In the video above, Dr. Sarah Kendzior describes the brazen nature of autocracy: not merely does an autocrat flaunt norms, but he does so to remind others of his power, and to attempt to instill in normal, freedom-loving people a feeling of hopelessness in the face of power aberrantly exercised. In response to these tactics,…
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism, Putin, Russia, Trump
Rubin & Kendzior on Trump-Russia
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Jennifer Rubin and Sarah Kendzior offer complimentary observations on Trump-Russia, that compound word for the evident association between Trump and Putin’s authoritarian state. Rubin’s remarks are from yesterday, Kendzior’s from May 20th. Rubin asks, of Trump, Would a spy for Russia be acting any differently?: By whatever means, Russia has reaped unexpected and unparalleled benefits from…
Authoritarianism, Foreign Affairs, Politics, Putin, Russia, Trump
Time, 5.29.2017
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Authoritarianism, Foreign Affairs, Putin, Trump
Sarah Kendzior Ponders Foreign Affairs ‘In the Shadow of Putin’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Sarah Kendzior, an anthropologist with a background studying the dictatorships in the former Soviet republics of central Asia, speaks to Lindsay Beyerstein on Beyerstein’s The Breach podcast: This week on The Breach, journalist Sarah Kendzior joins us to talk about the weaponization of information in Putin’s Russia. The full extent of Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election…
Authoritarianism, Kakistocracy, Mendacity, Trump
‘Trump is never going to be a proper president’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Authoritarianism, History, Politics, Resistance
What Grant’s Overland Campaign Teaches for Grave Political Conflict
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For matters far removed from warfare, including ones concerning severe political conflict, Grant’s Overland Campaign offers useful lessons. It’s typically a poor idea to describe political affairs in military terms, but grave threats to the political order sadly call for a different approach. One fights in more than one way: sometimes using maneuver, at other times…
Authoritarianism, Politics, Trump
An Eminent Psychiatrist on Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College, who served as chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (D.S.M.-IV), on 2.14.17 sent a letter to the New York Times in which he addresses questions about Donald Trump’s mental state. (See, An Eminent Psychiatrist…
Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty, Trump
A Grand Coalition Forms
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Conservative Jennifer Rubin describes, in E Pluribus Unum vs. Trump, both the building coalition against Trump and the powerful nature of that coalition. She’s right that what seemed unlikely a few weeks ago is real now: Just a couple of weeks ago, critics of post-inaugural protesters argued the anti-President Trump movement lacked coherence. Too many small,…
America, Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty, Trump
Principled Conservatives Organize Against Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One needn’t be a conservative to admire the efforts of thoughtful conservatives to organize against Trump. Evan McMullin and Mindy Flynn have now launched Stand Up Republic to resist the Trump agenda from a conservative vantage. Jennifer Rubin reports on this in Evan McMullin makes a splash by going after Trump and Putin. Above, I’ve…
Authoritarianism, Trump
A Banner Suitable for the New Administration
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Authoritarianism, Libertarians, Liberty, Trump
Wes Benedict Tries & Fails Again
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’ve been critical of Wes Benedict, executive director of the national Libertarian Party (1 and 2), but I’ll say this for him: he’s an unfailing failure. In an email he sent today, Benedict wrote to party members, in part, that We are all waiting to see what our new president does. No doubt he’ll do…
Authoritarianism, Mendacity, Press, Trump
Why Trump Press Secretary Spicer Lies
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Anna Rascouët-Paz relates an explanation (from someone who worked in a past administration) for Trump press secretary Spicer’s repeated lies about inaugural crowd size. It’s spot on: For more on a disinformation strategy based on insisting that nothing is knowable, see The Russian Conspiracy on Behalf of Conspiracy Theorist Donald Trump (“there is a coherent pattern…
Authoritarianism, Immigration, Trump
Neither Shocked Nor Awed
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In these next months ahead, one should expect that the Trump Administration will do what it can to make statement after statement, in part to impress hardcore supporters and in part to shock and awe opponents. As a guess, one can reasonably say that immigration deportations will be one of Trump’s prominent efforts. See, As…
Authoritarianism, Trump
Dumb Show from Trump Now (and Mussolini Then)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago, three weeks ago. Looking forward to Friday. #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/S701FdTCQu — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2017 Trump wanted to show the world how hard he was working on his inauguration speech, so he published a photograph. The picture is what one might expect from…