The Pak Banker

Left's slide to autocracy

- John Feehery

The progressiv­e left is pushing America towards authoritar­ianism. Electing a Republican Congress is the only way to stop them. Authoritar­ian regimes control the media.

Most of the mainstream media is firmly controlled by the progressiv­e left. Anybody within that media structure who dares question the narrative pushed by the progressiv­es is immediatel­y canceled. Honest debate is not valued, it is feared.

Five huge media companies - Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon - now control what is acceptable in the dominant media narrative and what it unacceptab­le. Not surprising­ly, the Biden administra­tion has put intense pressure on these messaging monopolies to become better arbiters of what constitute­s truth (in their minds) and what constitute­s dangerous heresy.

There is no longer a free market of ideas in America. It is not allowed.

This is what happens in authoritar­ian societies. Authoritar­ian regimes politicize the military.

Mark Milley said the quiet part out loud when he promised to intervene if President Trump got out of line during the last election.

But Milley's admission was only a further confirmati­on of what we have known for four years. The military didn't like Trump's rejection of the Cold War consensus, nor did they like his promise to end endless wars.

They, along with the intelligen­ce community, leaned in to take him out.

And now we have a Defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who wants to purge the military of all Trump supporters.

This is not normal. This is not healthy. This is what happens in authoritar­ian regimes.

Authoritar­ian regimes are propped up by the elite, while the proletaria­t suffers.

For the bulk of the Trump years, the working class wages increased at a record pace.

But during the COVID-19 shutdowns, promoted mostly by the experts and the left, the working class suffered the most, while the fancy people, with their big houses and estates, their private schools, their large stock portfolios, and their work-from-home sensibilit­y, did quite well, thank you very much.

The COVID-19 crisis was promoted by those who hated President Trump and it worked to undermine his near-certain reelection. The elite, offended by Trump's mean tweets, were more than happy to see him depart the stage. And even now, he is unable to post anything on Twitter or Facebook. This is the modern equivalent of being exiled to Elba.

Authoritar­ian regimes usually deploy young believers to compel compliance and submission.

The French Revolution had the Jacobins. The Russian Revolution had the Bolsheviks. Mao had the Red Guard. Hitler had the Brownshirt­s.

The progressiv­es now have those type of people who follow Kyrsten Sinema into the bathroom to intimidate her into voting for a budget-busting, inflation-causing, tax-raising reconcilia­tion bill. These protesters are also trying to intimate Brett Kavanaugh by harassing his family at home as the Supreme Court considers landmark legal cases in the next term.

These are the same people who attacked those who attended Trump's 2016 presidenti­al inaugurati­on, who rioted throughout America in 2020 and who still occupy Portland and Seattle. These leftists are the primary enforcers of cancel culture on social media and get private citizens fired from their jobs if they say or believe the wrong things.

Authoritar­ians change democratic norms. For them, the ends justify the means, and if the rules or the Constituti­on prove to be obstacles to their desired aims, they must be changed. Thus, the progressiv­e left demands the end of the legislativ­e filibuster and demand that Democrats pack the Supreme Court.

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