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There Are Four Anti-Trump Pathways We Failed to Take. There Is a Fifth.
The New York Times ^ | Oct. 24, 2024, 5:05 a.m. ET | Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

Posted on 10/24/2024 10:22:58 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Democratic self-rule contains a paradox. It is a system premised on openness and competition. Any ambitious party or politician should have a shot at running for office and winning. But what if a major candidate seeks to dismantle that very system?

America confronts this problem today. Donald Trump poses a clear threat to American democracy. He was the first president in U.S. history to refuse to accept defeat, and he illegally attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Now, on the brink of returning to the White House, Mr. Trump is forthrightly telling Americans that if he wins, he plans to bend, if not break, our democracy.

Mr. Trump tells us he plans to prosecute his political rivals, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney and other members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee; deploy the army to repress protest; and order the deportation of 15 to 20 million people, including some legal immigrants.

We have been studying democratic crisis and authoritarianism for 30 years. Between the two of us, we have written five books on those subjects. We can think of few major national candidates for office in any democracy since World War II who have been this openly authoritarian.

The view that Mr. Trump poses a grave threat to democracy is shared by his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, who called him “fascist to the core,” and by his former chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who described him as a fascist who prefers dictatorship to democracy.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: danielziblatt; nevertrumper; stevenlevitsky
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The New York Times’ Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt report President Trump’s plans:
<><>to prosecute his political rivals,
<><>including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris,
<><>Liz Cheney and other members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee;
<><>deploy the army to repress protest;
<><>and order the deportation of 15-20 million illegals.


Thanks, but no thanks.......we dont need any more good reasons to vote for Trump.


21 posted on 10/24/2024 10:41:38 AM PDT by Liz (Faith is believing what you cannot see; its reward is to see what you believe. St Augustine)
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To: mason-dixon
This was not the first presidential election to be questioned. Jefferson vs Burr.....Tilden vs Hayes are two that come to mind... not to mention Bush vs Gore and Nixon vs Kennedy


22 posted on 10/24/2024 10:44:52 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: Carl Vehse
Because Demonicrats blatantly cheated in the 2020 fraudulent Presidential election of Traitorjoe. Demonicrats also cheated in the 1960 Presidential election.

In the wee hours of the morning following Election Day 2020, hundreds of thousands of “votes” for Joe Biden showed up from out of nowhere in the six states that had unprecedentedly stopped counting the night before. Those ballots were almost exclusively marked for the Presidential race. They contained almost no votes for down-ballot candidates, which explains the following:

OBAMA 2008
69,000,000 votes
Wins 873 Counties
Wins 18 of 19 Bellwether counties
Wins Florida, Ohio, and Iowa
Wins House seats
WINS ELECTION

TRUMP 2020
74,000,000 votes
Wins 2497 Counties
Wins 18 of 19 Bellwether counties
Wins Florida, Ohio, and Iowa
Wins House seats
LOSES ELECTION

BIDEN 2020
81,000,000 votes
Wins 477 Counties
LOSES 18 of 19 Bellwether counties
LOSES Florida, Ohio, and Iowa
LOSES House seats
WINS ELECTION


23 posted on 10/24/2024 10:48:03 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: Brian Griffin

Somebody needs to walk into *her* home and see how she stores her “Glock.”


24 posted on 10/24/2024 10:50:33 AM PDT by dinodino ( Cut it down anyway. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Prop
A
Ganda


25 posted on 10/24/2024 10:54:48 AM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Mr. Trump tells us he plans to prosecute his political rivals, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney and other members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee; deploy the army to repress protest; and order the deportation of 15 to 20 million people, including some legal immigrants.”

Sorry, not seeing the problem here.


26 posted on 10/24/2024 10:55:58 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, the Times has energy, give them that. Their writing crew is like a kennel of Jack Russells on meth.

They’re setting the scene so that anything Trump does will be a dictator move.


27 posted on 10/24/2024 10:58:02 AM PDT by lurk (u)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Hmm — I hate the smell of hypocrisy. No, NYT, the Democrats did not allow “any party or ambitious individual to have a shot.”

