If former S of S Albright, next to HRC as the worst S of S in history, is worried about the present direction of our nation, I am confident that everything is fine.
5
She is afraid of liberal democracy folding up its tent? Why is it called liberal? I rather like democracy - not liberal or conservative, just plain old democracy. I guess if it doesn't fit her description it's bad. This was never a Secretary of State of any note.
4
Madeleine shouldn't be too worked up, when the Democrats sweep the mid terms, and oust Trump for treason, legislation will come in, barring deplorable's from voting.
3
The future of course is unknowns so this change in governance may happen. The second part of this comment could only happen if fascism is enabled by the change, so be careful for what you wish because people may think you are a not a serious person
4
Hmmm. This is the woman who claimed that the deaths of five-hundred thousand children in Iraq because of the policies pursued by the Clinton administration was "worth it." Fascism indeed.
7
I don't know why people are so upset that Trump is changing the US from what it was under Obama. China reigned supreme in the minds of our leaders to the point they didn't even bother objecting that we were robbed blind in broad daylight. Or that Obama was trying his best to "give us a brand new country" made up of displace foreigners, illegal aliens, and sudden acceptance of a bloody war on police. Hillary planned to finish the job by leaving the border open and naturalizing all of them on one 25 million sweep.
Jobs were vanishing overseas at a rapid pace, and drugs flowed in from Mexico in exchange for their cheap labor.
I read these posts and realize too many people have an inflated view of their own place in the universe. We aren't a sovereign country because we tore down our borders and gave away our industry. We are a sovereign country because we believe we have a future that is worth defending. Trump reminds us that it is the lousy people in D.C. that are destroying it. And now they are fighting hammer and tong to prevent the middle class from taking it back from the self appointed elites who have never done a thing beyond rent-seeking and cashing government paychecks.
4
Capitalism, and industries, go through growth cycles. When it contracts, and there are HUGE disparities between the top and everyone else, fascist tendencies arise.
5
The same Madeline Albright who blocked intervention in Rwanda...
Not someone who's judgment impresses me.
5
I don't see any evidence that Trump is a fascist. In fact, it appears that the progressives are more Stalinistic and bent towards authoritarianism than Trump. The #resistance is not a real resistance, it's an all out attack by the elite establishment who has been abusing our freedoms and destroying our country for decades. It's an attempt to maintain the power structure. The true resistance is being led by those in the Trump movement. What are they fighting for?--a return to American values and respect for the Constitution which was designed to prevent fascism.
Sorry, Madeleine, you're just another biased political operative who is joining the chorus of anti-Trump media and I don't believe or respect a word you have to say.
18
I am very happy to live in Canada and, after I finishing writing here, I'm betting that you'll be happy that I live in Canada too.
There is an expression: "There are none as blind as those who will not see." While I completely support your right to your views expressed here, I must say that they are singularly terrifying.
Thus, my gratitude for living in Canada.
40
There is considerable evidence that many of Trump's supporters are inclined towards authoritarian leaders. Also there is evidence of the white supremacist & nationalist views that he and they embrace. If this is what your version of "a return to American values" means then I'll pass. As for respecting the constitution then you'd do well to remember that it is based on the rule of law, something Trump has never had any respect for. Finally just as the Tea Party movement had support from the republican party & their donors so does the resistance movement have backing from the democrats and their donors. That being true are they both illegitimate? For years people like you claimed that the Tea Party movement rose organically despite powerful backing. So the resistance movement did as well. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander, eh. It's not for you to say what is real or not real and the word "elites" can mean anything or in this case nothing but ignorance of who are opposing Trump's style of fascism. Belief and respect are based on actions and words not the "exaggerated hyperbole"of the con man and shyster president you follow.
41
In the words of Walter Sobchek in the Big Lewbowski, "Say what you will about the Nationalist Socialist Party, at least they had an ethos." Maybe or maybe not, but the oligarchs who are harnessing American bigotry to kill American Democracy, clearly have no ethos other than their insane greed and lust for power. This will not end with Trump, unless he successfully brings down, along with himself, the oligarchs and thieves that now call themselves the Republican party.
10
Albright has blinkered rose colored narcissist worries.
America is allied with the ethnic sectarian extremist supremacist tyrants Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Salman of Saudi Arabia who deny the divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness of all persons under their dominion. From Gaza to West Bank to Yemen they are engaged in ethnic cleansing.
America is trying to deny refugee status for Mexicans and Muslims while welcoming models like Ivana and Melania Trump. While 40% of the world's 16 million Jews are safe in America.
America has 25% of the world's prisoners with 5% of humanity. And 40 % of them are black even though only 13% of Americans are.
The roots of 9/11/01 were looming on Madeleine Albright's watch. The Rwandan and Bosnian genocides occurred on Bill Clinton's watch. Albright infamously lectured Colin Powell about using the military option. Beyond her gender milestone no one could confuse Albright with George Marshall or Henry Kissinger.
2
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. It is a sad fact that human nature has a dark, selfish and destructive side. Human progress stumbles every time that side gains ascendency.
4
God bless Madeleine Albright. She has the knowledge, the background of personal and professional experience , the intelligence and the courage to speak out and call us to action.
Some of us have the notion that "It can never happen here". Well, it can, and it is. When the Republicans perverted our Constitution by blocking President Obama's
right and obligation to nominate a Supreme Court justice with just less than a year to go in his term, we should have seen that fascism permeated our Congress. These individual steps toward fascism, the pulling of threads from the fabric of our flag and Constitution are making us weaker every day. This is the kind of subtle charade that was used in Germany and in other countries in the last century in Europe and now. We should be worried and frightened.
14
Five people own half the entire planets wealth.
