Month: November 2016

Autocracy: Rules for Survival

• Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization.
• Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
• Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
• Rule #4: Be outraged.
• Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.

No, Trump, We Can’t Just Get Along

You don’t get a pat on the back for ratcheting down from rabid after exploiting that very radicalism to your advantage. Unrepentant opportunism belies a staggering lack of character and caring that can’t simply be vanquished from memory. You did real harm to this country and many of its citizens, and I will never — never — forget that.
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I have not only an ethical and professional duty to call out how obscene your very existence is at the top of American government; I have a moral obligation to do so.

I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, but rather to speak up for truth and honor and inclusion. This isn’t just about you, but also about the moral compass of those who see you for who and what you are, and know the darkness you herald is only held at bay by the lights of truth.

The Electoral College Was Meant to Stop Men Like Trump From Being President

As Michael Signer explains in his book, the framers were particularly afraid of the people choosing a demagogue. The electors, Hamilton believed, would prevent someone with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from becoming president. And they would combat “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.” They would prevent America’s adversaries from meddling in its elections. The founders created the Electoral College, in other words, in part to prevent the election of someone like Donald Trump.

The Right Way to Resist Trump

..the Berlusconi parallel could offer an important lesson in how to avoid transforming a razor-thin victory into a two-decade affair.  Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.