Friday, March 24, 2017

How Will the Dictatorship Arise?

William Briggs had an interesting post, in the context of democracies always pushing left towards socialism. (A subject this blog discussed recently.) Briggs suggests that history provides us the following universal tenets of democracies.
  1. If the push for socialism is successful there will be great resentment by the former oligarchy and upper classes. The socialist regimes respond by propping up a dictator to fight threats to the new government.
  2. The anti-socialist forces themselves might prevail under the leadership of a strong dictator.
  3. Dictators do not generally step down, out of fear for their own safety.
And that is it. Those are the only paths. Democracy inevitably yields to dictatorship in one way or another. Good times makes weak men, which leads to bad times. The democracy inevitably turns into a tool of socialism to coddle the weak, and in doing so becomes weak, divided, and ultimately destroyed.
In ancient Greece the examples of democracy turning into dictatorship after a phase of socialism were so numerous that the Greek thinkers felt justified in regarding that sequence as almost a law of nature.
All well and good, but where does that leave us? Our leftward push is obvious. The central consolidation of power is undeniable. We are lurching towards socialism. Our time as a democracy grows very short. But in which way will we acquire a dictator? Will authoritarian socialism take hold, or will it be countered by an opposing autocracy?

Our situation is somewhat different to what described by Briggs. In the standard model it a struggle between elites & peasants; bourgeoisie and proletariats. The underclass clamor for socialism, and the standing elites resist. This dynamic, we are told, was common even in the democracies of ancient Greece. Our situation is somewhat more complicated, as our elites are allied with the socialists; with the middle class being the main counter-revolutionary force. Today's left is an alliance of corporate capitalism, elitist cronyism, and Marxism. (Mainstream Republicans tend to share the first and second influences, to some degree at least). But perhaps our situation is not so unique, as it sounds a lot like the Roman Empire where the major path to power was to acquire wealth through military conquests and spend it to bribe the citizens for political support. It would seem that we fit the trend, but the model of top versus bottom conflicts is a bit too simplistic.

One cannot avoid noting the parallels between the historical process and our own political environment. Socialism and centralization of power are the core drivers of the Democratic party. They want centralized policies and programs for everything. Healthcare, abortion, marriage laws, bathroom regulation; all these should be decided in Washington. One of the things I find most annoying about my own blog is that I'm constantly analyzing at the national level. That is not my preference. I would much rather be fighting battles at the state and local levels, but the left wants to fight all its battles at the national and even global level. As explained in When They Go Low, We Go Low, we have to fight on the fronts that are presented to us. You must defend where you are attacked. If we don't meet our opponents at the national level they will own it, and our state policies won't matter too much. Not only do they fight for centralized power, but they agitate for socialism at every opportunity. The entire political philosophy consists of identifying oppressor/victim relations and redistributing wealth in response.

Trump was clearly elected on a wave of reactionary resentment against the left's agitations. The dynamic to which all democracies must succumb is displayed clearly today. The questions are how close are we to dictatorship, and which side is further along that path? It is interesting that virtually all liberals believe Trump to be something of a dictator, although he has yet to say or do anything to indicate a push for autocracy. He is the first person in ages to really fight against the great leftwards push. Do people instinctively understand that the schism between the leftists and reactionaries is what leads towards dictatorship? Do liberals understand that now that there is a strong reaction against their socialist agitation that dictatorship is the likely end result, or are they just calling him a dictator in the same way they just label all conservatives as tyrants and racists and all that? Trump is not propping himself up as dictator and has made no indication that he desires to. He wishes to restore national sanity. He wants to walk us back from the precipice. I've said a number of times that he is likely to be the last chance for conservatives and reactionaries to see desirable changes made from within in the system. And yet there's a paradox here. By finally empowering someone with the ability and determination to restore the republic, we might actually be exposing the fault line that will soon destroy it.

The liberals are further along the path towards autocracy. That is not meant as a partisan attack. Being further down the path is not inherently bad, and if things start to really break down I will likely be one advocating for the right to push towards autocracy before the left can beat us to the punch in their endless drive towards communism. A leftist dictatorship is always the worst-case scenario. The trend can be seen in their selection of a candidate. For the first time was a presidential candidate who was clearly above the law. Massive corruption and criminal allegations follow her around like a shadow. As head of state, she helped arm Islamists to violently overthrow inconvenient regimes. She disregarded any rules and laws that were inconvenient, even with matters of the highest national security concerns. And perhaps most damning, we were delivered proof that she and her party rigged the election against her more democratic (and more leftist) opponent. Despite decades of accumulated evidence, the left came out in massive support. The endorsement for dictatorship could not be clearer. They want a leader for whom laws and rules do not apply.

After the election, the left continued to display their anti-democratic colors by widely condemning a process that could lead to the rise of Trump. Both during and after the election the left engaged in widescale anti-democratic activities, by actively committing violence against their political opponents in an effort to gain political advantage through brute force and intimidation. The question isn't really whether or not the left is further down the path to autocracy, as it is quite clear, but how close they really are to the tipping point. I suspect they are dangerously close, and that the next time they achieve power may be the last. It would be in our best interests to see that it doesn't happen.

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