She thinks everything is just fine.
2
We all must remember that she helped write one of the worst peace deals of the 20th century the Dayton Peace Accord. The Balkans are a mess with Rouges running countries and white slavers working right under our noses, and were democracy does not exist. What does she know of democracy, other than how to spell it. She does not practice what she preaches, that is a worry to all that would heed her words.
3
As numerous other posters have pointed out, Albright is an American exceptionalist who behaved like a monster when she expressed a willingness to kill half a million Iraqi children in order to try to punish Saddam Hussein.
She also is far from being the thoughtful, intelligent person other posters have claimed. Sanctions rarely harm dictators, but they do affect the ordinary people already being oppressed by them. Saddam didn't turn a hair at US sanctions, but apparently Albright was unable to predict this, despite the well-documented past failures of such sanctions.
The danger of fascism in America may be very real, but those of us who follow unfolding events with concern have been well aware of this, and don't require the belated warnings of a flawed and somewhat hypocritical person such as Ms. Albright.
4
Fascism is a Roman phenomenon. Falangism was the Castillian version. National Socialism was the Bavarian version.
The Anglo-Norman Edward the First, psychopath and fearless warrior, a fanatically devout son of the Roman Church, loathed the Jews as Christ-killers and expelled them. The Jews were readmitted to England under Protestant Oliver Cromwell and by Charles the Second.
The mothers of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler were devout Roman Catholics. The mother and maternal grandmother of Stalin were devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Kremlin's version of the Greek Orthodox Church, both which shared with the Church of Rome that Church's hatred of the Jews.
1
Well, quite the dot connector indeed, but how is this on topic?
5
I am not sure why thinking it is unsanitary to shake hands is a sign of fascism. It is an obvious way to spread germs, and many cultures, including Asian ones like Indians, simply join their hands as in a prayer to greet one another.
2
I’ve now read this editorial a few times and am awed by Madeleine Albright ... and digging around in my old jewelry drawers.
5
I'm sorry, but it's very hard to take anyone seriously whose legacy includes a Neville Chamberlain champagne toast with Kim Jong-il.
2
Do some commenters not realize that "try reading a history book" is an "ad hominem" attack in (thin) disguise? Why don't these commenters try CITING the history book that they (may) have in mind?
Times readers, you're far more civilized than most papers' kommentariats (or far more thoroughly edited) but let's go for that gold ring!
"Attacking the man" (rather than her idea) puts you in Trump Country. Build a wall to keep yourself out of there!
Individuals must accept that the roots of fascism exist in a democratic state, that leaders are flawed, and that citizens must be active, not passive, ALL the time. Control of quasi legitimate news outlets (like Fox), and self serving media companies like FB disperse slanted, confusing news. Domestic economic instability (like the recent "tax" bill), feed political instability and create daily worry for voters. When will the mega wealthy become poor enough in spirit to care about regular folks? Have their pennies brought enough of the Supreme Court to entrench Citizens United, a true democratic sucker punch? Too many of the economically displaced vote Republican out of desperation fed by media lies. Widespread economic disparity creates waves of domestic refugees moving from state to state looking for work. That is reality, not economic statistics. Religious extremism fills the gap in broken communities with hopes of the "good old days" that never were. Media control is the most pernicious, since it allows the voter to believe they are informed. The democratic push back has very been tepid, and that is an enormous problem. The Democratic Party needs to fight back everywhere, all the time, and without faltering. However, if it can't even pass congestion pricing in New York after more than ten years, or fix the subways and mass transit, how will it fight the authoritarian threat that is within?
38
et.al.nyc: Another hardy, brave liberal soul afraid to give his full name!Why are you prone to call folks who do not share your religious beliefs extremists?Those of my kith and kin, whom you look down your nose upon, are too busy trying to put food on the table for their families and pets to worry about the "good old days!" Late father, who never earned more than $12,000 a year as a seagoing butler never spoke to me of longing for the good old days! What are your sources of information? GN is a very upscale, soigne environment, homes going for a million and counting. not diverse racially or economically. Hence what I detect is the snobbism inherent in your gratuitous, somewhat supercilious criticism of those not born with your advantages!Unfair and inaccurate!
1
Trump use of executive 'over-reach' should be attributed to its source, Obama, who unable to persuade the legislative branch to advance his policies issued executive orders and Presidential memoranda (and sometimes, SCOTUS was complicit in this, as when Chief Justice Roberts declared by fiat, that the individual mandate of Obamacare is a tax). Thus, the beginning of the fall of representative democracy originates with Obama (although FDR first attempt to do it in 1937when he tried to pack SCOTUS) and Trump is simply the most vulgar, ill-educated manifestation of something that was bound to happen when the masses are allowed to vote on matters that they are incapable of understanding and on which they have personal biases born out of ignorance and irrationality..
3
“is this assumption, or decision, that they embody the spirit of the nation and that they have the answers and that their instincts are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.”
I read this and immediately thought of Trump and his speech to the Republican convention, where he detailed the failing of America and boasted “ only I can fix it!” It seems entirely accurate to classify Trump as, at minimum, a ‘wanna-be facist’.
5
We live in an era of people too busy to look up from their phones and worried about the latest slight from or to some social neophyte.
There are some of us who remember 1st hand, or from our parents that went through the war(s) or the Depression ( the real one ).
We have those memories burned into our psyche of ''never again''. We don't want the ravages of war, the hunger , the poverty or the despotism.
Yet, here we are again.
14
Madeleine Albright is more complex than article indicates and in Clinton’s involvement in Kosovo conflict period was a major hawk in encouraging bombardment of Yugoslavia that went under reported in Western press but had the effect of a War Crime, if that term still carried any meaning, as all buildings that ‘might be’ a factory and the infrastructure of bridges were bombed and then bombed again as the first responders arrived to offer treatment. No consideration was ever offered of the civilian causalities expected of that campaign.
