Yesterday as I was studying the news articles and typing the August 15th post here, I was contemplating all of this -- all these charges, and "counts," and all these people--and trying to understand how they got so mixed up that they would try to overthrow their own country -- America.
They want to live in an authoritarian dictatorship, like Russia, China, or Nazi Germany?? I think most Americans have never worried about something like that happening here, because it just didn't seem probable, or possible.
We like to live with individual freedom. We would be crazy to overthrow democracy and replace it with dictatorship. I think such an idea really seemed so crazy, that most of us didn't worry about such a thing occurring.
There's a saying: "Most of the things you worry about never happen."
Now we need a new saying: "Some things you never worried about can happen -- so watch out!"
I read something where the phrase "authoritarian personality" was used. I assumed that meant a person who wants to be a dictator has an "authoritarian personality." But that isn't what it means: a person who has an authoritarian personality is a person who would choose living in a dictatorship over living in freedom, in a democracy.
It sounds crazy, but everyone is different, and apparently there are people who crave for someone to be stringently, bombastically IN CHARGE, the idea gives them some mental and emotional security, and relieves feelings of uncertainty.
(Of course while in theory it might sound good to them, in practice they might find they don't like it so much. Some people who lean toward authoritarianism seem like they imagine the dictator and his minions are going to "crack down" on other people whom they don't like; their fantasy doesn't include what happens if the dictatorship cracks down on them.
Like -- "OK, have you thought this all the way through...??")
_________________________________
One of the people charged in Georgia is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
An article in yesterday's New York Times is headlined, "From 'America's Mayor' to Criminal Defendant: Giuliani's Long Tumble."
Observing him through the decades, a person had one impression--a good impression--and then -- over time, after about 2008, he seemed to get worse and worse and worse. I mean, it was just sort of unbelievable.
---------------- [excerpts from the "Tumble" article] -------------------
Early in the scrum of the 2016 presidential campaign, the political strategist Rick Wilson bumped into an old boss and strongly advised him not to cast his lot with Donald J. Trump. No good would come of it.
"Even if he wins, he's going to destroy you," Mr. Wilson remembered telling Rudolph W. Giuliani....
Mr. Wilson recalled being dismissed as a provincial Floridian unable to understand the bond between two New Yorkers--outer-borough strivers who walked the Manhattan streets with proprietary airs and were now within grasp of once-unimaginable power.
...The criminal indictment of Mr. Giuliani, his first, marks the lowest point so far in his yearslong reputational tumble. Once heralded as a fearless lawman, game-changing New York City mayor, and Sept. 11 hero, he is now defined by a subservience to the 45th president that sometimes veered into buffoonery.
Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor who worked under Mr. Giuliani when he was the United States attorney in Manhattan, is among a legion of former colleagues who struggle to reconcile the Rudys of then and now.
"I found him to be an inspiring leader," recalled Mr. Richman, now a professor at Columbia Law School. "He was very focused on the law, committed to what the right thing was--and doing it.
Now?
"In his sad commitment to be relevant, he has thrown himself in with a crew where facts and the law are either irrelevant or there to be twisted," Mr. Richman said. "It's the thirst for relevance. The thirst to be in the mix."
...During the 2016 presidential election season, Giuliani not only endorsed Mr. Trump--against the advice of the likes of Mr. Wilson--he became a defender so ferocious that some wondered about his mental well-being....
_______________________
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment