From deploying the national guard to targeting news channels and schools, the US president’s actions are anything from typical of a democratic leader

Trump has also targeted law firms who have filed lawsuits he opposes, while the Federal Communications Commission, led by a Trump appointee, is investigating every major broadcast network except Fox, which owns the pro-Trump Fox News channel. Trump has personally sued news channels over critical coverage and fired the government’s top labour statistician because she published jobs data that he didn’t like.

He has threatened Democrats with prosecution, and demanded that former president Barack Obama be investigated for treason. Trump has done all this as his family has ostensibly earned millions of dollars from his presidency.

None of these things are typical for a democratic leader. So … is Trump a dictator?

“Yes, of course,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology at Princeton University who spent years researching autocracies including Hungary and Russia. Scheppele said she had been wavering on using the term “dictatorship” until recently, but said: “If I was hesitating before, it’s this mobilization of the national guard and the indication that he plans to overtake resistance by force that now means we’re in it.”

  • eelectricshock@lemmy.world
    32·
    2 days ago

    I’m paraphrasing Zizek, but he said “the left needs a leader that controls executive power” and he’s right. There’s a difference between a benevolent dictator and a tyrant. Trump is a tyrant, in which he yields his power to prosecute and persecute. A benevolent dictator uses their power as a force for good, think FDR and whatnot.

    • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 days ago

      But a benevolent dictator can still do considerable harm. Not necessarily out of malice, but as an unintended consequence of poor decision making. So a dictator doesn’t just need to be benevolent, they also need to be capable, competent, intelligent, informed, empathetic, and humble enough to listen to people who know more than them and to admit when they’re wrong so they can course correct.

    • Mr_WorldlyWiseman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      2·
      2 days ago

      Unfortunately the “heavenly mandate” is just made up by power-hungry narcissists who are searching for an excuse for their corruption and incompetence. Democracy always leads to better long-term policy outcomes than dictatorships.