In Central America there is a role model of bad governance we have tagged as banana republics, led by dictators and their cronies, enriching themselves while ignoring the needs of their citizens. Those countries continue in power with inept, corrupt autocratic governance. . Military coups and violent revolutions are how regime change usually happens in such dictatorships, We ourselves came closer to becoming a banana republic within the past year in retrospect as more and more evidence of what happened emerges from both House hearings and recent books . President Trump tried to overthrow the 2020 election so he could continue a second term. These attempts may have failed, but they are characteristic of a wannabe dictator and there is no reason to believe that given the chance to be president again, he could become closer to achieving the power of the rule of a person instead of the rule of law.. A second term would have given him the time and ability to abuse his powers to achieve control of all three branches of government. He would have the time and opportunity to replace the federal courts and the Justice Department with those willing to make judgment calls he favors. If he controls both houses of Congress as well, the end of democracy as we know it, rule by the majority with rights protecting the minority, and any checks and balances on executive power, is dead.
Update 10/8Subpoenas have been issued to those key Trump figures who were in the room where it happened by the bi-partisan House Committee looking into the events of January 6, 2021. This will delay much as the subpoenas are fought in court. However, others did testify in the Hearings to give more credence to the investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa revealed in their recent book. 'Peril' Review: Bob Woodward's New Book Uncovers The Trump Era's Final Moments : NPR For an updated post of how the US almost became a banana republic, go to the 10/8/posting with that title. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-us-almost-became-banana-republic.html
The violent overthrow of democratically elected governments is against the laws of all democracies because the right to protest and to change leaders with the ballot box is the peaceful alternative that is provided to dissidents as their civil rights are protected. The violent takeover of governments,, however, is being openly supported by a sizeable number of the GOP.. Now, fully one-half of those who identify themselves as Republicans approve or do not care if tools are used to defy constitutional law and use violence to achieve their political goals. Most Republicans Say Force May Be Required to Save 'Traditional' America: Poll (businessinsider.com. Fortunately for American democracy, these banana Republicans, approving of autocracy also, are currently about 26% of the total electorate per a recent Morning Consult poll.26% of Americans Are Highly 'Right-Wing Authoritarian,' New Poll Finds (businessinsider.com)
This is what we know. A president attempted to overturn an election he lost by filing lawsuits claiming enough voter fraud to explain why he should serve a second term..While the battle cry he used to turn over the results of the 2020 election was "stop the steal" based on what he had been told was a lie ) he lost because of voter fraud) the thief was him who tried to overturn the election results. He was told by his own attorney general their own investigations found no proof of widespread fraud that would have changed the election outcome, Trump persisted knowing this. First, he tried with lawsuits. All such suits were thrown out of courts by 60 judges of all political stripes for lack of evidence. Update 10/8/21 Next, he tried to put in a loyalist to head the Justice Department to make it look like the allegations of voter fraud by investigating them look credible, but the entire brass of the DOJ threatened to resign. Failing that, an attorney, John Eastman, then laid out a blueprint for how Trump could get his second term in spite of the election results, including conspiring with Vice President Pence to decertify the electoral vote count and throw the election into the House that gave one state one vote, assuring the decertifying of election and upholding Trump's second term.READ Trump lawyer's memo on a six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election - CNNPolitics. Pence, after considering that, told the president on January 5 he could not do it, even when Trump called him "no longer his friend".Pence Said to Have Told Trump He Lacks Power to Change Election Result - The New York Times (nytimes.com) The riot was supposed to give Pence the guts to make the decertifying call. . , Trump in a "stop the steal rally" in advance of the riot at the Capitol, inspired a mob to terrify legislators into not certifying the election of his opponent. The attempt, too, failed. The election of Joe Biden was certified the night of January 6. Other efforts to upend the democratic process were tried and failed, including threatening state election officials "to go out and find" more votes for him..That conversation was recorded on tape.. We are hearing allegations by witnesses Trump tried to enlist the active military to put down opposition demonstrators, a plan thwarted by the Joint Chiefs.
These attempts may have failed, but they are characteristic of a wannabe dictator and there is no reason to believe that given the chance to be president again, he could become closer to achieving the power of the rule of a person instead of the rule of law.
Trump pressure campaign: Durbin report details DOJ, White House meeting - The Washington Post MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why General Milley is emerging as a hero who saved democracy
Interviews with former Justice Department officials provide new details on Trump efforts to undermine election results - CNNPolitics
MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump's attempted coup by court has gone down in flames, as did the reputation of the GOP
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Usually, such coups, gradual or abrupt, peaceful or violent, changing governance from democracy to autocracy, are committed by an existing majority. Their motivations can be racial, ethnic, ideological, power-hunger, or financial., They consolidate power by denying rights and oppressing any challengers. Civil and human rights and means of communication and demonstrations of opposition to the ruling power are suppressed.
