THEY’RE AN AUTHORITARIAN UNIT AND NOT CANDIDATES
My musings from impressions from observations
My verse relates to my observation that by and large Donald Trump has unified support even among those claiming they are campaigning against him. There are a rather wide swath of candidates. There is a black Senator, and Indian American woman. There is a former midwestern evangelical Vice President, a man from North Dakota, there is a white racist from Florida, and another East Indian American. Trump has already stated that two among the multitude will go into his new administration. I would expect the majority of these people to continue to campaign for Trump after he captures the Republican nomination. They are working as authoritarians do as a unit in order to try and get Trump a second democracy ending term. I don’t expect any other than two or three to ever try to damage Trump, and all will fall in line to the monied interests plan rather quickly, and much money will be spent sending the losers around the country to try to sneak Trump in again.
So this is what my verse is about. I’ve included words of wisdom from Bertrand Russell, some miscellaneous quotes, some excerpts from Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s substack, and finally two images showing part of a Twitter thread I came across which I found quite edifying. This thread may back up my assertions in my verse. Read it and decide. I start with my verse below.
I wished to take a look at Truth Social to see what was being said on it in regards the the campaigns of the assorted Republican candidates. And held my nose long enough to get an idea of how the perception is going there on the surface. It’s all Trump of course, but here is part of what I saw.
I was searching for an applicable quote from Bertrand Russell, in that I always find them so insightful. I came across a Facebook page dedicated to Bertrand Russell and it has many, many of Russell’s writings. I may be straying slightly from the subject at hand, but had to include some of his writings which I found very good, some roughly are on topic. Here is a link to the Facebook page if you wish to follow it.
On The German Nazi Movement
No such tissue of nonsense [master race] could have been believed by any population trained to examine evidence scientifically, and to base its opinions on rational grounds. Self-esteem, personal, national, or human, is one of the great sources of irrational belief; in the case of the Nazis, the self-esteem is national.
Conclusion
In the world today, nowhere is anything done to promote an honest attempt to decide questions according to the evidence. And so credulous populations are left defenseless against the wiles of wicked and greedy politicians, who lead them through inflated self-esteem to hatred, from hatred to war, from war to universal misery. The modern advances in the art of propaganda have been met with no corresponding advances in training to resist propaganda. And so the populations of the world, one by one as “civilization” reaches them, go down into a dark pit of madness, where all that is worth preserving perishes in aimless slaughter.“
— Bertrand Russell, Understanding History And Other Essays (1957),
”Belief in democracy, like any other belief, may be carried to the point where it becomes fanatical, and therefore harmful. A democrat need not believe that the majority will always decide wisely; what he must believe is that the decision of the majority, whether wise or unwise, must be accepted until such time as the majority decides otherwise.”
— Bertrand Russell, Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind: Man's Unfortunate Experiences With His Self-Made Enemies (1946)
"I allow myself to hope that the world will emerge from its present troubles, that it will one day learn to give the direction of its affairs, not to cruel swindlers and scoundrels, but to men possessed of wisdom and courage.
I see before me a shining vision: a world where none are hungry, where few are ill, where work is pleasant and not excessive, where kindly feeling is common, and where minds released from fear create delight for eye, ear and heart.
Do not say this is impossible. It is not impossible.
I do not say it can be done tomorrow, but I do say that it could be done within a thousand years, if only men would bend their minds to the achievement of the kind of happiness that should be distinctive of man."
— Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), Part II: The Conflict of Passions, Ch. X: Prologue or Epilogue?, p. 238
“Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and that they could be abolished by a united effort within a few years.
If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace.
It is only because men are apathetic that this is not achieved, only because imagination is sluggish, and what always has been is regarded as what always must be. With good-will, generosity, intelligence, these things could be brought about."
— Bertrand Russell, Political Ideals (1917), Ch. I: Political Ideals, p. 35
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Political Ideals (1917) was written during the upheaval of World War One. It is, in many ways, a statement, of Russell's beliefs, a declaration of the ideas that influenced his thinking on the major events of the 20th century.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science and various areas of analytic philosophy, especially philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.
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“Corruption is a tree whose branches are of an unmeasurable length.”
— F. Beaumont.
Francis Beaumont (1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher.
“Men sometimes disguise themselves for the purpose of committing crimes without danger of detection.”
— N. Webster.
Noah Webster Jr. (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". His "Blue-backed Speller" books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read. Webster's name has become synonymous with "dictionary" in the United States, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language.
“An upright posture is easier than a stooping one, because it is more natural, and one part is better supported by another; so it is easier to be an honest man than a knave.” — J. Skelton.