Not mentioned, her father was ambassador to Yugoslavia when she was young and that experience had a lingering effect in her later decision making as part of her long story.
She was advisor to Mrs. Clinton in her campaigns and was again reported as a hawk and has approved of all military interventions in her public years as commentator. Read her work critically. Bashing Trump comes easily from many quarters, but he may be just one more of a kind.
8
Tomorrow is tomorrow. We have to do everything we can to get rid of these monsters today. Excelsior!
13
For awhile, our nation was as vivid and colorful as an impressionist painting, feeding on the energy of our contrasts and perspectives. But over time we turned into a Jackson Pollock. Well, a heavy stone has been tossed into the pond of our sameness. Regardless of whether that stone was Trump or technology, we are now being tossed violently high and low. That stone will surely sink, but the rest of us will swim -- as long as we know how. All it takes is courage, strength, and a practical education.
4
I'd be interested to hear Secretary Albright's thoughts on how her role helping facilitate multinational corporation enter into emerging democracies may have factored into the backlash we now see in terms of democratic backsliding, rising nationalism and popular support for authoritarianism.
She has been quite active in supporting pharma, retail, multilevel marketing, and other multinationals in developing economies (including Mr. Erdogan's), leveraging the relationships granted to her through public service. While she has profited quite handsomely for this activity, much of which is not disclosed publicly, I am skeptical that her and her clients' interests are necessarily aligned with the working class in those countries.
I am sure she and her contemporaries are clinging to the narrative of benevolent capitalism leading to democracy in order to rationalize cashing in on their roles as public servants, but some self-reflection may be in order here.
24
A great observer who doen’t miss the crucial elements. I look forward to reading her newest book about what may follow the demise of democracy.
4
Perhaps Michelle Goldberg's misunderstanding of history may account for why she failed to ask Ms. Albright the obvious question concerning "why" there seems to be an "eclipse of liberal democracy all over the world."
Most students of history recognize that liberal democracy was not in fact ascendant at the time Bill Clinton came into office and enlisted the aid of Ms. Albright to promote the values of "American exceptionalism." In fact, it had been well into its decline from the era of Reagan and Thatcher who championed neoliberalism and systematically eroded the careful post WWII balance between working people and corporate power, embedded liberalism, and wrought three decades of prosperity for (most) all. Bill Clinton steadily continued that process through welfare reform and Wall Street deregulation, helpful create the conditions for the Great Recession.
The deterioration of living circumstances for ordinary people in the face of obscene redistribution of wealth to the elite while politicians talk about fairness, democratic values, etc. is what accounts for the eclipse of liberal democracy we are seeing. Donald Trump, as horrible as he is is simply emblematic of a systemic problem that won't soon be corrected until people become clear about what is wrong and how it might be addressed in a serious manner.
When journalists coddle those who created the systemic problem and address only the unsurprising reaction to the results, it doesn't help, it fosters confusion.
41
I just read her memoir about her early life. We were very, very lucky to have her as Secretary of State. She, more than most, understands the danger of a Trump and the cult that seems to be developing around him. But she, unlike Trump, Ryan, McConnell, and other GOP politicians, has lived outside the United States, has studied politics, and can speak another language.
I'm inclined to listen to her rather than a Condoleeza Rice or someone along the lines of Rex Tillerson or any other Republican figurehead. All is not right with the world, not when we have Trump the Grump bloviating about how he's going to save America by having a trade war, or that his inauguration was better attended than Obama's two inaugurations.
The wrong person is in the White House. He is a man who does not listen to others, take advice, or care about anything other than having his ego stroked. He is not the common man. He doesn't even understand what the common American wants or needs. He doesn't understand foreign policy. (Of course to be fair, nor do many others understand it but Trump is the CIC.)
Trump selected good looking people, not competent people. Had Trump selected good people these discussions would not be occurring. Smart people know when to listen, to take advice, and when to cut their losses. Trump is not as smart as he claims to be.
15
The people will turn to so-called "authoritarians" when the system has failed them. Madeleine Albright was the system. As such, she failed. Yet I don't see anything in MIchelle Golldberg's review which would suggest that the system was anything but sweetness and light.
16
If anyone understands and recognizes Facism it is Ms. Albright. We should heed her words and do what we need to do to get rid of any member in Leadership who acts as a dictator. McConnell is one who comes to mind. Get out and vote all of them out. That is the way to take care of dictators.
And we can hope that Trump is found guilty of Treason. Impeachment is too good for him.
146
History's pendulum swings one way and
then the other. Whatever system, some
people don't benefit and others fabulously.
If the dissatisfied grow to a large number
they would support someone who will
promote their interests. Globalists
and the elites paid no heed to the problems of many struggling. They were telling the pollsters the country is on the
wrong track but elites didn't understand. Trump promised to fix the problems for
their benefits. They ignored his character,
lack of experience, racism, misogyny and
voted for him. Hitler told Germans he would give them jobs and end their
humiliation by their adversaries. Modi
told Indians he would push economy into
higher gear, make them rich and establish
majoritarian rule to tame hated minorities.Putin told Russians he would
rectify Yeltsin's misrule and stop the
humiliation by the West. Bill Clinton and
his secretary of state, Ms Albright, treated
Russia as a weak, defeated country deserving of indifference and even contempt. People in power make decisions
to create circumstances inflicting misery
and humiliation on many. A shrewd leader sizes up correctly and appeal to the deep seated needs of the people. Once in power he rules as an authoritarian,demand loyalty from people around him, attacks his opponents, ignores the law. A version of fascism is established. Trump won't rule like Hitler but with shades of fascism.
