One point in How Democracies Die
by AquinasDomer (2024-01-16 13:13:10)

In reply to: Are there common elements that lead to the rise of strongmen  posted by Dutch

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That I found interesting was that elite decisionmaking is often the more important thing in holding them off.

Prior to the modern primary system, the Republican Party could refuse to put a Donald Trump on the ballot because they disliked him. Now you just need to be famous to get people to pay attention to you in a primary.

The ingredients for the embrace of a strong man by the general public do seem to be lacking. No hyperinflation, no mass unemployment, no recent losses in large wars. Hopefully things stay reasonable over the course of the next year and the public can reject him again.

We are in an age of hyper partisanship combined with
by wpkirish  (2024-01-16 13:20:45)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

incredibly weak parties. Look at the Republicans in the House there is no way for the Speaker to control the renegades because he needs their votes. Slightly different equation for Dems because their renegades want to see more government action not less so they tend to toe the line when push comes to shove.

The combination of Citizen's United and Internet Fundraising has made parties less important for individual candidates than in the past.

I think the issue with your last paragraph is it ignores the religous battle for the soul of the country that is driving much of the Trump adoration.

My read was that
by AquinasDomer  (2024-01-16 14:07:31)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

It normally takes a religious or ethnic panic and something more concrete.

We had more great replacement fears/political chaos in the late 1800s to early 1900s but never fell into a strong man. Mussolini took off on the chaos of the post ww1 era. Hitler was aided by austerity fueled unemployment/resentment over WW1. I'm just hopeful that without incumbency and a reasonable shot at economic normalcy Trump does worse in 2024 than 2020.
I think erosion of institutions has obviated the need
by ravenium  (2024-01-16 14:42:34)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

for an actual panic. The economy is ostensibly good now, but you'd never know it by the way a lot of social media personas talk.

"young people can never hope to own a home!"
"historic inequality!"
"the system is rigged for the rich and failing us! We need to blow it up"
"I paid $200 for eggs and a gallon of gas!"

Now that's not to say there aren't some problems that need addressing - we have an issue with homelessness that is fueled by drugs and a rising cost of living in some areas, for example. But if you only read social media (and ugh, a lot of people do) you'd think the sky was falling every day.

60...even 40 years ago we had a relatively stable news system that, even if you think they were "liberal media", formed a general public consensus of thought that was trusted. Now people just write whatever they want and believe whatever they want.