It is bone chilling to re-read this @davidfrum from the beginning of 2017. Just read it. So much of it has happened or seems vastly more plausible than it did back then.
The water is simmering. We are the frog. Nov 6 we either jump out of the pot or... theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
The water is simmering. We are the frog. Nov 6 we either jump out of the pot or... theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
I'm going to quote a few lines from it that today read like history, not prediction: "Big tax cuts, big spending, and big deficits have worked their familiar expansive magic."
"The president’s supporters credit his restrictive immigration policies"
"Concerns about Trump’s purported conflicts of interest excited debate in Washington but never drew much attention from the wider American public."
"The president regularly tweets out news of factory openings and big hiring announcements: “I’m bringing back your jobs,” he has said over and over. Voters seem to have believed him—and are grateful."
"Most Americans intuit that their president and his relatives have become vastly wealthier over the past four years. But rumors of graft are easy to dismiss. Because Trump has never released his tax returns, no one really knows. Anyway, doesn’t everybody do it?"
"As the air filled with allegations of insider trading and crony capitalism, the public subsided into weary cynicism."
"Trump loyalists shouldered aside the pre-Trump leadership."
"The business community learned its lesson early. “You work for me, you don’t criticize me,” the president was reported to have told one major federal contractor, after knocking billions off his company’s stock-market valuation with an angry tweet."
"Wise business leaders take care to credit Trump’s personal leadership for any good news, and to avoid saying anything that might displease the president or his family."
"The proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner was delayed for more than a year"
"Meanwhile, social media circulate ever-wilder rumors. Some people believe them; others don’t. It’s hard work to ascertain what is true."
"Nobody’s repealed the First Amendment, of course, and Americans remain as free to speak their minds as ever—provided they can stomach seeing their timelines fill up with obscene abuse and angry threats from the pro-Trump troll armies that police Facebook and Twitter."
"Trump-critical media do continue to find elite audiences. Their investigations still win Pulitzer Prizes; their reporters accept invitations to anxious conferences about corruption, digital-journalism standards, the end of nato, and the rise of populist authoritarianism....
...Yet somehow all of this earnest effort feels less and less relevant to American politics. President Trump communicates with the people directly via his Twitter account, ushering his supporters toward favorable information at Fox News or Breitbart."
"Ambitious Republican plans notwithstanding, the American social-welfare system, as most people encounter it, has remained largely intact during Trump’s first term."
"African Americans, young people, and the recently naturalized encounter increasing difficulties casting a vote in most states. But for all the talk of the rollback of rights, corporate America still seeks diversity in employment. Same-sex marriage remains the law of the land."
"People crack jokes about Trump’s National Security Agency listening in on them. ... [but] it’s just common sense to be careful what you say in an email or on the phone."
@davidfrum made some predictions in March 2017 that have been largely born out. Now read the things I didn't quote. Some are scarier, but not less plausible, and still could happen. If they do, we will indeed live in an autocracy. But we have a chance to stop this. Nov. 6. #VOTE
