How Donald Trump Could Build an Autocracy in the U.S.

Trumpmenbashi In 1991, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam Karimov was elected Uzbekistan’s first – and heretofore only – president. His transition to the presidency was seamless: Karimov, a long-time communist apparatchik, had served as first secretary of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic since 1989, and the 1991 election, like every election that would follow, was a rigged process that forbade the meaningful participation of opposing parties. Backed by military might and a vast surveillance system inherited from the Soviet KGB, Karimov maintained dominance as Uzbekistan transitioned from communism to “democracy,” from enforced atheism to a narrow but heavily promoted vision of Muslim cultural identity. “O’zbekiston – kelajagi buyuk davlat!” Enjoying this article? In other words, Karimov was making Uzbekistan great again. The rise of Donald Trump has spurred a resurgence of the study of comparative dictatorship. It is irresponsible to rule out his rule.

A Dark View from Flyover Country Sarah Kendzior lives and writes in the heartland of America, and from what she has observed, the country is about to explode. The journalist tells WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman that the election of Donald Trump is but the opening act. Racism, white supremacy and violence are all bubbling very close to the surface, and scapegoating will add fuel to the fire. Not only have stores and plants closed, but locally based journalism has all but disappeared. She also noted that one of the issues this election has revealed is the growing distrust of institutions, such as the FBI. Regular WhoWhatWhy readers know that we cover the Bureau extensively – and that there is much to be distrustful about. For new readers, here is a small sampling of our own articles on how the FBI abused its powers, botched investigations, risked national security, and deceived the public on a wide range of issues, some of which had life or death consequences. FBI, Snipers & Occupy FBI’s Amazing Trick to Avoid Accountability

White Nationalists See Trump as Their Troll in Chief. Is He With Them? Jeff Blehar had no idea he was about to become a conduit for a virulent political awakening. It was July 2015, and the conservative writer and outspoken critic of freshly minted presidential candidate Donald Trump was being pummeled on Twitter with a profane-sounding political dis: "cuckservative." The term, which had recently begun appearing on fringe internet forums, was meant to denigrate mainstream Republicans as impotent traitors, in part by evoking a genre of porn that features white men watching their wives have sex with black men. "I want to congratulate [the] guy who keeps calling me a 'cuckservative'—you win, dude," Blehar tweeted sarcastically. "You're right, and I'm deleting my account out of shame." Conservative pundit and Trump critic Erick Erickson soon weighed in, tweeting that he had read about cuckservatism in the white nationalist Radix Journal. It never would have happened without Trump acting as troll in chief. After Trump's surprising win, Spencer pounced. Breitbart

Meet the White Nationalist Trying To Ride The Trump Train to Lasting Power UPDATE: Several weeks after this story published in October, Spencer gave a triumphant speech at a conference in Washington describing America as a "white country" and proclaiming, "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!" He was met with cheers and Nazi salutes. Read more in our investigation of how the white nationalist movement capitalized on the Trump campaign. Richard Spencer uses chopsticks to deftly pluck slivers of togarashi-crusted ahi from a rectangular plate. He is sitting in the Continental-style lounge of the Firebrand Hotel, near his home in the upscale resort town of Whitefish, Montana, discussing a subject not typically broached in polite company. We are well into our third round of Arrogant Frog, a merlot that Spencer chose because its name reminds him of Pepe, the cartoon frog commandeered as a mascot by the "alt-right" movement that has been thrust from the shadows by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Spencer and his companions started riffing: "Look at me!

Robert O. Paxton : « Le régime de Trump est une ploutocratie » Dans une tribune au « Monde », l’historien américain explique qu’« un pouvoir exécutif sans contrainte ni contrôle est indicateur de dictature en général, plutôt que de fascisme en particulier ». LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Robert O. Paxton (professeur émérite d’histoire, Columbia University (New York)) [Un peu plus d’un mois après l’entrée de Donald Trump à la Maison Blanche, l’historien américain Robert O. TRIBUNE. Trump reprend plusieurs motifs typiquement fascistes : déploration du déclin national, imputé aux étrangers et aux minorités ; mépris des règles juridiques ; caution implicite de la violence à l’encontre des opposants ; rejet de tout ce qui est international, que ce soit le commerce, les institutions ou les traités en place. Si tentant qu’il soit d’apposer à Trump la plus toxique des étiquettes politiques, une telle qualification n’est justifiable qu’à condition de permettre un approfondissement ou d’apporter un éclairage. Le terreau de la défaite et de l’humiliation

Chris Hedges : « La démocratie américaine n’est plus qu’une façade » Pour le journaliste et écrivain américain, la guerre contre le terrorisme fut « une erreur catastrophique » : les groupes djihadistes se sont multipliés, tandis qu’aux Etats-Unis les libertés civiques régressaient. Journaliste et écrivain, Chris Hedges, 60 ans, a longtemps été correspondant de guerre en Amérique latine, au Proche-Orient et dans les Balkans. Il a fait partie de l’équipe de reportage du New York ­Times, récompensée par un prix Pulitzer en 2002. Son livre le plus connu, écrit en 2002, a été publié en France sous le titre La guerre est une force qui nous octroie du sens ­ (Actes Sud, 224 p., 21,80 euros) avec un avant-propos actualisé. A travers sa longue expérience de terrain des conflits, il livre une réflexion philosophique et morale sur la guerre. La guerre contre le terrorisme, lancée ­dans la foulée des attentats du 11 septembre 2001, est la plus longue de l’histoire des Etats-Unis.

