is Very Concerned With An Authoritarian President

For years, Mr. Obama has been more than willing to use his pen and phone, well, really, just his pen, to enact his personal agenda via executive authority, particularly since Republicans took the House in 2010. Salon, like most Leftists, has been cheerleading this push. But, what about a potential Donald Trump presidency?

The dark side of Donald Trump: How gridlock leads to dangerous populism & authoritarian zeal

Of the many ways Donald Trump has distinguished himself from his fellow Republican presidential candidates, his flamboyant xenophobia and protectionism have garnered the most attention. And that was still the case this past weekend, when the billionaire real estate mogul, reality television star and “cherisher” of women went on “Meet the Press” to tell host Chuck Todd that a President Trump would work hard to deport more than 11 million people. “We’re going to keep the families together,” Trump promised. But only so long as they understood that regardless of what the 14th Amendment might say, these American-born children of immigrations would “have to go,” too.

As my colleague Joan Walsh has pointed out already, this is a prescription for turning the entire country into a charnel house for civil rights that would make today’s Arizona seem comparatively benign. If the policy were truly enforced with the kind of rigor that Trump promises and his supporters crave, the result would be “a massive police state,” as Walsh puts it. The number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would increase three-fold under Trump; and anyone who still failed to understand President Trump’s message would be encouraged to look no further than the southern border, where a giant wall would stand and carry on the Berlin and West Bank tradition.

A police state!!!!!!!!!

The racial hue of Trump’s vision is obvious, and it’s understandable that commentators are inclined to see Trumpism through that lens. But there was another important Trump-related media development over the weekend. It was a stellar piece by the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, who recently spent some time in Flint, Michigan, talking to some of “the Donald’s” biggest fans. And while nostalgia for an era when whiteness meant more than it does today was common, Weigel’s piece suggests that racial anxiety isn’t the main reason these folks are embracing Trump. What they like about him, it appears, is that he is a more convincing authoritarian.

“I don’t think he’d go to Congress and ask,” one supporter said to Weigel about a hypothetical President Trump. “I think he’d just do it.” A dutiful student of high school civics knows that the framers of the Constitution took great pains to keep such a sentiment from governing the country. But for the voters Weigel spoke to, such a display of presidential “strength” (a favored word of Trump and his believers) is badly needed. “He lets people know what he’s going to do, not what to ask for,” a 51-year-old named Bob Parsons said of Trump, approvingly. He then compared the former host of “The Apprentice” to Ronald Reagan.

Suddenly, the President making things happen would be a Bad Thing. No such complaints have ever been leveled on the pages of Salon. But, hey, because Trump would, according mostly to supporters, not Trump himself, mind you, make things happen

The authoritarian mind-set doesn’t have much patience for nuance or complication, however. It prefers to see the world as comprehensible, bordering on self-evident. And whenever it is confronted with a reality too opaque and intricate to be easily simplified, that’s when a kind of flattening mysticism — or “romance,” as Weigel calls it — steps in to abolish complexity and sand away rough edges. Channeled as it currently is in Trump’s direction, this free-floating rage at the status quo and this authoritarian desire for a great leader to enact justice through force of will is relatively harmless. What should worry the rest of us, though, is the prospect that Trump isn’t a one-off but rather a sign of things to come.

Was that about Trump, or Obama? This is a typical unhinged rant about the super duper concern over a Republican being the next Hitler, with no self-reflection that Lefties have actually been supporting the guy who meets the description for years.

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10 Responses to “Suddenly, Salon Is Very Concerned With An Authoritarian President”

  1. BackwardsBoy says:

    If it weren’t for double standards, the fools on the Left and at Salon would have no standards at all.

  2. Jeffery says:

    We should all understand the inherent dangers of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and RWA leaders and followers. Is it possible for an RWA leader to actually take control of the US as Hitler did in Germany? Probably not. But the social/economic climate is ripe for the US middle class to support a populist promising to “Make America Great Again”.

    RWAs always need scapegoats – Jews, illegals, gays, Muslims, Blacks – that are the “reason” their life is unfair. Can Trump “Make America Great Again” by deporting 15 million immigrants, out-negotiating China and Mexico, by seizing Middle East oil fields, and making Ford build a plant in Flint instead of Mexico? Our military should be an arm of corporate America!

