America as a Developing Country
From America’s Mayor to porn-adjacent conspiracy pusher.
Lots of anti-MAGA types claim that America is no longer a land of unsurpassed opportunity. They cite statistics showing that a child’s chances of getting ahead here are far less than in many other countries. They compare us to places where governments force citizens to get socialized medical care rather than exercise their freedom to fall ill and die.
And they ignore Rudy Giuliani.
[Continue Reading]And why he’s unlikely to succeed, though that's a weak basis for complacency.
Last week, I discussed how Donald Trump could try to steal the presidential election through voter suppression, voter disqualification and court decisions, and how Republicans planted the seeds of such an effort long ago.
I’ll now address how, even though Joe Biden is president-elect, Team Trump could seek to reverse the result by taking the fight to state legislatures, Congress and the Supreme Court. The strategy would exploit archaic, arcane aspects of our electoral college system that are even more nonsensical than you might imagine.
I’ll also sketch why Trump will most likely fail, not least because it might not be in the interests of many Republicans or the Court to see this battle through to the bitter end.
But “most likely” leaves no basis for complacency. That’s especially the case since Trump, like other would-be and actual autocrats elsewhere, has shown us who he is.
[Continue Reading]
Perhaps you recall how and where you learned of Trump’s triumph over Clinton four years ago and loss to Biden this past weekend. For me, the bad election night news in 2016 came from a flight attendant while I was en route to China. The good news this year arrived via a Saturday morning phone call from India, asking me to do a TV interview on Biden’s win. It jolted me awake far better than my morning coffee was doing.
However, the strongest memory that word of Biden trumping Trump triggered for me was Philippine People Power: the massive demonstrations, witnessed across the world, that toppled long-entrenched autocrat Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. But also the televised celebrations that immediately ensued.
[Continue Reading]With some input from Yours Truly.
Here’s an extended clip presenting part of how a major Indian broadcast outlet, WION (World Is One News), covered today’s breaking news about Joe Biden winning the election. The show features joyous American street scenes, reporting by WION’s international correspondents and commentary from Indian and U.S. experts. It also includes some attempted punditry by me.
[Continue Reading]He's already started to try.
Historian Timothy Snyder’s 2019 book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, offers numerous insights on preventing and battling authoritarianism. But the dominant thread running through the volume is this: Don’t be complacent. Don’t despair. And be prepared.
That’s the point of this post. While Joe Biden could sweep to a landslide – a reassuring possibility to which I return below – Election Day could instead unleash a lengthy legal, political and media fight comprising state-by-state trench warfare.
Rather than despair over that possibility, we should prepare for it. The first step is to understand what looms.
I’ll accordingly summarize here how Donald Trump, his allies and appointees could steal the election.
In fact, they’ve already started to try.
[Continue Reading]