Authoritarian

Authoritarian: believing in, relating to, or characterized by unquestioning obedience to authority, as that of a dictator, rather than individual freedom of judgment and action

There’s a reason for divisions in this country. Some of it is using words as though they mean something totally different—maybe opposite—of what they have meant up until the present day.

One of these words, it turns out, is authoritarian.

I generally give no credence at all to Paul Krugman opinion pieces; he’s wrong almost 100% of the time. Today I’m covering a piece of his from Sunday's news, because it illustrates the division. Krugman says of Bernie Sanders,

He is not a left-leaning version of President Donald Trump. Even if you disagree with his ideas, he’s not a wannabe authoritarian ruler.

American under a Sanders presidency would still be America, both because Sanders is an infinitely better human being than Trump and because the Democratic Party wouldn’t enable abuse of power the way Republicans have.

See; we’re living in parallel universes.

What has President Trump done that is authoritarian? He talks through possibilities as the guy who has run big corporations. But he acts according to the law. So much so that, following three years of successive investigations, the House went ahead and impeached him without naming any actual crime—not even a low misdemeanor.

Under President Obama, we had a number of scandals—any one of which[i] was far more egregious than Trump’s saying things the Democrats didn’t like:

·         Gun-running in Mexico, the Fast and Furious scandal.

·         SEAL Team 6 Extortion 17.

·         State Department lying about Benghazi.

·         Voter fraud upon voter fraud.

·         Failure to count military votes.

·         Boston bombing, followed by temporary suspension of rights.

·         Assassinating Americans overseas with drones.

·         Wanting to assassinate Americans with drones in our own country without the benefit of the law.

·         Supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, setting off the Muslim Spring.

·         IRS targeting of conservatives.

·         DOJ spying on the press.

·         Lying to the American people: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor; if you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” and “The average family will save money in healthcare costs,” when costs actually rose for almost all Americans.

·         NSA monitoring phonecalls, emails, and more; meta-data being kept on innocent Americans

·         Ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from and prisons—falsely blaming the sequester.

·         Threatening to impose gun control by executive order to bypass Congress.

·         Failure to submit a budget.

·         Unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate’s advise-and-consent role.

·         State Department interference with Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct.

·         HHS employees being given insider information on Medicare Advantage.

·         Hillary Clinton, IRS officials, James Clapper, and Eric Holder all lying to Congress.

·         Illegal FISA warrant to spy on an opponent’s presidential campaign.

·         Conspiring with corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs to supply dirt to be used in fake FISA warrant.

·         Threatening to cut military aid to Ukraine if they didn’t immediate fire a prosecutor that was investigating VP Biden’s son’s connection with corrupt Burisma (video of VP Biden bragging about this, here).

·         Temporarily taking over sectors of the economy, such as the automotive industry, and interfering with the banking industry.

·         Giving pallet-loads of cash to our enemies in Iran while guaranteeing they can build nuclear weapons.

·         Promising “more flexibility” to the Russians after the 2012 election, when he wouldn’t have to worry about voter opinion any longer.

·         Using more executive orders than any previous administration for actions clearly beyond the powers granted to the executive branch.

·         Requiring slap-downs, with multiple unanimous rulings from the Supreme Court on issues related to religious freedom.

I could go on. What is clear is that, with the help of the mainstream press, the past administration got away with a great deal of rule by fiat, which we could justly call authoritarianism.

But what about Bernie Sanders? Like the previous Democrat president, he’ll have a phone and a pen, and he plans to use them. He describes what he would do on his first day in office—by executive order, rather than waiting around for something as silly as actual legislation:

·         Legalize marijuana in every state, and expunge the records of those convicted of possession (including those who did greater wrongs, but had plea deals down to the lesser crime in exchange for providing information on more serious drug dealers).

·         Protect 1.8 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

·         Halt construction of a border wall.

·         Declare climate change a national emergency.

·         Reinstate ban on US crude oil exports (that was lifted on bipartisan basis in late 2015).

·         Reinstate taxpayer funding for abortion

·         Ending government contracts with any corporation not paying a minimum $15/hour wage.

There’s more information about this planning list from Jeff Stein and Sean Sullivan here. 

