America is Fucked
Out of context: Reply #2192
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(excerpt from an article in canadian press, translated.)
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.'A democracy on the brink'
--------------------------------...Towards a “legalized” coup?
Even though he lives more than 6,000 miles from Washington, Arieh Kovler saw the Jan.6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol coming before most anyone else.
On December 21, 2020, from his home in Jerusalem, Israel, the corporate communications expert posted a series of tweets, the first of which was to prove prophetic, with just a few details.
“On January 6, armed Trumpist militias will gather in Washington, on orders from Trump. It is very likely that they will try to storm the Capitol after [Congress] certifies Joe Biden's victory. I don't think it has been figured out yet” he wrote, basing himself on his regular reading of the favorite sites of American extremists and conspirators, like Gab, 4chan and 8kun.
Almost a year later, Arieh Kovler, born in London 40 years ago and married to an American, is still amazed at the lack of preparation of the police and the army. And although he expected even more violence, he remains troubled by what he saw that day.
“I am Jewish, but the assault on the Capitol had an effect on me similar to the burning of Notre-Dame de Paris. I had the impression that something sacred was destroyed, ”he confides over the phone.
And the rest of 2021 did not banish this impression from him, on the contrary.
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We may have seen the last democratic election in the United States. -Arieh Kovler
--------------------------------...[...] many pundits, journalists and citizens of the United States and beyond see this unprecedented event as the outline of a future coup.
They cite in support several disturbing developments that followed the attack on Capitol Hill: the support of a strong majority of Republican leaders and voters for the myth of a stolen election in 2020; the passage of controversial electoral laws by several Republican-dominated states; the marginalization of Republican officials who stood up to Donald Trump in 2020; the apology of violence by elected Republican Congressmen.
These developments prompt Theda Skocpol, political scientist and sociology professor at Harvard University, to paint a grim portrait of the Grand Old Party.
“I would say that the Republican Party is now made up of a coalition of people willing to resort to threats of violence and people willing to stick to maximum manipulation of the Electoral College system and state election control. If you put those two things together, you get a formula for a government that is permanently minority dominated” she says.
In such a context, Theda Skocpol does not hesitate to evoke the possibility of a "legalized coup" where recourse to violence would not even be necessary.
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I think if things are as tight or tighter in 2024 than in 2020, the election will actually be stolen in a legal guise. -Theda Skocpol
--------------------------------...# A striking analogy #
Mary McCord is not as certain that violence will not be present in 2024. The law professor at Georgetown University draws a striking analogy to express her concern at the anti-democratic drift of Republican leaders.
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##### She compares them to the leaders of the Islamic State terrorist group , whom she observed closely from the time she was responsible for national security in the US Department of Justice.
################################...“We have seen that the leaders of foreign terrorist movements target and recruit those who feel socially and politically marginalized,” she said. And they do this through disinformation, propaganda and the demonization of their enemies. This approach has the effect of increasing the population that becomes ready to believe that violence is the only way to turn things around. This is what foreign terrorist leaders are doing. And now we are seeing leaders here in our own country engaging in the same type of undemocratic behavior.
“And the danger is that it will spread to local communities, starting with local election commissions. "
[...]
Lane Flynn [...] refuses to see in the attack of January 6, 2021 a harbinger of a democracy in the process of extinction.
Theda Skocpol, who has been auscultating "Red America" for years, would like to share Lane Flynn's trust. But the radicalization of the Republicans makes her doubt.
“I spoke to these people,” says the sociologist, [...] “They are kind people who believe in absolutely malicious things. This is what surprises me. I would never have expected that so many Americans would believe in such an evil human being as Donald Trump. "
Does this mean that the world will be able to breathe a sigh of relief if the latter gives up running for president in 2024?
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“No,” answers Theda Skocpol. You might have a competent version of Trump. "
--------------------------------...- the comparison with the Islamic State terrorist group is... on point and fukn scaryBennn