There is no such guarantee that those wishfully wanting an autocracy even if it would take violence or defiance of the Constitution, will be in the minority forever. These autocrats however are using the very tools they want to destroy if they got in power to advocate for their governance preference., free access to media, and protection of their civil rights to redress grievances peacefully. The history of the last century is of onetime existing western democracies taken over by one or a few actors slowly and step by step. Rarely was there violence or a military coup. Erdogan of Turkey's rise to a dictator is a classic example of how he fired those who were not loyal and replaced them with loyalists in the military and the judiciary. It takes time for this to happen successfully. That is one reason our own most recent wannabe autocrat failed. Trump had only four years in which to do gain control of the military, the Department of Justice, and the federal judiciary, by stuffing them with more yes men appointees Imagine the greater success Trump would have had another four years to gain greater control of these institutions... The leaders of those institutions held their ground and played a major role in blocking Trump's ambitions in 2020-2021, believing their oath was to the Consitution and not to a president. The hallmark of autocracy is that the pledge of loyalty is to the dear leader, not to any rule of law, such as the Consitution and the laws that flow from it.
Once hush hush agendas to establish an autocracy are now being spoken openly. Such views used to be called anti-American and dismissed as held by fringes. . Now a form of autocratic governance, the opposite of the kind of democracy we have had for 240 years, is even being promoted by prime-time news show talker, Tucker Carlson. Carlson is holding up the newest autocrat in Europe, Viktor Orban of Hungary, as a model Orban now controls 90% of Hungarian media and disdains "liberal democracy" that protects freedom of the press and gives civil rights to minorities. He has done this in the name of "Christianity" and "replacement" theories with ethnically pure Hungarian Christians, who are already overwhelmingly the majority of the existing population. How Tucker Carlson and the far right embraced Hungary’s authoritarian leader | Fox News | The Guardian
In a mammoth lack of understanding and with ignorance of American history, those supporting such notions are wrapping themselves in American flags and calling themselves patriots restoring"traditional" democracy. There is nothing "traditional" about their interpretation of the Revolution not do their actions resemble what happened in 1776. A tyrannical government of a King was exactly what the 1776 patriots revolted against. They instead embraced a new concept of democracy with governance determined through the ballot box by citizens and they constructed a Constitution in 1787 with a carefully orchestrated peaceful transition of power to the newly elected. Those using 1776 fighters of the American revolution to justify violence on January 6 are also ignorant of how the revolution was fought. It was not by rioters, but with contributions of regulated militias supplied by the 13 colonies under their authority and led by General Washington. Those claiming the election was stolen to justify their attempt to install Trump for a second term have failed to provide evidence of enough widespread election fraud and every single suit filed by Trump supporters has failed. The Trumpist financed "audit" in Arizona folded up its tent and quietly ended recently. This summer a federal judge dismissed a Trump-inspired class-action suit claiming election fraud as without evidence, frivolous, and "fantastical", ruling the attorneys who brought the suit had to pay millions to the extensively named defendants for their legal fees.
What can be done to prevent an American banana republic is not yet clear. Perhaps some laws and regulations may emerge but those bent on non democratic regime change have already indicated they would just ignore laws. In the long run, it is up to those who understand the value of the kind of democracy we have had feel it is important enough to stand up and be counted to keep those anti-democracy views in a minority. We have a democracy, but only its people can keep it.
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In response to the posting of the above, a Trump supporter responded that the real dictator was Biden and pointed to what they saw was his censoring the press and knocking Trump off of Facebook and Twitter. The old trope was repeated that Biden would take "my guns away". The Trrum supportert was challenged to provide quotes of what Biden said on these issues, but could not produce them. Instead, he said, look what he has done. If that is the standard, then indeed, we will look at what Biden has done . Biden is now in office. FOX and Newsmax are still on the air. No one censored them. Biden did not yank Trump off Facebook and Twitter. The owners of those social sites did because of Trump's lies. Laws regarding gun ownership by private citizens are far more restrictive in other western democracies, but that does not a criterion of whether they are dictatorships or not.. I still have my gun and everyone I know who has them legally still has them. Biden has not even attempted to support legislation that would do that. He has supported the law enforcement crackdown on gunrunners and urban violence..
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Here is why I feel so strongly we should do everything to keep our kind of democracy as our form o governance .I have seen it all in my lifetime of over 80 years. I lived in the burned-out, ruined aftermath of Hitler's fascism, the rise of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" which in reality was a repressive dictatorship by one strong man Only sources of news permitted were government-approved. Individual civil rights and the ability to protest ended with opposition leaders sent to gulags or executed. Show trials with judges loyal to their dear leader prevailed. Even in Russia and Belarus today, poison and prison are the fate of those rallying demonstrations against the governments. My relatives by marriage barely survived the ethnic cleansing wars in the Balkans where tribalism resulted in 300 thousand victims in a population similar to current Colorado. It was famous for the mass killings of one ethnic group by another. I watched\ post-world war II countries that emerged from communism and fascism with democratic forms of government resembling what we still call American democracy. I married a refugee from communism and. with frequent visits to his former country, I watched the transformation of the country he fled to become a democracy and their citizens prospered as members of the European Union and NATO. This is the good news. The bad news is that all of these European countries have active fascist movements of large minorities who want to turn back the clock. They are enabled by the very form of government they want to destroy, free press, open and free elections, and the ability to assemble in protests. Sadly, Hungary, a Russian satellite that had embraced western democracy regressed to autocracy in the cause of racial purity as a reaction to middle Eastern refugees knocking on their doors.
MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why General Milley is emerging as a hero who saved democracy
Interviews with former Justice Department officials provide new details on Trump efforts to undermine election results - CNNPolitics
Opinion | Our constitutional crisis is already here - The Washington Post
