[FRIAM] Democracy in Name Only: endemic regime instability

[Steve Smith]

> Ha! That reminded me of this:

Which reminded me of THIS:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea#Controversies

co-starring Ozzie Keznovich 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzie_Knezovich> who sounds like an echo 
of Moty...

>
> California county on track to be run by militia-aligned group
> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/03/california-county-controlled-by-militia-group 
>
>
> I don't feel too sorry for Moty because my character alert bells went 
> off a bit while reading his words ... like his objections are really 
> just acoustic emissions. (Get off my lawn!) But I say Good Riddance. 
> I'd be outta Shasta in a heartbeat.
>
> On 2/4/22 09:02, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> As Omicron was ramping up Joy Reid said something along the lines of 
>> “Is there a way to cut out a safe place to live these days [free from 
>> all the anti-vaxxer crazies]?”
>>
>> That resonated with me.  I think that’s a plausible way how life 
>> could be in ten years.   Some municipalities & companies, maybe some 
>> states, will appeal to individuals that value, well, reason, and 
>> others will not.   Then the exercise becomes one of which brands are 
>> in some sense profitable.   This will of course deepen polarization, 
>> but over the course of several generations the unprofitable 
>> approaches will die a desperate and lonely and death.   Some of the 
>> woke brands won’t make it, but neither will some of the reactionary 
>> brands.    It is not clear what will happen to the federal government 
>> during this time, perhaps the kind of oscillation the author 
>> imagines.   The trick will be to insulate oneself from it until the 
>> political power of the crazies is ground down by repeated failure and 
>> steadily decreasing economic power.
>>
>> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Steve Smith
>> *Sent:* Friday, February 4, 2022 8:32 AM
>> *To:* friam at redfish.com
>> *Subject:* [FRIAM] Democracy in Name Only: endemic regime instability
>>
>> Someone here is more likely than I to have actually read Ziblatt and 
>> Levitsky's How Democracies Die 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die#:~:text=How%20Democracies%20Die%20is%20a,process%20to%20increase%20their%20power.>
>>
>> A recent article (behind a subscribe-wall) included the following quote:
>>
>> https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-01-20/americas-coming-age-instability 
>> <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-01-20/americas-coming-age-instability> 
>>
>>
>>     /America may no longer be safe for democracy, but it remains 
>> inhospitable to autocracy./
>>
>>     /Rather than autocracy, the United States appears headed toward 
>> endemic regime instability. /
>>
>>     /Such a scenario would be marked by frequent constitutional 
>> crises, including contested or stolen elections and severe conflict 
>> between presidents and Congress (such as impeachments and executive 
>> efforts to bypass Congress), the judiciary (such as efforts to purge 
>> or pack the courts), and state governments (such as intense battles 
>> over voting rights and the administration of elections). The United 
>> States would likely shift back and forth between periods of 
>> dysfunctional democracy and periods of competitive authoritarian rule 
>> during which incumbents abuse state power, tolerate or encourage 
>> violent extremism, and tilt the electoral playing field against their 
>> rivals./
>>
>> I found this characterization of our plight very compelling, if also 
>> very disturbing.
>>
>> It seems as if we have "tumbled our gyros" but in a different mode 
>> than the rhetoric about "Civil War" and "Descent into Autocracy" seem 
>> to suggest.   It also characterizes a lot of the aspiring/limping 
>> democracies we know of in the world today up to and including extreme 
>> examples such as Russia which fits the DINO (democracy in name only) 
>> label pretty well.
>>
>> This conception of the problem lead me to a very well written HS 
>> student-essay by the same title: democracy-in-name-only 
>> <https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/democracy-in-name-only-2020-01-02>.
>>
>> Within this essay was a poignant quote:
>>
>>
>>     In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville,
>>
>>         /“A new science of politics is needed for a new world. This, 
>> however, is what we think of least; launched in the middle of a rapid 
>> stream, we obstinately fix our eyes on the ruins which may still be 
>> descried upon the shore we have left, while the current sweeps us 
>> along, and drives us backward toward the gulf.”/
>
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