Dick Cheney, and other staunch Republicans, including Alberto Gonzales, W Bush's apologist for terror Attorney General.I had long predicted both Trump’s win and that his goal was to rule like an authoritarian kleptocrat. These predictions were derided in 2016 but have now become mainstream to the point of spawning a cottage industry. Unfortunately, the cottage industry does not address the root causes of American autocracy but reduces them to Trump — and Trump alone.
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As a result, Americans are forced to live forever on the precipice, while politicians and pundits feign opposition for profit. They need you to see Trump as a novel and singular threat, instead of a long-time player in multiple corrupt networks — because they inhabit those same networks, as do their financial backers.
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The Autocracy Cottage Industry [...] would rather join the Trump administration and then write tell-all books about crimes they witnessed but did not stop. They would rather pass the same repressive policies Trump did but cloak them in gentler rhetoric. They fundraise off your fear.
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Instead of fighting the autocrat or analyzing the institutional corruption that rendered the US the first country in history to let a coup plotter run for president, an “opposition” swarming with scammers bolstered Trump’s brand — elevating it instead of ending it.
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Trump’s voters no longer consider him a threat, even though a record number did in the months after the Capitol attack. The lack of punishment for committing sedition has convinced them that Trump is innocent, which he is not, and further inflamed his base.
But lack of accountability does not bother Vichy Democrats or Never-Trump Republicans or the predatory scammers surrounding them. It keeps them in business. For their operation to succeed, the public must abandon critical thinking in favor of cult logic. Memes and mantras replace contemplation and compassion, rendering humans indistinguishable from bots.
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In their formulation, there is only Trump and Not-Trump. Your thinking must never extend beyond that binary.
Nor can your knowledge of history. Or you will see a recurring cast of corrupt characters guiding politics, some of whom — Elliott Abrams, Michael Chertoff, Jamie Gorelick — pop up in both Democratic and GOP administrations for decades on end.
You will notice parallels to Trump’s rise in war criminals like Dick Cheney, who was elevated to power in the 2000 SCOTUS ruling buoyed by a riot led by Trump advisor Roger Stone.
You will note that Cheney is endorsing Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, and that Harris is “honored” by his support.
Harris cannot control who endorses her. But her warm response to Dick Cheney’s approval should be greeted with alarm — particularly when war criminals are welcomed into the Harris fold while antiwar protesters are rejected.
Sarah Kendzior
Kendzior, an author and anti-war progressive who has made St. Louis her home for many years, is a literal student of authoritarian regimes. She's something of a Cassandra for Americans, whom the mainstream label a crank.Bush-era Republican operatives, unable to function in the chaos of MAGA, saw an opportunity to remake the Democratic Party, which had been lurching to the right since the 1990s, and took it. They left receipts: the conservative Lincoln Project is Harris’s fourth biggest donor. Change in Democratic Party policy is determined by donations — not only the Lincoln Project’s — and then rationalized with the Trump/Not-Trump binary.
I listen to the Trump-converted "never Trumpers" on podcasts and welcome their support for Harris, but while they see the danger in MAGA, they are cheering Harris' "move to the center." I don't think Kendzior is being alarmist here. What she doesn't say is there really is no other choice right now. The choice IS binary. We just have to hold on to what we need to do to correct the flirtation with fascism the country is experiencing when Harris gets in office.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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