Professor
Robert Reich wrote and warned the following, early this month. I thought it important and that more should see it.
As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a l
andslide even after losing the popular vote.
2. Repeatedly claim
massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
3. Call anyone who opposes them “
enemies.”
4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them “
deceitful” and “
scum.”
5. Hold
few if any press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and
unfiltered statements.
6. Tell the public
big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
7. Blame economic stresses on
immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even
violence against them.
8. Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and
limit civil liberties.
9. Threaten
mass deportations,
registries of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.
10. Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such as labor
unions and opposition parties.
11. Appoint
family members to high positions of authority
12. Surround themselves with their
own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public.
13. Put
generals into top civilian posts
14. Make
personal alliances with foreign dictators.
15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property,
profiteering from their public office.
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Here's hoping he, Mr. Trump, proves us wrong.