    RWAs always (ALWAYS!) project their desires on the other tribe. They are afraid (unrealistically) that the other tribe will get what the RWAs ultimately desire – total power and control.

    RWA followers need a larger than life leader – Cheney, Palin, Reagan, Cruz… now Trump – to make them proud again.

  3. Making America Great Again is not a prescription for Hitlerism or anything even remotely like that.

    Americans (leftist Americans are not Americans in spirit – at best, they are Tories who would never have fought the War of Independence) do not blame others for their problems. They identify who is creating a problem. Are illegals creating a problem by taking jobs that otherwise Americans would have? Yup. Are some businesses employing illegals who would ordinarily employ Americans? Yup. Is the government interested in importing H1-B folks to do the bidding of Google, Microsoft, and so on? Yup. Are all of these things bad for the economy? Of course.

    As a businessman, Trump isn’t interested in forcing Ford to build a plant anywhere. Obama’s crony capitalism is what the government being an arm of corporate America looks like. Again, this is so obvious as to be painful.

    Finally, Americans are not interested in power or control. They are interested in living their lives free from the control of others. They do not want an ever-expanding government, Amen – that is what the left wants.

    As always, you as a leftist, are accusing other people of thinking the very things that you think. You would force Ford to build a plant somewhere. You would force people into camps. You think everyone wants/needs power. You hate people on the basis of their skin color.

  4. Hank_M says:

    I see Salon, and Jeffery of course, fail to see the absurd hypocrisy of what they’re writing. Salon seems to resent everything they love in Obama and left wing politics if a Repub or Trump should suddenly start doing something similar. NO surprise there.

    As for Jeffery’s idiotic rant, aside from the inevitable nod to Godwin’s Law, it’s the very projection he ascribes to the right.

    Scapegoats? The left thrives on using them – especially the rich (always amusing especially from Hillary, the Obama’s and any of the other wealthy democrats).

    Jews Jeffery? Look up the BDS movement, entirely from the left.

    Illegals? The label says it all.

    As for writing “gays, Muslims”….too funny when one considers Muslim treatment of gays. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to be listed together.

    And as for black americans, this charge coming from the only person I’ve heard or read who has referred to them as “uppity” or worse, “darkies” is simply priceless.

    Nevertheless, I’m sure your larger than life leader, Barry Obama, he of the greek columns and personalized logo would agree with you.

  5. jl says:

    Seriously, sometimes I wonder if J and J are in 8th grade with their “debating” skills. “RWA always need scapegoats- Jews,(? how so?), liberals, gays, Muslims, blacks, that are their reason life is unfair..” I see. Well then LWA always need scapegoats- the “rich”, whites, religious people, police, the First Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, voter ID, Israel, people who want to uphold border laws, the inequality of outcomes, ect., ect. J, please don’t make it so hard to respond to your post next time, you know, because that took me all of 30 seconds…

  6. david7134 says:

    jl,
    I am with you, Jeff most definitely talks like an adolescent. His attitudes on religion indicate someone who is working his way through the denial aspects of the psych that usually are seen in someone who is late high school to early college. His issues with conservative thought would fit that level as well. His name calling and hostel nature likewise go to early college mental development. His lack of knowledge on all subjects indicates early educational, life experience.

    John on the other hand is a trucker and typical unionist. You can tell when he in on the road as his comments are very choppy and you can’t even more difficult to understand. Imagine a trucker texting while driving.

  7. Deserttrek says:

    glad to see the supporters of child abuse and child murder are scared of Sarah Palin

  8. Jeffery says:

    desserttrash,

    I would only be scared the Wasilla Grifter would steal my silverware.

    Have they figured out who fathered Bristle’s illegal illegitimato?

    And once again you use the serious crime of child abuse as a joke. You’re a pathetic turd.

  9. Deserttrek says:

    name calling from the J … supports child abuse and child murder … and calls people names … doesn’t like the shoes but can’t take them off ….. wear it proudly

  10. Jeffery says:

    desserttrash,

    “Waah” “Waah”, crying cause people he calls names calls him names right back. If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen you pathetic little turd.

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