JUST WHAT IS AUTHORITARIANISM?

…This is Ms. Ann McFeatters of the Tribune News Service

An authoritarianism example is when a president separates children from their parents and imprisons them.

The dictionary defines “Authoritarianism” as: “The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom, or the lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.”

A writer for the Tribune News Service, Ms. Ann McFeatters, has compiled a list of how “authoritarianism” is being practiced under this president all over America.  The Tribune News Service was founded in 1918 and it delivers news stories to hundreds of newspapers in the United States and internationally.

Listed below is a look at what Ms. McFeatters has put together regarding authoritarianism here, in these United States:

1. The president refuses to commit to abiding by how Americans may vote in the November 2020 election until he sees what are the results.  In a Fox News interview, Donald Trump would not say he will be bound by the US voter’s wishes.  That is being an authoritarian leader.

2. Soldiers in unmarked uniforms with no identifying insignia, swooped in and they were called the president’s personal militia.  They arrested peaceful protesting pedestrians in the middle of the night.  They were thrown into unmarked vans and taken away.  This occurred in Portland, OR, and now the president says this will happen all over the country.

3. People were denied the right to vote until they paid all costs any court in the state says they owe, whether or not they are allowed to dispute them.  This happens in the state of Florida.

4. Data about a pandemic are hidden from the public so that the president can control who sees such information, such as the number of available hospital beds.  Trump ordered that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to no longer receive that data, so the public can’t see it.

5. The US President is recognized around the world as someone who does not keep his word and that he does not tell the truth.  Leaders of other democracies will no longer deal with the US President.  Multiple organizations have clocked the president as telling more than 20,000 lies or mis-statements over his 3.5 years in office.  The US President is not supposed to purposely lie to the US public.

6. The US President courts and respects a number of dictators known for violating their people’s human rights .  Trump openly admires Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and other authoritarian dictators.  No US President has ever knowingly admired non democratic national dictators.

7. President Trump seeks to divert spending on public health in favor of public monuments.  This is shown as Trump is fighting to cut Covid-19 funding, as he wants to save Confederate statues & monuments.

8. Children have been separated from their parents and imprisoned without adequate medical attention or basic compassion.  Thousands of these children may never see their parents again and hundreds still languish in Covid-19 infested camps.

9. Borders are sealed and people are not permitted in or out.  Trump has enacted bans on people coming and going, including those scientists considered vital to American research.

10. Racism and sexism are openly encouraged and fostered by our leader.   Trump is stressing the partisan division of all Americans and he promotes racial anger as he campaigns for reelection.

11. The public display of evil symbols is enthusiastically endorsed by the president.  Trump says Confederate battle flags, which were carried by traitors to the United States in the Civil War should be allowed to fly when supported by white supremacists, because it’s free speech, although he says protesters do not have the same right to protest racism.

12. Enemies of the president are punished, while his friends are rewarded.  Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen is in jail, not just for doing Trump’s bidding, but for telling the US Congress and law enforcement about it.  Roger Stone was convicted of multiple felony offenses by a jury and he is free, even though he lied to Congress and the FBI to benefit President Trump.  The president commuted his sentence of years in prison.

13. Millions of Americans have been declared as “non-persons”.  The president has ordered more than 11 million undocumented people not to be counted in the US Census when the new district lines are redrawn, even if they have been the US for decades.  This is against the census rules.

14. Science is routinely denied.  A thousand people die every day because of the lessons of science and history are ignored and months passed with no national planned response to the novel coronavirus even as Trump demanded schools be opened this Fall or lose federal funding.

15. The power of the US presidency is used for personal gain.  Foreign diplomats curry favor by enriching Trump’s hotels and golf courses.  Large campaign donations are given and rewarded by White House endorsement of commercial products.  Trump tried to get the British Open held at his golf resort in Scotland and then he fired the nonpartisan inspector general who wrote a report about it and Trump had the report marked “Classified”. 

As the author ended the list of authoritarian events, she stated: “You be the judge in November”.

Copyright G. Ater 2020