Charles Pierce then adds,
Authoritarianism is bone deep in these guys. It is their instinct, their unconquerable reflex, to reach for the most repressive solution against the most vulnerable target at hand. It is the wellspring of everything else: the lies, the criminal exploitation of a woman's grief, the constant need for affirmation, the even-more-constant assertion of the president*s demonstrated greatness, and speeches like the one on Tuesday night, which really was nothing more than a list of banal solutions to largely imaginary problems.
That they're really bad at being authoritarians is not going to be enough to keep it at bay forever. They'll get better at it. They already are better at it, which is what all the bloviating about "tone" is really all about. That tone is nothing more than a bell tolling, deep in the national psyche, summoning us to act on our worst impulses and, by acting on them, ennoble them. It is a bell tolling, and it tolls for thee, motherfckers. It tolls for thee.
And I'd like to add the following:
Authoritarian shysters do not want us making connections. But making connections is the very essence of being an adult human person — in particular, it's the very essence of being an adult moral thinker with a well-developed conscience.
Authoritarian shysters want us comfortable white folks to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Well, he did sound presidential, after all. It's not going to be so bad after all."
They want us to breathe a sigh of relief and make no connection between what we're calling "not so bad" and
▪︎ The Jewish families having the tombstones of their relatives defaced.
▪︎ The Jewish community centers receiving one bomb threat after another.
▪︎ The synagogue that had its window shot recently.
▪︎ The Mexican mother I heard about recently with children legally born in this country who was sent back to Mexico when she tried returning to her children in the U.S.
▪︎ ALL the people being bullied, harrassed, insulted, treated inhumanely at the borders right now.
▪︎ The Muslims living in fear as their mosques are burned.
▪︎ The darker-skinned immigrant in fear of being shot by a white supremacist while enjoying a quiet drink with friends in a bar.
▪︎ The LGBTQ people facing the probabilty that discrimination against us will be legalized in the name of "religious freedom."
▪︎ The transgender young folks unable to defend themselves as they're now harrassed in schools with the blessing of this administration.
▪︎ The legal voters and legal citizens of this country being denied the right to vote.
While we comfortable white folks who are not the object of the hate sit back and sigh with relief and tell ourselves, "Oh, he was presidential last night — it won't be so bad after all."
That is not adult moral thinking. That is infantile behavior that does not even approach the threshold of moral thinking. Our lives are connected to the lives of those being bullied, harrassed, hated — and when a nation sets those malevolent forces into motion, they will eventually target us, the comfortable white folks, along with everyone else.
First they came for . . . .