6
Facism, racism, etc. Ranting about problems that don't exist here while ignoring the ones that do.
8
If you look at some of Donald Trump's campaign speeches you will notice a striking resemblance to a few of Mussolini's speeches at the height of his power. I suppose everyone has to have a role model and it's not surprising that this is the model that Donald Trump would have chosen. But if Mr. Trump was even a little bit curious he would have discovered what eventually happened to the Italian autocrat. If he was a student of history, he would've understood that all tyrants eventually fall , even if they appear omnipotent for a time.
10
This from one of the architects of "humanitarian bombing". This from the statesperson who thinks 500,000 dead Iraqi children were "worth it". This from the woman who said "What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?"
Methinks the road to fascism is long and didn't start with Trump.
22
I have known people like M. Albright. They all spoke out against the rise of fascism. They all spoke about how insidious it was, how, at first, the fascists just seemed like a strange group of people who would never get anywhere. By the time anyone realized that the fascists could be powerful, it was too late, because they were already in power.
Then came the war. It was strange, those people said. But they were so sheltered from the worst of it that they never knew how bad it had gotten until years later. Their newspapers only told them what the government wanted them to know. There were two types of soldiers; the ones they provided from their own families, and the hardcore party members, the ones who would burn a village to curb gossip and stop resistance. People were afraid to talk to one another, because who would risk their whole family on what was still whisper, nuance, and rumour?
The war was in full swing. Men and boys died like flies and the bombs smashed into fields and lit cities on fire, and still the people couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. They knew they were at war. They didn't quite know why. Some people resisted. But most of the resistance came from occupied territory.
When it was over, it took decades to convince the country what they'd done. That's why Germany has the education it does. It's not a coincidence that fascism rises again when WWII veterans are too dead to speak.
21
Trump is closer to Huey Long. He also had problems with the lyingnewspapers to the point that he published his own, funded by deductions from the state employee's paychecks. He's also the political twin of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
5
In the time leading up to the 2016 election the media refused to call Trump out for what he was - a pathological liar. In fact many in the media declared that it was not their job to fact check the candidates. It was not until a few weeks before the election that The New York Times suddenly had an awakening, and the paper began to expressly and clearly call out Trump for the liar he was. The Times is still doing that, for which we are all grateful, and CNN has joined in (albeit only after they were expressly and viciously attacked by Trump). However, now that bridge has been crossed, but the media still refuses to call out Trump for what he is - an American fascist. The Republican party is transforming into the American fascist party. As Madeleine Albright says, our institutions are being eroded from within. We are in the midst of a fascist coup. We, and especially the media, needs to stop pulling punches and call this exactly what it is.
29
Albright is concerned with the 'eclipse of liberal democracy' her double-speak for American exceptionalism.
I also don't see the significance of her heritage. Finally, Ms Goldberg should double-check her knowledge of history; Czechoslovakia wasn't run over by the Nazis in 1939; that was Poland.
Czechoslovakia was cut up in pieces following the Munich meeting of the UK PM with Hitler ('peace in our time').
15
She is a reminder of just how base our "leaders'" discourse has become. When the GOP nominees were arguing about penis size during an American presidential debate, I felt ill. But here we are. This must end soon or we will lose all talent in the art of rhetoric.
9
Mr. Albright sounds like she is out of her league. As mightily as the columnist attempts to elevate her, portraying the election of President Trump as ripping off the bandage of the almost healed wound of fascism is strange. It was Ms. Albright, after all, whose ineffective dance of diplomacy with the North Korean dictator that brought that sick nation into nuclear capability. As we can all see, President Trump is cleaning up her mess.
24
What brought Kim into nuclear capability was his autocratic determination and that of his father to do so. You can't logically decide that one diplomat was "responsible" for this development, any more than you can assume that one president brought down the USSR. This is extremely sloppy and biased thinking. Trump hasn't cleaned up a single thing in NK and my bet is that he will not. China controls the strings and is working its own objectives. Wait and see.
112
What Ms. Albright did or did not do in her tenure as Secretary of State does not invalidate her argument. President Trump is an authoritarian who doesn't believe in separate, co-equal branches of government.
28
Len writes, "As we can all see, President Trump is cleaning up her mess."
Um, no. First, note that NK's nuclear weapons program began during the Reagan administration, i.e., before Albright's tenure.
Now for a bit of realism: any perception that Trump is somehow restraining the bad behavior of North Korea is a hallucination. Just six months ago--- well into Trump's first year as president--- they exploded their first H-Bomb. Since Trump became president, they have conducted 16 major missile tests--- the last was Nov 28, 2017--- each with greater capability than any launched during previous administrations. It was reported that the newest N. Korean missiles are now capable of reaching anywhere in the continental US; whether they can deliver a nuclear warhead today is still unclear, but that is only a matter of time.
For the moment, there's a break in N. Korea's test program, in response to economic sanctions and the Olympics thaw. But this has been N. Korea's pattern to Western pushback all along: threaten, pretend to negotiate, then threaten again. All the while, they continue to analyze previous test results and improve their weapons, stockpile more fissile material, and stall.
The stated goal of the Trump and previous administrations is denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. In attaining that goal, Trump has made not one whit of progress, and NKorea advances inexorably to full nuclear status.
Take your head out of the sand.
13
That was really helpful.
2
Great article.
I am currently reading the book by William L. Shirer “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” There are certainly similarities between Germany and other totalitarian countries or those leaning towards that in our time. Fortunately the kind of herd mentality prevalent in Germany in the 30’s is not prevalent in the United States and yet there are echoes of it in the racist white nationalism we see emerging today. We must do everything that we can to stop this from happening.
