Posted on 11/15/2024 7:52:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
For those bewildered by why so many Americans apparently voted against the values of liberal democracy, Balint Magyar has a useful formulation. “Liberal democracy,” he says, “offers moral constraints without problem-solving” — a lot of rules, not a lot of change — while “populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints.” Magyar, a scholar of autocracy, isn’t interested in calling Donald Trump a fascist. He sees the president-elect’s appeal in terms of something more primal: “Trump promises that you don’t have to think about other people.”
Around the world, populist autocrats have leveraged the thrilling power of that promise to transform their countries into vehicles for their own singular will. Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban vowed to restore a simpler, more orderly past, in which men were men and in charge. What they delivered was permission to abandon societal inhibitions, to amplify the grievances of one’s own group and heap hate on assorted others, particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves. Magyar calls this “morally unconstrained collective egoism.” Trump’s first term, and his actions in the four years since, tracked the early record of Putin and Orban in important ways. Looking closely at their trajectories, through the lens of Magyar’s theories, gives a chillingly clear sense of where Trump’s second term may lead.
I called Magyar to ask about this pattern in the late winter of 2021, when it became clear to me that Trump would run for re-election. Magyar is Hungarian, and has extensively studied the autocracy of Orban. Like Trump, Orban had been cast out of office (in 2002, in a vote his supporters said had been fraudulent); he didn’t regain power until eight years later...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Pure projection once again. It’s the left that didn’t want to think about conservatives, constitutionalists and Christians. They want to censor, marginalise and disenfranchise their opponents.
A neo-feudalist world run be elites with peasants managed and tied down in world of ever shrinking opportunities.
“particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves”
But no mention of babies still in the womb?
Harris is a neo-Marxist, as are most of the writers at the Times. I’m bewildered so many Americans voted for Harris.
That’s right.
The fact that so many Americans voted for this wicked woman should tell us all we need to know about the state of our country.
Nope, unfortunately.
The fact that Trump doesn’t go full Pinochete on these Marxists means he is being kind.
But no mention of babies still in the womb?
Excellent point!
Side note: Who, in America, can't speak for themselves? The most-vocal complainers are illegal aliens who allegedly are "forced to live in the shadows."
Regards,
They/them are both crazy as loons. Just read his/her/their wikipedia page. Idiots since childbirth.
I’m bewildered so many Americans voted for Marxist Harris.
She obviously engaged in voter fraud to pump her numbers so as to avoid
an even more embarrassing defeat..........Trump needs to look into that.
Populism is not an ideology it is just emotional response. It has no attachment to a particular ideology but rather to a sense of victimhood, as in abandonment or persecution. Because of this, there can be populists of any and all political flavors, and depending on the establishment being opposed, populists can be good or evil in their intentions.
Populists can even be opposed to other populists even if all groups are anti-establishment, if one bunch believes the others are more favored by the establishment than they are, or if their ideas of what to do about it are different or opposed. Defining who is and who is not populist is like trying to nail Jello to a wall.
You are confusing populism with the political ideology of American conservatism, which is a form of classical liberalism (a belief in a constitutionally limited government whose powers are loaned to it by the people) and where the people were granted their rights by their Creator, not government and not the Constitution. In the U.S., classical liberals are called “conservatives” because they want to conserve the Constitution as it was originally understood and written by the founders, to be modified only as allowed by constitution itself.
In this country those who want to reinterpret the constitution as it is popularly understood -without regard to the founding father’s original intent - are mistakenly called liberals, even though they are generally opposed to classical liberalism because it is inconvenient.
When a conservative government is in power, the “populists” are those who believe they are victims of limited government whose interests are not being addressed. When neoliberals (progressives) are running the show, the “populists” are those who believe they are the victims of government gone wild. Thus you can be a communist and a populist at the same time, a white nationalist and populist, a black nationalist and populist, a neonazi and populist, a liberal and populist, a conservative and populist- any group that believes it not ruling class and that they are victims of whoever is in power at the moment, can be defined as populist.
Yeah, because an old Eastern European communist is a solid moral authority on politics and government.
We like other people. Nobody likes attention whores!
More coverage than Verizon!!
So, the NYT thinks the pedophile, baby-killing, child mutilating Dems/liberals are “morally restrained”.
What word salad is this - has Kamala become a ghost writer for them, or has Masha Gessen been taking gobbledygook lessons from her?
He's not completely wrong, he's just using the wrong word. Liberals don't impose moral constraints. They impose SOCIAL constraints.
But it slides
“Trump promises that you don’t have to think about other people.”
= = =
Nope.
I can think about other people all I want, and help those who God tells me to, the way He says.
I don’t have to be beaten over the head by politicans who want to play God and tell me who needs help, with my money.
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