John Skelton, also known as John Shelton (c. 1463 – 21 June 1529), possibly born in Diss, Norfolk, was an English poet and tutor to King Henry VIII of England. Skelton died in Westminster and was buried in St. Margaret's Church, although no trace of the tomb remains.
Below are excerpts from a recent substack posting by Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the cult behavior within the Republican Party. I’m uncertain if her writing would back up my assertions or not? The unknown is really the mental state of the large Republican donors who we really don’t see day to day like Republican politicians, or can ascertain from the average Trump supporter on social media. Are they part of the cult behavior too? My gut instinct is that they may rise above such, but one really doesn’t know, because they would never tell us from their hiding place in the shadows. Ben-Ghiat states that the large donor is drawn into the lawlessness by Trump. This may in fact be the case, that Trump is able to manipulate them successfully too. I seem to be skeptical of this, as the power hungry donors are well able to skirt the law on their own, in a country turning away from the failure of neoliberalism for the masses. In my opinion, the group dynamics of these top donors is probably the most important factor for determining what will be attempted by the far right in this next election. Clearly certain Individuals, Mitch McConnell comes to mind, who are far from a Trump cult follower, are following the lead of the large donors. It is my opinion that many others fall into this category. They do however lust for minority control and the ending of American democracy. Trump is very useful in this quest due to his cult following. So there are a large number of opportunists within the Republican public leadership, and one must assume the same applies to the shadow billionaires.
We are in a very bad system of dark money politics. This phenomenon is killing us literally. And to have elected officials only representing the ultra wealthy can only be unsustainable for a country to survive and maintain relevance. The shadow billionaires are not our friends, and one cannot assume a country in their hands will remain safe, and certainly not free. I’ve said it all.
I wish the media and experts would not assume that the public Republicans are steering the boat, as it’s very doubtful few if any have any say on their agenda. Trump is allowed to be fully authoritarian, but there is no pushback against this by any significant number of the public Republicans. One must realize the large donors are where the buck stops. Trump will not buck people who probably have control over his business debt. But these donors are not exposed, spreading their money around to perpetuate their own interests, at the expense of a majority of Americans.
Why is the GOP Still in Thrall to Trump? A Study in Authoritarian Cult Dynamics
Fear and fanaticism are part of it
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, June 13, 2023
As strongmen like Trump seduce political elites, promising them more power than they ever dreamed possible, they also corrupt them. Accepting the leader's lies and violence ties them to him, making them partners in his crimes and thus vulnerable to being exposed.
This is why each lawless action by Trump has made the GOP donors more, not less, faithful to him; in saving him, they think they are saving themselves. And so, after defending him through two impeachments, party elites obeyed Trump's commands to deny his defeat, try and overturn the 2020 election, and then become co-conspirators of a coup attempt on Jan. 6 designed to keep him in power illegally.
Trump is an expert manipulator of people, and the GOP lawmakers who engage in public displays of fealty know that opposing him could mean the end of their political careers. While corruption often works through the promise of material gain, the threat of losing something --your reputation or position-- can be even more persuasive.
An air of desperation surrounds the statements of GOP lawmakers, each one competing to sound more loyal to Trump as they depict the indictment as a politically motivated travesty. "I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice," tweeted MAGA acolyte Kevin McCarthy, whose day job is Speaker of the House and whose real job is Keeper of the Trump Personality Cult Flame.
"These are the words and the look of someone whose world is crashing in," commented the legal scholar and former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance of Rep. Jim Jordan, who insisted during a CNN interview, against all evidence, that his idol had declassified those documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago. Jordan is constantly performing for an audience of one, even creating a sham Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government to neutralize anything that could harm his leader.
Yet fear and conformism are not enough to explain the GOP's behavior. Something else drives Graham and other GOP Trump devotees: the thrill of partnering with an amoral individual for whom there are no limits or restraints. Enablers of authoritarians always imagine the power they can wield when the rule of law has been vanquished. Jordan's beady eyes positively gleam with anticipation.
Trump says he will run for president even if he is convicted, and the most self-interested lawmakers may eventually rethink their commitment to him if he ever goes to jail. Some GOP elites may shift their allegiance to another extremist: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is positioning himself to be that person. Others, like Graham, will likely remain Trump loyalists immersed in their magical cult thinking, hoping against hope that their leader will return to the White House and never leave again.
I came across a Twitter thread late in my writing which was written to address the proclamations by Trump that he’ll greatly expand his power in a second term. This thread addresses the donor variable in this equation in good detail. I’ve included two images below on the highlights of the thread. The link to the expanded thread for easier reading can be found below the second image. I recommend that one take time to read it. Much of it references the book Democracy in Chains.
I hope you gained something from my wanderings. Thanks for reading.
58th posting, July 25, 2023