8
Madeleine Albright certainly has a unique perspective and is positioned to provide valuable insight on this important topic. Nonetheless, it is ironic to say she "is concerned with the eclipse of liberal democracy" following her comment in 2016 that women who voted for Bernie (or for that matter any candidate who was not a woman) earned "a special place in hell." This is a person who is described as "not given to alarmist diatribes"? It may be that "Her role right now is to speak out, with whatever authority her history and career confer," but that authority/credibility was much diminished with her bullying remark.
14
I completely disagree with you. She neither lost her “right” nor the respect with that statement. Millennials didn’t’ have context for this comment and went nuts, dismissing Albright. In the context of the trajectory of the women’s movement it was a perfectly appropriate thing to say. Madeleine Albright did not deserve to be treated as she was by “Bernie” supporters or Trump supporters. She has more than earned her seat at the table.
24
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.
—60 Minutes (5/12/96)
18
At last a major American statesperson has called Trump's anomalous, minority victory what it is. He is a fascist, whether or not he realizes it. I analyze fascism as "action" taken, not a set of definitions in my 2017 article in the journal, Terrorism and Political Violence_.
It's on the web. It is based on scholarship, not emotion, including the remarkable story of a woman who lived in both regimes: Mussolini and Hitler. How we as ordinary Americans react is essential. We must recognize and resist. Leaders, such as Albright, must speak publicly.
Her book is perhaps the most important one written since the Trump/Bannon revolution started.
9
"In January, Freedom House, an international democracy watchdog, reported that 71 countries suffered declines in political rights and civil liberties last year, while only 35 saw improvements. Rather than standing against this trend, America under Trump has become part of it. As Freedom House concluded, 'A major development of 2017 was the retreat of the United States as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy.' ... "
Any you think folks who remember the 1950's as the good old days are out of line?
Prior to 2017 the US was an "exemplar"? We did an exemplary job in Libya, Syria and stood up to Putin prior to 2017. You betcha.
3
As an adult, old enough to vote, I have lived in several different states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma. I have always been pleased that I had the maturity to evaluate candidates for elective office and vote for the candidates who would be best for our country, not just my "tribe" or political party. All that changes NOW.
It is not just Trump. Although he would surely be enough. It's that there are no Republicans who are willing to stand up to him and do the right thing. There are no Republicans who value country over tribe or political party. I dare not contribute to putting a Republican in any elected office -- local, state, or national.
In November 2018 I will be voting for Democratic candidates. I am not going to vote for a 3rd party candidate "to send a message." How stupid is that? Third-party candidates have no chance to win. I will vote for a Democrat and I will make sure they hear from me often. They will know where I stand on the issues and they will know where I believe they fall short. I hope my children will follow my example.
My father (a tough, resilient Oklahoma plowboy) fought in -- and survived -- World War II. My brother (who inherited our father's toughness) piloted refuelers off the coast of Viet Nam and he survived, too.
To do anything less than whatever it takes to kick Republicans out of office is to dishonor my father's memory & service in the Army Air Force and my brother's service as an Air Force pilot.
382
I am almost seventy and have read since high school that America lives her life as if hihistory is not something from which we learn. To sit, forty-one percent of Americans cannot identify what happened at Auschwitz. The number for millenials is even worse at sixty-six percent not being able to understand the import of the name Auschwitz.
When she was at the U.N. I was frequently frustrated
with the ambassador , thinking that she was too measured in her defense of human rights, even when she was obviously restraining her own passion in defense of those rights. Her deep concern that autoitarianism is on the rise globally but particularly in the United States is
so emphatically correct.
Trump is a thug. More importantly the men around him are thugs. They think, act and move like a prison-yard gang. Extra judicial violence has already arrived—just ask second and third generation Hispanics if they are not more fearful than they were before this administration.
Steven Miller, Trumps racist in Chief, qonly pours kerosene on racial division with his “America is about us, not them”
statements. Steve Mnuchin and Mick Mulaney make concerted efforts at every possible turn to tear down any financial policy that puts forward the notion that The average family has an equal place in policy considerations alongside major corporations.
I applaud Ambassador Albright. Her cautionary statement forecasts a dark a dark future if we do not make focused, emphatic efforts against it.
34
"To sit, forty-one percent of Americans cannot identify what happened at Auschwitz. The number for millenials is even worse at sixty-six percent not being able to understand the import of the name Auschwitz."
And how would those wrong answers be distributed among those who voted for Clinton and those who voted for Trump?
6
It might be time for Madeleine to throw in the towel, these are big calls at a time when someone is happy to be able to find a bathroom
7
“What they do have in common,” she said, “is this assumption ... that they are smarter than everybody else ...”
Well, they are definitely smarter than those who voted for them.
9
That was a beautiful article.
4
I personally am worried about climate change, human over-population and mass extinctions. Everything else is fringe. Nothing else will matter.
Please, people, start worrying about and dealing with the big stuff and use your energy on the rest when you have time for it.
8
I cannot think of one distinguished, successful former president, cabinet secretary or agency head from either party who has not spoken out about the dangers of Donald Trump. A Supreme Court Justice even broke with tradition and called him out. All you need to know about Trump's base is that they are either not capable or informed enough to heed words of caution from people who truly know of what they speak. We should all be afraid and we should all work to make sure their numbers don't increase so that this can be stopped.
