Posted on 03/15/2016 1:23:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
The notion that Donald Trump is some new phenomenon on the political scene is sadly mistaken. Would that he were. His type has been seen before -- all over Latin America, which may explain why the United States has prospered, and even remained a republic, while much of the rest of the continent has seen dictatorships come and go.
Just abandon the foundations of republican government -- like the rule of law under an independent judiciary -- and there's little to prevent our becoming a banana republic too. Our current president toys with ruling by executive decree every time Congress refuses to do his bidding. And begins imitating those Latin American strongmen who turn out to be weak indeed. It can be a popular move -- till the people catch on. But we're told desperate times require desperate measures. Even if these times are scarcely desperate. As calmer heads like Warren Buffet keep saying.
Even the longest-running democracies aren't immune to fits of hysteria. There was a time when Venezuela, too, was a stable republic. But when its economy soured and corruption grew rampant, a caudillo appeared, promising to restore its old stability. He didn't. He only made things infinitely worse.
Ditto the Perons in Argentina, which is still struggling to recover from their misrule. It may be hard to remember now, but there was a time when Argentina was the breadbasket of the New World, attracting investment and industrious immigrants from all over the world. But it isn't now that a succession of little Mussolinis have had their way with it.
And now Donald Trump promises to perform the same disservice for this country.
The same tactics have been tried here before, too -- by Aaron Burr in the still early days of this republic, which remained one, no thanks to him. Popularity, as evinced by landslide electoral victories, also tend to turn our own leaders' heads. After his party swept the country in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt set out to pack the Supreme Court, and though he failed, it wasn't by much.
The price of republican government remains eternal vigilance -- and a sense of restraint on the part of even and especially the most popular leaders. Else, we're inviting the reign of the Donald Trumps.
The middle class finally gets a spokesman and he is being ripped to shreds.
So Kaslin you found an article that goes beyond the Hitler charge. Now they claim he is a tin horn Latin American dictator. At least you are in step with your beloved yet DistrusTED.
What a load of horsecrap.
LOL how infantile.
These snowflakes live in an echo chamber of their own twisted reality.
Oh, bull crap! This is the largest non-sequitur I've seen in a long time. To take the Socialist doctrine of the South American despots and link it to the somewhat altered capitalism Trump talks about is just plain stupid. It Townhall had a printed paper, it would be an unnecessary denuding of the nation's forests.
Those who make their living on having politicians beholding to them are scared to death by Trump and the idea of voters thinking for themselves.
The outright hatred in pieces like this is getting more out of hand daily.
It is writers like this that incite violence at Trump rallies.
What’s Trump going to do, change our official language to Swedish?
I’m glad we’ve finally moved beyond the Hitler comparisons on to something new.
I can’t imagine what they’ll be writing about in November. I will bet that is isn’t anything about immigration, trade, jobs, economy, Obamacare or issues voters care about. If they can’t explain how their candidate (Cruz, Hillary) is better on issues, they can always go back to using Hitler/Trump to fill the page.
But those poor electrons...
The republic he's referring to is long gone — the way of inside-the-beltway politicians who answer to the lobbyists who line their pockets, not their constituency.
Get a grip, your bias is ugly, the folks are angry with both parties.
Today the issue of “illegal immigration” is at the top — with every candidate having a different view of what to do.
A pox on all of them — at least I have a better idea of where Trump stands on it.
as entropy12 posted awhile back on freerepublic
No one more conservative than Trump on building the Wall.
No one more conservative than Trump on deporting ALL ILLEGALS.
No one more conservative than Trump on stopping hemorrhaging Trillion dollars EVERY year from American economy in foreign trade deficits.
No one more conservative than Trump on stopping Trillions spent in middle-east wars with borrowed money from China, Japan & EU.
No one more conservative than Trump on taking better care of Vets.
No one more conservative than Trump on stopping influx of UN-Vetted Muslims entering the country.
Has this bird brain been around the last 7 years. Obama has been a dick-tater and the feckless republicans have aided and abetted him.
Did Trump do that?
It defies the odds that there'd be so many Trump haters in one group: conservative media. Reminds me of the black precinct in an Ohio or Pennsylvania in one of the Obama elections which Obama won 1000-0. ZERO. Yes, most blacks, a vast majority, would be expected to vote Obama and to vote dem, but not ONE out of 1000? Not one even cast an accidental vote in this district for someone other than Obama. Conservative blacks call into radio shows...They are out there...but they are not one in 1000? I don't think so.
The unanimity of talk show and columnists who don't merely support another candidate but single out Trump for the most vitriolic criticism. The PERONS??? That's creative since Hitler and Mussolini have been claimed by 100 other conservative columnists.
And the radio talk shows---Beck, Levin, Ben Ferguson are ones I hear---spend THREE HOURS per day of non stop stream-of-consciousness hate of Trump. (Ok, I know Trump Derangement Syndrome applies...but still...it's like a movie where everyone has overnight morphed into a zombie, from something communicable or from a bite by a vampiric mosquito.
Well, lets see. We have maximum dickweed barkie owning a totally submissive GOPe congress, acting as dictator. And this marroon is afraid of Trump?
Excellent post, making excellent points,
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