—Don Corleone
Posted on 12/30/2017 3:34:50 AM PST by GonzoII
Populists and autocrats were victorious around the world in 2017. For answers we turned to the American political economist Francis Fukuyama, who once thought it was all over.It’s all too easy to throw around terms like “historic” or “radical break.” Such rhetoric often only serves to camouflage a lack of real analysis. But for once, the year 2017 genuinely felt like a historic moment, as the world began to change faster than it has in several decades.
When Donald Trump bellowed “America First!” in his inauguration speech, it all started to seem real. Previously, many observers had convinced themselves that Mr. Trump would be transformed by the office. Now it’s become clear that the president wasn’t joking: He fully intends to up-end the liberal world order, established by the United States after the end of World War II in 1945. Authoritarianism seems to be on the rise across the globe, with strongmen consolidating their hold, led in Europe by Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, and a wave of anti-democratic changes in Eastern Europe. The year 2017 seemed to mark the rise of closed societies instead of open ones, of rule over the people rather than rule of the people.
Who better to analyse this than Francis Fukuyama, the American historian whose book “the End of History” coined that phrase? Though this became a post-Cold War cliché, his idea survived: That liberal democracy was the only game in town, its challengers consigned to the trashcan of history. Now, suddenly, that idea seems both outmoded and hubristic. That’s something Mr. Fukuyama himself recognizes. “We are witnessing a period in which democracy is being threatened in way I have not experienced in my lifetime,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at global.handelsblatt.com ...
“You speak of this like it is a problem.”
—Don Corleone
Reassertion of national sovereignty in the face of dissolving national boundaries and the rise of corrupt, unaccountable global government is now a sign of budding autocracies? No, it’s a sign that your autocratic global takeover has hit the skids.
“We are witnessing a period in which democracy is being threatened in way I have not experienced in my lifetime...”
Surely, he must be referring to our corrupt FBI and laughable “Justice” Department, utterly ignoring the offenses of Hillary Clinton while wrapping an endless “investigation” of Trump around a bunch of lies bought and paid for by - you got it, Hillary Clinton.
Or maybe he’s going WAY back there, when we allowed someone whose eligibility to be President is questionable to be President - refusing to question that eligibility because of his skin color (while, all the while, opining for a “color blind” society).
Or maybe he’s talking about the stubborn control of the uniparty, who has bought virtually EVERY media outlet and provided them with daily talking points of “Russia! Russia! Russia!” in order to subvert our duly elected President, or the fact that half of our government feels perfectly free to ignore the well-being of their constituents and votes, as a block, against Our President EVERY single time on EVERY single issue. So much for democracy.
Well, I have to confess I don’t really know what he’s talking about because I refused to read anything more than the excerpt. Why do that to my blood pressure so early in the morning?
When I read this, the warning bells went off in my white-haired little head! I was there.
Trump did not "bellow!" nor is "America First" a bad idea. It goes right along with MAGA with "Great" being the operative word. I grew up in an America that was great in the sense that Alexi de Tocqueville described it in 1835–40; "Great," because it was "Good."
“Arab Spring” was supposedly a “good” thing as muslims revolted in several nations to overthrow leadership (with the assistance of the United States and Barack Obama in particular).
But when people in the West vote to toss out globalists it is a “bad” thing.
BRexit predated Donald Trump’s candidacy or win.
It isn’t because of the United States. It is happening around the world in spite of 8 years of Obamaunism and the EUSSR.
>>Trump did not “bellow!” nor is “America First” a bad idea.
I recall Barack Hussein Obama saying (and carrying through) that America needed to be taken down a couple of pegs.
Americans couldn’t just go about living how they want with air conditioning and driving wherever they want to go in their own gas powered vehicles.
I seem to recall statements on record about not being a leader in other areas as well.
I know he discussed no more “interference” in other nations and yet he overthrew Momar Gaddafi who wasn’t even a threat to us.
I believe all are talking to you, and waiting with bated breath for your response. So far the bated part could be dangerous.
You might want to add to your list POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Political Correctness has denied the citizens of this nation their right of free speech, freedom of association. Under the brutal sword of political correctness we have seen perversion which just a few short years ago were consider illegal or a mental defect into a civil right that supersedes everyone else’s rights.
But I think Trump’s election was the 2016 version of The Shot Heard Round the World.
The greatest President easily, but perhaps more importantly, a global hero.
I've been paying close attention since clinton and I've pretty much been on a static level line of hope that politics (or any figure IN politics) would actually accomplish anything.
Just been kind'a indifferent and sort'a waiting for death to take me home ....
Until now !
There's no question that the new international has created great wealth but at what cost?
If the cost is the loss of sovereignty and the right of national self-determination then it is too great.
Fuyukmama doesn't address the elephant in the room that is the unrestricted immigration tearing Europe apart.
We're living in interesting times, whatever the future holds for the world it's blessed to have Trump at the helm.
One of the tenants of liberal democracy is that the government represents the will of the people. That is what has been lost and this is what President Trump and others in Europe are trying to bring back.
It is authoritarianism to force your subjects to comply with laws they do not believe are just and policies they didn't ask for and these are the leaders who are losing here and in Europe.
Authoritarianism seems to be on the rise across the globe, with strongmen consolidating their hold, led in Europe by Vladimir Putin in Moscow...”
Stopped reading here. If leftisim isnt authoritarian NOTHING IS!
This is language straight from 1984, where bad is good and down is up. A populist movement, such as what Trump is leading, is exactly the opposite of what this idiot describes. It is impossible for the people to be free when their government takes every action possible to marginalize and suppress them, as the Obama regime did for 8 years.
“When Donald Trump bellowed “America First!”...
When I read this, the warning bells went off in my white-haired little head!”
I didn’t read past the first three words; “Populists and Autocrats”. Both are used by the left as pejoratives to discredit the right.
A Populist is a finger-to-the-wind politician, lacking any principles or ethical purpose other than to get elected. An Autocrat is an all powerful dictator.
The fact that this “journalist” describes Trump this way is all we need to know. The rest of the piece is total garbage, I assume.
It is as if these two have much to do with each other. It's like I decide to write about geese and exoplanets.
I could more cogently write about socialist autocrats. I don't even have to put in the "and". Let's see, does anyone come to mind, like oh, maybe, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and er, uh, who was that other feller begins with an H or something the left is constantly blathering about, it will come to me in a minute.
Oh, I didn’t even get to the part about this being written by our good friend Francis - end of history guy. Seems the globallony dominated “democratic universe” was not the end of history after all and that the peons rebelled.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.