By Alex Christy
Copyright newsbusters
MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show
RACHEL MADDOW: Another headline today, quote, “White House plans broad crackdown on liberal groups.” They’re saying now they will use the horrific murder of pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk last week as a justification for some undefined whole-of-government attack on what they always describe very vaguely as “the left” in this country.
Whatever else you think about what Trump is trying to do in office, there is no drama, right? There’s no uncertainty. There’s no ambiguity about the agenda, right? It is the textbook agenda of every right-wing strongman everywhere, right? They all do the same thing. You—they tell people there is an enemy, an enemy within that demands emergency measures. Right?
There’s an enemy within that’s nefarious and is responsible for all the terrible things. And so, therefore, we must have emergency powers and toughness, and we must take off the gloves and break the rules. Right? That’s textbook stuff. Then you use your control of government to take over or intimidate every source of power and authority in the country, whether or not it has anything to do with the presidency. Right?
This means, crucially, the media, but also science and the arts and education and business and the professions. Any source of authority or potential opposition or truth-telling about the bad behavior of the dear leader, that must be shut down. He must consolidate power to include those institutions even though they are outside of government.
Then next, use your control of government and those institutions to enrich yourself and your family and your allies. And then you get rid of the professionals and the experts within government and law enforcement and the military so there is less friction from those institutions when you want to use those institutions to punish and intimidate your opposition and your critics, and ultimately to allow you to stay in power indefinitely. And lastly, not all of them do this, but all of them want to. If you can align yourself with other strongmen leaders around the world. So all the dictatorships start helping each other out, and they do their best to undermine and work against the democracies. Right?