How Jews Became White Folks — and May Become Nonwhite Under Trump Decades before I wrote the book “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America,” I had an eye-opening conversation with my parents. I asked them if they were white. They looked flummoxed and said, “We’re Jewish.” “But are you white?” “Well, I guess we’re white; but we’re Jewish.” I’m white and Jewish. My parents were born in 1914, in an America that looked eerily like what Donald Trump seeks to re-create today. Segregation and racial discrimination were the law of the land. In the wake of World War II, the horrors of Nazism were becoming public and publicly repudiated. Now, Trump’s election and the closet of bigotry it has opened raise a question. Or is it possible that the new Trump regime will “unwhiten” and mark Jews racially on a national scale? Many have pointed out the chilling parallels between the values and worldviews of the old eugenicists and those of Trump and his supporters. How prominent is anti-Semitism in this stew of overlapping hatreds?

Greatest victory for anti-Semitism in America since 1941 Tuesday's election marked a stunning victory for Donald Trump. And, in the background, something else as well. The election marked the greatest victory and validation for anti-Semitism in America since 1941. We all saw it coming, those who supported Trump and those who opposed him. Read More: Trump's Win, the Greatest Victory for anti-Semitism in America Since 1941 (Bradley Burston) || I Still Love America. To the direct benefit of anti-Semites and those who, like Trump, have coddled them and turned a blind eye to them and, in the end, leveraged them to their own advantage, the renaissance of Jew-hate in America has effectively split the Jewish community between an overwhelmingly liberal majority and the pro-Trump minority. There are now just two kinds of Jews in America. How serious is the split? “The spike in hate we’ve seen online this election cycle is extremely troubling and unlike anything we have seen in modern politics," ADL CEO Jonathan A. Sharing is caring. We saw it coming.

Thanks to Trump, we can better understand how Hitler was possible American articles have ascribed the term “Lügenpresse,” recently hurled at reporters in some Donald Trump rallies, to the Nazi era. That’s partially accurate. The derogatory German term for “lying press” was already being widely used by German Catholics a century before the Nazis came to power to describe their opponents in the liberal and democratic newspapers. The term was back in vogue in the First World War to cast aspersions on the foreign media and their negative reporting on Deutschland. This is not to say that comparisons between the rise of Donald Trump and the ascent of Adolf Hitler are inappropriate. Nonetheless, some of the elements of the Nazi ascent to power, as well as the emergence of other totalitarian regimes in Europe at the time, can provide clues and early warning signs to explain Trump’s success in the Republican primaries and his continuing popularity as we approach the presidential elections. Sharing is caring.

Trump's last campaign ad 'has anti-Semitic overtones' Donald Trump's final ad for this presidential campaign has been online for less than a few hours and has already inspired claims of being rife with "anti-Semitic overtones." The video, billed as "Donald Trump's Argument for America," assails what the presidential candidate calls the Washington establishment's ties with "global special interests," so-called people "that don’t have your good in mind.” The only problem: the figures Trump's campaign chose to illustrate both are exclusively Jewish and from the financial world. “The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election… For those who control the levers of power in Washington and for the global special interests…” Trump says in the video. Later in the video, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein also makes an appearance. Huffington Post, which has been vocal in its criticism of Trump, reported what it called the video's "anti-Semitic overtones," claiming its theme was reminiscent to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The Plot Against America: Donald Trump’s Rhetoric Donald Trump, when he really gets going, hardly speaks in sentences anymore. He doesn’t need to. His audience is with him in fragments. The energy comes in surges—in bunched mini-waves, so rhythmically charged that they never bore the listener, even the listener who loathes every word that comes out of his mouth, every frown and eye-rolling grimace, every gesture of his right hand, which disposes of the world’s idiocy in jerking sweeps to the side. His speeches have no beginning or end, no shape, no culmination and release, and none is necessary. Trump is devoted to anti-rhetoric. Like a good standup comic, Trump invites the audience to join him in the adventure of delivering his act—in this case, the barbarously entertaining adventure of running a Presidential campaign that insults everybody. Is he a Fascist? There are echoes of such movements in the constant attacks on anyone who differs or criticizes or simply fails to praise, especially people in the press. He lies all the time.

An Open Letter To Our Fellow Jews To our fellow Jews, in the United States, in Israel, and around the world: We know that, up to now, some of you have made an effort to reserve judgment on the question of whether or not President Donald Trump is an anti-Semite, and to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some of you voted for him last November. Some of you have found employment in his service, or have involved yourself with him in private business deals, or in diplomatic ties. You have counted carefully as each appointment to his administration of an avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi or crypto-fascist appeared to be counterbalanced by the appointment of a fellow Jew, and reassured yourself that the most troubling of those hires would be cumulatively outweighed by the presence, in his own family and circle of closest advisors, of a Jewish son-in-law and daughter. You have viewed him as a potential friend to Israel, or a reliable enemy of Israel’s enemies. So, now you know. Now he’s coming after you. Sincerely,

On what should happen if the unthinkable happens – Lessig There’s a bunch of chatter about imminent action by the special prosecutor. Some of that chatter suggests evidence of a real tie with Russia during the election. By “real tie” I mean more than that the Russians tried to help. I don’t know if I believe it. It’s a fair question. What if there were a conspiracy? This “if” has got to be specified very precisely. If that is shown, then the first step is obvious. The second step should be obvious as well: Pence should resign or, if he doesn’t, he should be impeached. Under the law as it is, this leaves Paul Ryan as President. There’s no mechanism in American law for a new election. Fixing it, politically But that doesn’t mean this crime couldn’t be fixed politically. President Ryan would have the right to nominate a Vice-President. If Ryan became President because the Trump/Pence campaign committed treason, who should he nominate as his Vice President? Of course, this is the sort of thing that’s unimaginable in Washington today.