Bernie Sanders at a rally
image found here

Bernie shushes critics by claiming he’s talking about Danish-style “democratic socialism.” Of course, he “condemns” the authoritarian rule in places like Cuba—but in the next breath he praises their literacy program, their healthcare, as though having to murder dissidents is an acceptable price to pay for these supposed public goods that he envisions.

As Monica Showalter, in an American Thinker piece, puts it: 

This is pretty much what his heroes, such as Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and Nicaragua's Sandinistas did: proclaim the democratic bona fides, quiet the critics and fool the New York Times—and then move in for the kill, going all in on the maximo leader dictatorship model, proclaiming it in the name of "the people."  You want to know how all socialist regimes end up as dictatorships? This is how, and we all know who Sanders's heroes up to now have been.  Hint: It's not the Danish.

Bernie Sanders has never been to Denmark. But, during the height of the Cold War, he honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Not Hawaii. Not American Samoa. Not the US Virgin Islands. Not even any other free place in the world. He couldn’t think of a better place in the world to travel than a country that its people could only escape from by somehow smuggling themselves out and plaintively requesting asylum.

Bread lines, he says, are a good thing—because at least there’s bread to stand in line for. What he has always failed to notice is that, here, in the United States, where we have heretofore been protected from Marxism, we don’t have to stand in line for bread. There’s plenty. At low cost. Great variety. Great quality. Of all kinds of consumer goods, not just bread.

While he’s a millionaire himself—after never holding down a paying job prior to decades in the public sector, following a series of corrupt deals enriching him and his wife—he hates that you might gain more wealth than he thinks you should have. And, if you think you surely don’t have too much, remember, he says having to stand in line for bread is a good life. He plans to raise taxes on everyone. Beyond the too-high European semi-socialist rates that you see in Denmark and Sweden. He also plans to “tax” (i.e., confiscate) wealth. That means he’ll look at your assets and charge you for owning that thing of value, that you bought with money you’d paid taxes on already. It means you can never actually own anything, because the government can come in at its whim and confiscate it, to distribute your wealth or waste it as it sees fit.

Maybe, though, he’s not tough enough to actually become a dictator. No problem; his people are willing.

We talked about campaign staffer Kyle Jurek a few weeks ago. Let’s add to that another paid campaigner, South Carolina field organizer Martin Weissgerber. Project Veritas, again, recorded the open declarations. If Bernie Sanders loses, plan on “yellow vest” protest, “like those that have been roiling France.” If the Democrats end up with an open Primary or, less likely, a different nominee such as Joe Biden, expect protests. Armed protests. As Weissgerber says, 

I’m already on Twitter, following numerous groups around the country that are ready to organize yellow-vest protests…. I mean, I’m ready. I’m ready to start tearing bricks up and start fighting. I’m no cap, bro. I’ll straight up get armed. I want to learn how to shoot and go train. I’m ready for the f**ing revolution, bro.

Maybe we should believe these ideologues who are still being paid by the Bernie Sanders campaign when they say, “I’m telling you. Guillotine the rich.”

Because, through most of my adult lifetime Venezuela was one of the four richest countries on earth. A couple of relatively short dictatorships later, and the people are hunting through garbage cans for food and doing without basics like toilet paper—while the dictators and their families have squirreled away billions as their personal wealth, because, as they say, “equality.” Just like Cuba before them. Just like the Soviet Union before them. Just like everywhere an authoritarian regime steps in to decide who does what, who gets what, and who can say or even believe what.

When someone like Krugman says the Democratic Party wouldn’t enable abuse of power the way Republicans have, what does he mean? Let’s assume that, whatever he says, the opposite is more accurate.

Republicans, under President Trump, have been undoing as much abuse of power by Democrats as we could in three years, concentrating on appointing judges that abide by the rule of law, rather than some random, personal “sense” that overrides the law. Republicans, under President Trump, have been undoing top-down controls and letting the free market flourish again—particularly benefiting minorities who have suffered worst under previous regimes. Republicans, under President Trump, are moving toward abiding by our freedom-protecting Constitution. That means more freedom, prosperity, and civilization for all.

So, who’s the actual authoritarian? Anyone unwilling to rule according to the Constitution. 

Contrary to Krugman’s supposition, President Trump has been surprisingly willing to rule by law rather than diktat. Can the same be said for any Democrat presidential candidate?

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[i] I used much of this list in a June 2013 post, although I don’t know the origin. I’ve added several scandals, since a lot happened after 2013 as well.