Yves came and I didn’t want to make myself seem to be criticizing the author of this Common Dreams article, but to criticize his source, Thomas Homer-Dixon. As the saying goes, the quality of a reporter depends on his source.

But clips like this drive me crazy. First of all, if Trump poses such a threat to democracy, why does Biden promise “no change at all” and insist on this promise? Secondly, as we have already said, the highly successful neoliberal movement made people see themselves as individuals and weakened community connections, which led to social dysfunctions being led to self-harm (drug addiction, suicide) and random anger behaviors. , Rather than mass protests. For example, despite the media’s attempts to inject air into the discouraged Trump balloon, His 2020 Tulsa “comeback” rally and His rally in Florida in December 2021 was mostly packed.

The third and most important point is that the article does mention income inequality as a key cause, but it does not point out that this is the result of the neoliberal counter-revolution’s careful design of the New Deal reform. As Mark Blyth pointed out, Homer-Dixon further missed the fact that the United States went further in the reactionary direction after the financial crisis. This was not an inevitable result at the time. Above, concessions to the working class are more likely to respond… If nothing else, the long-term self-protection of the elite. But no one is doing long-term.

As for the trouble with propaganda, Homer Dixon needs to read Alex Carey’s classic “Risk of Democracy.” Carey explained how the United States became an early leader in propaganda, dating back at least to the early 20th century when the National Association of Manufacturers promoted anti-labor messages. Goebbels developed his skills by studying Eddie Bernays, the American propagandist and father of public relations.

This is not to say that the United States does not have a real risk of becoming a failed country… and this outcome seems to be more likely than a strongman to take over. But a key reason is (as Lambert said) the incompetence of our elites in the late Romanov era, and the resulting government’s failure to deal with crises, and even its inability to operate in any other way than a tool of robbery. Look at the unforgivable cost of insulin for beginners. Therefore, it is much more convenient to use the evil right-wing dictator who has not yet appeared as a scapegoat than to accuse the common dereliction of duty under the supervision of professional management.

By Jack Johnson.Originally published on Common dream

Within a few years, America’s deeply flawed and increasingly fragile democratic system may collapse under the weight of prolonged reactionary attacks, replaced by a right-wing dictatorship — former President Donald Trump “is just a warm-up move.”

“The willingness to publicly support the big lie has become a touchstone of Republican loyalty to Mr. Trump.”

Thomas Homer-Dixon, the executive director of the Cascade Institute of Royal Roads University and a scholar of violent conflict, issued a stern warning in an exhaustive manner. Column Published in Canadian newspapers Globe and Mail.

Homer Dixon, the former head of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, warned that the “political and social pattern” of the United States, a country of extreme inequality and ideological polarization, also happens to be “armed to the teeth”. The warning signal is flashing”.

“By 2025,” he wrote. “U.S. democracy may collapse, leading to extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not earlier, this country may be ruled by right-wing dictatorship.”

Homer-Dickson believes that famous reactionaries such as the late right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh and Trump — who awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020 — “are both a symptom of American political failure, but also The reason”, Homer Dixon believes that the country’s current crisis is rooted in countless historical phenomena:

“But successful polities all over the world,” he continued, “have overcome the same fundamental flaws.”

So why is American democracy particularly vulnerable to a total collapse in the near future?

Homer-Dickson believes that “what seems to be pushing the United States to the brink of losing democracy today is the multiplier effect between its potential flaws and the recent changes in the’material’ characteristics of society.”

“These changes include stagnant middle-class incomes, long-term economic insecurity, and increasing inequality, because national economies that have been transformed through technological change and globalization have moved away from muscle power, heavy industry, and manufacturing as their main source of wealth. Karma is transformed into ideological power., information technology, symbolic production and finance,” he wrote. “The economic, racial, and social gaps in the United States have contributed to the ideological polarization between the political right and the left. The worsening polarization has paralyzed the government while exacerbating the gap.”

Trump and his Republican supporters are eager and capable of taking advantage of this disagreement. Many of them support the so-called “big lie”, that is, Trump won the 2020 presidential election but was removed by the Democratic Party. He stole it there.

According to a new investigation, this lie fueled the rebellion in the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Embrace Homer-Dixon wrote that two-thirds of Republican voters considered this to be “a powerful anti-democratic poison.”

“The willingness to publicly support the big lie has become the touchstone of the Republican Party’s loyalty to Mr. Trump,” he said. “This is not just an ideological initiative to promote the unity of the Republican Party against the Democratic Party. It keeps its followers away from the extreme dehumanizing psychological forces that have caused some of the worst violence in human history. And it has reshaped the Republican Party’s efforts. Into a moral movement against evil Grimand The congressional districts become pretzel-shaped to Restricted voting rights, and Control State-level electoral agency. “

As protector Report On Sunday, “Donald Trump’s allies and others who spread unfounded election conspiracy theories launched a campaign”, and running for key positions—from governor to secretary of state—has a major impact on the post-election certification process.

The media pointed out: “Republicans who lied to the election are also running for the posts of secretary of state in Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.” “They have been ignored for many years, and now people are more widely aware that these secretaries of state are in elections. And the huge power in the way of counting votes. This power will be shown unprecedentedly in 2020, when the Secretary of State made a decision on how to set up ballot boxes and whether to automatically send votes to voters by mail.”

“The secretary of state has huge unilateral powers. If they are elected, those who refuse to vote may cause widespread damage in future elections,” protector Add to.