A book you might like (assuming you haven't already read it) is Levitsky & Ziblatt's "How Democracies Die." Part of their argument is about how the unwritten "guardrails" (their term) of democracy are undermined in failed democracies allowing authoritarians to assume power legally and "according to the rules." In that context, Zuck fucke…
A book you might like (assuming you haven't already read it) is Levitsky & Ziblatt's "How Democracies Die." Part of their argument is about how the unwritten "guardrails" (their term) of democracy are undermined in failed democracies allowing authoritarians to assume power legally and "according to the rules." In that context, Zuck fucked us only because the previous 35 years of assault on those guardrails by the GOP. They cite Newt Gingrich's first election to Congress in 1979 as the watershed event that derailed any pretense of civility &/or bipartisanship between the parties. Trump and Trumpism were simply the most recent little step on the highway to hell. (Which, unlike the road, is definitely NOT paved with good intentions.)
I mention this because I believe it is an error -- possibly even a catastrophic one -- to speak of 2016 as though it was a "comet," or to trace it down to one primary "Big" cause. Like the story of the frogs in the pot of water that is slowly brought to a boil*, the incremental nature of these steps is what makes the danger so desperately immanent.
*By the bye, that story is completely fabricated. It doesn't matter how slowly you bring the pot to a boil, the moment the temp becomes uncomfortable they are OUTTA THERE. Lacking a significant cortex and forebrain, frogs are incapable of denial.
Frogs aren't stupid! I'd leap right the hell out of there, too. You know, I always promised myself that if I ever spotted Callista Gingrich out and about in Rome in her capacity as Ambassador to the Vatican, that I would hock up a loogie and aim it in her direction. Hey, who knows? Maybe I'll still get lucky.
A book you might like (assuming you haven't already read it) is Levitsky & Ziblatt's "How Democracies Die." Part of their argument is about how the unwritten "guardrails" (their term) of democracy are undermined in failed democracies allowing authoritarians to assume power legally and "according to the rules." In that context, Zuck fucked us only because the previous 35 years of assault on those guardrails by the GOP. They cite Newt Gingrich's first election to Congress in 1979 as the watershed event that derailed any pretense of civility &/or bipartisanship between the parties. Trump and Trumpism were simply the most recent little step on the highway to hell. (Which, unlike the road, is definitely NOT paved with good intentions.)
I mention this because I believe it is an error -- possibly even a catastrophic one -- to speak of 2016 as though it was a "comet," or to trace it down to one primary "Big" cause. Like the story of the frogs in the pot of water that is slowly brought to a boil*, the incremental nature of these steps is what makes the danger so desperately immanent.
*By the bye, that story is completely fabricated. It doesn't matter how slowly you bring the pot to a boil, the moment the temp becomes uncomfortable they are OUTTA THERE. Lacking a significant cortex and forebrain, frogs are incapable of denial.
Frogs aren't stupid! I'd leap right the hell out of there, too. You know, I always promised myself that if I ever spotted Callista Gingrich out and about in Rome in her capacity as Ambassador to the Vatican, that I would hock up a loogie and aim it in her direction. Hey, who knows? Maybe I'll still get lucky.