29
A good number of Trump supporters are living in deep despair. Though they won’t say so they realize deep inside that they have missed a boat that won’t be sailing again. The boom years after World War II created millions of manufacturing jobs where unskilled labor was compensated with class lifting salaries not seen before in America. Prior to the war most of these workers came from poor families living lean lives. It must now be occurring to historians this prosperity was an anomaly. It won’t happen again. Ordinarily these under educated men and women would be union families embracing progressive change but without the promise of well paying unskilled manufacturing jobs authoritarian simple but false solutions are easily clung to like a drowning body grasping at a branch in a torrent. As they say progress if progress it can be called is not a steady arc upward for all but favors some people over others and takes a long time before it can be declared definitive.
14
This such an ahistorical piece it's hard to know where to start.
Perhaps here: Trump is, Albright told me, "the most undemocratic president" in America’s modern history.
See the problem? Why just modern American history? And why only partial quotes? Most likely because Albright said, "Trump is the most undemocratic president since Lincoln." Lincoln won by the lowest % ever, he drove the nation to what in hindsight was a war of choice getting a million Americans killed, and was so unpopular his nickname was "Honest Ape" (see Gore Vidal, "Lincoln"). Of course finally he was shot.
Yes that's offensive, history is offensive, patently. Sanitized history lacks the hard bite of truth. America is light years from Fascism. Fascism is capitalist-hating, pro-militarist paternalism in a police state. It abhors free enterprise & churches in favor of state control of economy & ideas, and uses violence to carry out the goals of inflated nationalism. Not exactly Donald Trump.
The high water mark of "empowering authoritarianism" was the US in the 50s and 60s and 70s in SE Asia, South America, the Mideast, Africa and the Balkans. Our CIA wrote the book on right wing dictators. By any comparison that respects scholarship, Trump won't get a mention in well written history books.
Hitler learned his use of oratory to control and intimidate people from the deeply antisemitic mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger (See Sherer "Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich"). Lueger was a Christian Social Democrat.
13
Far from being anti-capitalist, fascism depends upon it.
Corporate power was never stronger than under fascist regimes.
Fascism is a total collaboration between corporations and the state.
2
Madelein Albright has broken the rule of law and undermined international institutions she so much claims to defend when she illegally bombed Yugoslavia without a UN mandate. George W. Bush did the same in Iraq and Obama repeated the mistake again in Libya which today has flourishing slave markets.
Trump did not (yet at least) start any wars. Madeleine did. There is talk and there are facts, and the facts undermine Madeleine's credibility.
25
Readers really need to go back and study the rise of Nazism in Germany. Hitter came to power with less of a mandate than Trump, in free elections, skyrocketing from 2% to over 30% through the clever use of propaganda, media manipulation, and donations from wealthy industrialists/banksters cultivated by Goering and Goebbels, at time when Germany was at least a politically polarized as we are now. He adopted the mantle fo respectability (shedding lederhosen, Dog whistles and military garb), and then demolished co-opted and intimidated the police, magistrates/prosecutors, etc. One of the most striking weakness of the Weimar regime is it tolerated the SS around with loaded rifles as a highly visible and intimidating paramilitary force long before the Reich stag fire. (Charlottesville anyone ?) Trump knows the pathway to authoritarianism must destroy the courts , the will of the legislature , domestic policing apparatus and rule of law as hitler did in Weimar. He is well on the pathway to doing this. If Mueller is not allowed to complete his investigation, for whatever reason, and the results not made public, we will have to take to the streets ourselves. Of course trump is not hitler (fortunately hes not as clever) but opt course he cloud become hitler. WE need to reflect deeply on both those observations.
175
What similarities are there between the Reichstag fire and Charlottesville?
Charlottesville violence was precipitated and encouraged by the liberals, including the liberal city government and the police chief who instructed his men to not do their job of separating the opposing mobs and allowing violence to progress unimpeded. Look it up. It's on record.
11
Germany's post-WWI flattened economy and raging inflation is what gave rise to Hitler.
One of the most troubling things about this Trump presidency is that any economic decline and market collapse that befalls the nation can be laid at the feet of Obama. Not only in 2009 did he give Bank of America and other criminal financial enterprises $13 billion of taxpayer monies, he told bankers he would not hold any of them accountable, nor would there be restrictions on their business operations. Let that sink in. It ought not surprise that within a year, ALL the major U.S. banks and financial conglomerates were back to selling credit default swaps. Moreover, Obama brought in the bankers to confer on drafting Dodd Frank, which is a toothless wet kiss to the financial industry, riddled with holes that erode Volcker Rule protections.
7
That is a fully Trumpian rewrite of history but this comment illustrates the real reason why a Hitler (or for that matter, a Trump) could come to power: infighting on the Left. In Weimar Germany there was conflict between the centrist, socialist and communist parties. That made it possible for a fringe, far-right party, the National Socialists, to come to power. That should be a powerful lesson for anyone who values ideological purity over pragmatism. This is even more important in America. We don't have a parliamentary system - it's winner take all. There is no seat at the table for the candidate who comes in second. So get out there and vote like your future depends upon it, because it does.
She IS worried......and so am I. I am so DAMNED old I remember Hitler and the rest and what they did. Why do we keep repeating our history and killing, killing, killing interminably?????
20
I have yet to see evidence offered that America is de-emphasizing democracy and following some of the rest of the world in authoritarian impulses. Yet Ms. Albright certainly isn’t the only person on the left to charge this. So, I’m curious, other than the obvious desire to pillory a president she despises, what is her evidence for a tilt toward fascism at home?
Elsewhere, the independence and sway of courts are diminishing, and that certainly would be clear support for concern about democracy if such trends were visible here. However, they’re not – Trump may not like specific rulings by federal courts, but he obeys them scrupulously; and what president has EVER liked opposed judicial rulings? Obama was hammered by federal courts for almost the entirety of his presidency – and he disagreed with them volubly.
