Since 2005, I’ve written 425 blog posts, , and most of them have been about America’s growing authoritarian state. I’ve had a lot of help along the way from many others more knowledgeable than me.
It started with a paper given to me by a friend written by Lawrence Britt, on the 14 traits of a proto-fascist government. After reading John Dean’s 2006 book, Conservatives Without Conscience, I posted this article on Fascism in America and three related posts. This last post is my most viewed post and has been seen almost 3,800 times since it was published in 2006.
Now America’s authoritarian state is about to take a quantum leap and become a bigger threat to all of us who don’t follow the new leader. There will be a select few who will follow.
Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds. … And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going away.
— John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience
Authoritarians were taught all their lives, under threat of abusive punishment, to respect and follow their chosen leader without question. They have selected DJT. DJT is already a corporate dictator and he will take that punishing leadership style to The People’s House. On top of that, the Republican right-wing authoritarians will unquestioningly follow DJT’s orders, as will a few authoritarian Democrats. Luckily, there is a small number of progressive Democratic Senators who have already drawn a line in the sand and will resist, but they need a lot of people support and acknowledgement by the media.
I hope this election is as low as America will go, but I’m not yet seeing a public that is paying attention or responding en masse. I’m also not seeing a profit-centric media that will forego profit for the sake of exposing this threat to our democracy and act as a catalyst for the People. (There is, however, one media exception, Free Speech TV.)
Andy Hailey