1) They held Presidential Preference primaries in some states. Joe Biden won these Soviet-style contests, by dint of being the ONLY candidate.
2) Party oligarchs drove out Biden, the only potential Dem nominee anyone voted for.
3) Party oligarchs selected the nominee, then rigged their convention to rubberstamp the selection.
4) The Democrat Party used lawfare to fight third party candidacies and keep them off the ballot in various States.

The NYT knows the Dems are the anti-Democracy fascists. I’m fed up with living in the Age of Falsity and Lies.


28 posted on 10/24/2024 11:05:41 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: Carl Vehse

Because Demonicrats blatantly cheated in the 2020 fraudulent Presidential election of Traitorjoe. Demonicrats also cheated in the 1960 Presidential election.

Democrats have been cheating to one degree of success in every election since 1960; flipping CA was among their most successful actions until Clinton, then Obama, then 2020: their crowning “achievement” so far.


29 posted on 10/24/2024 11:10:15 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Chewbarkah

One gets the clear impression that the plan is to ram an unwanted President down America’s throat.

The New York Times approves of this Chinese-style of government.


30 posted on 10/24/2024 11:14:09 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It occurs to me that this barrage of articles of late about Trump being a fascist are not about convincing independents to vote Harris but to staunch the loss of Democrats to Trump.


31 posted on 10/24/2024 11:15:48 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Levinsky
Ziblatt

Do they not learn from history

Keep poking the Kangol


32 posted on 10/24/2024 11:18:31 AM PDT by wardaddy (We’re winning but please in swing states vote )
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To: bk1000
Sorry, not seeing the problem here.

*********

IMO basically is the populace didn't stop changes from being
made to this land since Columbus sailed in 1492. The voting
populace and rules as to what was allowed has changed greatly
over time. And the new inhabitants have continued to bringing
new people from around the world, made them citizens and
kept allowing in new citizens, new rules, new laws and now we
nothing that resembles the history. The voters may be voting from
outer space, or where ever. Getting a pill or injection for their
nutrients and who knows what else.

33 posted on 10/24/2024 11:32:08 AM PDT by deport
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Where have these geniuses been the last 4 years? All that and more has already happened and the authors of this BS never said a word. Now they are trying to gin up hysteria against a boogeyman that 4 years track record show doesn’t exist. No matter how much you hate presstitutes, its not nearly enough.


34 posted on 10/24/2024 11:32:51 AM PDT by 1malumprohibitum (I’m )
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To: Jamestown1630

Democrats are a threat to the REPUBLIC for which it stands.


35 posted on 10/24/2024 11:34:25 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“There Are Four Anti-Trump Pathways We Failed to Take. There Is a Fifth.”

Does that sound like an admission of bias from our “professional and objective” news industry? From the “newspaper of record” even.


36 posted on 10/24/2024 11:45:30 AM PDT by ChessExpert (Scarborough: "This is the Best Biden ever.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Democratic self-rule contains a paradox. It is a system premised on openness and competition. Any ambitious party or politician should have a shot at running for office and winning. But what if a major candidate seeks to dismantle that very system?“

CONSTITUTIONAL self rule has no such problem. Trump can’t violate anyone’s constitutional rights or the constitution itself.


37 posted on 10/24/2024 11:51:25 AM PDT by TalBlack (Fight Fight Fight America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOJdMog6T0)
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To: All

... order the deportation of 15 to 20 million people, including some legal immigrants. ...

last part of this is made up to obscure the legality of deporting 15 to 20 million illegal invaders.


38 posted on 10/24/2024 12:14:09 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell (A conspiracy theory is usually a fact that a leftist cannot endorse)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It is a system premised on openness and competition.

____________________

So much for the last four years; lies and a coup.

And let’s not forget the duality of democracy


39 posted on 10/24/2024 12:56:49 PM PDT by DPMD
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

” we have been studying Democratic authoritarianism for over 30 years....”

And they can do no better than to repeat the same insipid moronic chance of the left yet once again.


40 posted on 10/24/2024 1:45:13 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (The Democrat breadlines will be gluten-free. )
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