Freedom of the press? Elsewhere this pillar of democracy is under real and very severe pressure. However, while Trump has had words regarding CNN and the “Failing New York Times”, based on a perception that they and others have unfairly exercised a free license to demonize that with which they disagree on aggressively and divisive ideological bases, what has he done to limit their expression? Absolutely nothing. Just READ the New York Times – on ANY day. I see no evidence of suppression.
Where is Trump dictating and imposing policy for which he lacks legitimate authority, ignoring Congress? He awaits congressional action impatiently, but doesn’t seek to supplant it.
15
Are storm troopers, the military or intelligence agencies knocking insistently on the doors of civilians? They are not. Is the National Guard now sent to guard our southern border from a manifestly evident invasion of decades-long duration, supported by the residents of some sanctuary-cities … herding U.S. citizens? They are not – they are carefully avoiding ANY police duties, leaving such efforts to local authorities, and focusing solely on interdicting illegal aliens and drugs.
Telling the West that they have an obligation to pay more to defend themselves rather than depending so extensively on us to do it for them is not damaging democracy, unless the only entity that can protect democracy IS the U.S. How would Europeans react to such a suggestion?
Michelle seeks to lecture Albright on the nuances distinguishing the meanings of “fascism” and “authoritarianism”. I suggest that BOTH are using BOTH words very carelessly. Trump is in fact NOT demonstrably fostering EITHER.
Just where’s the beef in what is beginning to appear to be a purely politically motivated cry of “fascism” – OR “authoritarianism”? Michelle and Ms. Albright just don’t like Trump. Well, he’s up for re-election in 2020, a very DEMOCRATIC process, and each controls her one vote. They might both consider moving to our industrial Midwest, where those two votes might have an important impact.
14
Calm down. Albright's book is about the retreat of democracy and the rise of strongman leaders in countries around the globe. True, she does point out some behaviors that these men adopted on their rise to power that Trump seems to mimic. However, her ultimate point is that under Trump's volatile presidency, America is abdicating its traditional leadership role in working against this trend. You may argue that Trump is successfully executing that role, or that we have historically failed in that role, or even that we shouldn't take on that role, but you shouldn't launch a tirade against her for things she hasn't written. If you can get past your "obvious desire to pillory (someone) you despise", you might find some of her views on global affairs interesting. Or not.
3
Trump is a reflection of 40 per cent of US.
It is not a pretty picture. America has to come to grips with itself.
We get the government we deserve.
11
Exactly. This is the America I know. - black American.
3
“In May of 1996, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Madeleine Albright, who at the time was Clinton’s U.N. ambassador. Correspondent Leslie Stahl said to Albright, “We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And — and, you know, is the price worth it?”
Madeleine Albright replied, “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.”
She is a war criminal.
27
Many people feel the same about Henry Kissinger, that he’s a war criminal for his involvement in the clandestine bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War and for the political monstrosities he administered in East Timor. I bet the case could be more easily adjudicated in Kissinger’s case than Albright’s.
13
It's not a competition to see who is more of a war criminal.
Kissinger, Albright, the Bush team, Obama, and Trump are all equally guilty.
Wow, you really have been affected by our flag waving, glorification of the military. The posturing and proud uniforms, support the military enthusiasms we hold as a sacred cow, forgets the one main tactic of these organizations.
They are trained to act as efficient killing machines. This is what the military and wars are really about. Many Americans love to demand that we "send in the troops", conveniently forgetting what their stock in trade is.
Doubt me? Then you've never been in the military or experienced boot camp and the incessant chanting done, to prepare one's mind to indulge in what amounts to mass murder. The benefits and drawbacks of these approaches need to be carefully measured, unfortunately, when all other measures fail.
3
Oh, well. Another partisan book.
12
The fools on balconies are emergent not truly ascendant. There is time to laugh at their followers who can still move from folly.
You might also not know that the American Enterprise Institute published papers supporting Mussolini style fascism, and that William Buckley's National Review strongly supported Franco in Spain. Loving fascists is not a new phenomena on the right. Read Pat Buchanan's paean to Mussolini.
23
Arrogantly proclaiming the imperial U.S. as the "indispensable nation" wreaks of a haughty form of Fascism.
8
Your definition of fascism leaves out the oligarchs and corporate titans who fund, and ultimately control, the government of authoritarians.
Without oligarchs in the 30's funding the tent revivals that warned the rural and small town folks of the dangers of welfare and the New Deal or the koch bothers funding of the so called tea partistas we would not be in this danger.
Without a massive wave of voters this year and a massive turnover in control of government and a justice system that will punish the fascists and the oligarchs who seem intent of sedition, if not treason, we will not survive.
Bless Albright for using the term fascist.
I hope the members of our 4th Estate remember that in a fascist state reporters are generally out of work. And in prison. Or dead.
Get to work people.
13
"Without oligarchs in the 30's funding the tent revivals that warned the rural and small town folks of the dangers of welfare and the New Deal..."
If you proposed New Deal types of programs without the identity politics, you could have that wide base of support. Otherwise "safe minority-majority congressional districts" is just another expression for legalized gerrymandering.
Tent revivals - "the horror, the horror".
2
"How many times can a man turn his head . . . and pretend he just doesn't see."
"The answer my friend is blowing in the wind."
The majority of Americans know the truth.
Now we the people must speak it, vote it, march it.
13
Hysteria. American institutions are containing Trump quite effectively.
Fascist regimes historically had open contempt for democracy and once in power proceeded rapidly to dismantle it. If our November elections get cancelled, I'll admit I was wrong not to be worried.
5
The elections wouldn't have to be cancelled, covert voter suppression and outright fraud would also work nicely.
