Old Political Meme: Trump Is an Authoritarian
New and Improved Politico Meme: Trump Is Not Authoritarian Enough! He's a Weakman, Not a Strongman!

This is real.

I mean, they really said this. I haven't juiced it.

This guy's so excited, I bet you he just lapped up a nice musky creampie!!!!

Trump Is an Authoritarian Weakman

Coronavirus would be the perfect opportunity for an autocrat. Trump isn't taking it.

By JOHN F. HARRIS

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The first pillar [of Trump's governing style] is that Trump, in the near-unanimous view of the opposition, is a terrible person whose terribleness finds expression in terrible policies.

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It is the second pillar of the anti-Trump case that has wobbled curiously in recent weeks. This president allegedly is not just a near-term menace but a long-term on--a leader bent on amassing personal power and undermining constitutional democracy in ways that would last beyond his presidency (which, under the worst scenarios, he might even try, Vladimir Putin-style, to extend illegally if he loses in November.)

The notion of Trump as authoritarian strongman, however, has been cast in an odd light in this pandemic. Would-be tyrants use crisis to consolidate power. Trump, by contrast, has been pilloried from many quarters, including many liberals, for not asserting authority and responsibility more forcefully to combat Covid-19. Rather than seizing on a genuine emergency, Trump was slow to issue an emergency declaration, moved gingerly in employing the Defense Production Act to help overburdened local health systems, and even now seems eager to emphasize that many subjects--closure of schools and businesses, obtaining sufficient ventilators--are primarily problems for state governors to deal with.

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Perhaps the way to think of Trump is as an authoritarian weakman.

Note that the possibility that Trump is not an authoritarian of any stripe was not even considered. They found that the evidence "shook" their previous claims, and so just fashioned a new one. No, he's not an authoritarian strongman; he's too weak for that.

So he's not an authoritarian, then?

No, that can't be it: That would mean the media is wrong, and any suggestion that the media is wrong is Heresy.

So the new hotness is that Trump is an "authoritarian weakman."

This is a eight year old boy shitting his pants and thinking he's awfully clever for doing so.

OUT: Drumpf is Hitler

IN: Drumpf is too much of a coward to be Hitler

posted by Ace at 04:45 PM

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