12
Trumps followers were not born in the 30s and40s and have little to no knowledge of Fascist beliefs and their
Results.Trumps big tough guy,doesn’t know about
Democracy and doesn’t care ,appeals to those who were
Devastated in 2008,financially or lost their jobs in
Manufacturing or both.To those who voted for him ,he’s going to drain the swamp,just as the leader in Italy in
The 40s Mussolini said he would do.Many died to keep him from keeping that promise along with his Nazi
Partner Adolph Hitler.Read history.
6
Well, having observed other fascist regimes abuse their power in the name of the people, Trump's vulgarity in trying to imitate the 'best' of them has no paragon in these United States. And though the U.S. has some odious history in interfering in other nations internal affairs (Iran, Chile, etc, etc), it is still considered a democracy worth emulating. But, as you said, Trump is the antithesis of what is needed to defend the freedom to decide our own destiny; as we took for granted our progress towards enlightenment, we fell asleep at the wheel, complacent with the status quo, and likely complicit in allowing a dangerous demagogue and charlatan to cheat on us, and, if left alone, take us to the slaughterhouse by our noses. The ominous silence of the republican party has been deafening, cowing to the current mafia in government, a fascist move if I've ever seen one. Let's wake up folks, and rise to the occasion, stop the trampling of this, by now feeble, democracy of ours. The daily obfuscation and thrashing of the press is becoming intolerable, especially for those of us refusing not to think for ourselves. Trump's tribal condemnation of "the other" is clearly what a dimming 'white supremacist' would do to stay in power...and abuse it at will. But, this ought not go on unchallenged, if we appreciate the truth and it's beauty, firmly grounded in the facts, and reason, and a love for the country we belong to. Now, do we have what it takes, the "ganas" to restore civility?
1
stumpy's supporters are like the low-level 'made men' of the Mafia.... They buy their security and their few baubles by wreaking havoc on others, and thus rationalize their cowardice and ignorance.
They long to be the 'capo di tutti capi', seeing the thuggish values as the epitome.
We rightly call them sociopaths, and recognize them for the sub-humans they are.
5
Comment not for publication:
I think it is wonderful the way the NY Times has put the replies to the post under them so we can see what others think about the comment instead of finding them with the regular comments. Bravo
8
Everywhere I look, freedom of speech in this country is being curtailed. Facebook and Google have long shown little tolerance for right wing views and college campuses across the U.S. have become homogenized echo chambers of progressive-Speak. Anyone expressing a position slightly to the right of Maxine Waters is silenced and ostracized as a bigot, a homophobe, an islamophobe, a mysoginist, a racist (though of course never as an anti-Semite because there is no rung on the SJW victimhood ladder for Jews, but I digress). Professors eschew benign, thought provoking aspects of a curriculum for fear of offending and have instead placed themselves under self-imposed gag orders lest an utterance be viewed as offensive and their career comes crashing down. In offices and corporate hallways all over the country, sharing conservative viewpoints can get you turned in. Smells like N. Korea, no? So, Madam Albright is right to be concerned, but seems to me the spotlight should shift left. Repression and authoritarianism know no political stripe (Cambodians, tragically, understand this well).
8
You are conflating freedom of speech guaranteed by the government with not being able to accept the consequences of your speech. All the 1st amendment protects you from is the government limiting your speech, it says nothing about how other people or your employer has to react to it.
15
Nope. Not conflating the two. In fact, by stating the obvious, that the constitution has no role in how others react to speech, you miss the point: We are living in a society where, increasingly, people feel inhibited to speak their mind. Most of those people share a conservative viewpoint (Michael Bloomberg's 2014 commencement address at Harvard is worth a listen in this regard). Those people are being bullied, penalized, reprimanded, attacked, shouted down, ridiculed, disparaged, silenced, fired and generally marginalized from the "mainstream" (and as a result, when they get into the privacy of the voting booth they -- lo and behold -- pull the lever for the authoritarian on the right. It's a reaction, and it is happening all over the world. This "fascism" on the left is birthing the concerns that Madam Albright is concerned about. Ignoring the increasingly authoritarian, illiberal, intolerance brewing on the Left is where the danger lies.
1
That post is a little out of touch with reality.
All three branches of government are controlled by the far Right.
It is they, and their desire for a corporatist theocracy, that seek to curtail the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
It's the Left that is resisting this and speaking out against it. As they have a right to do.
3
Ms. Albright knows a thing or two about fascism. Today in the NYT Krugman called Ryan and the republicans fascist. We must unite to defeat them. In the 40's there were maybe 100 million dead because of fascism.
7
Democracy dies when reasonable men and women cannot come together and reach a compromise. Compromise, for the GOP, became a dirty word in the 1990's. We are fast approaching that same mentality on the left as well.
While all the mechanisms are in place to remove autocratic leaders in the United States, too many elected officials refuse to them for fear of losing an election back home. When party loyalty becomes superior to loyalty to country, how are we any different from those nations we perceive as our enemies? Are we not fascists...just under another name?
5
Madeleine Albright is in a good position to know that liberal democracy vs fascism isn't a nice clean choice between white hats and black. An example: sanctions on Iraq, begun in 1990, may have resulted in the deaths of half a million children under the age of five. By pretending concern over possible military use, the US and Britain delayed and restricted Iraq's purchase and importation of items key to food production, the water treatment and sewage systems, and basic medical care. The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, notably the electrical grid, during the Gulf War, reinforced the effects. As President Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, speaking on "60 Minutes," described these deaths as "worth it."
13
It is interesting that she uses Fascism and authoritarianism interchangeably. Fascism is a historical term that denotes hard right wing authoritarianism, but in all honesty whether authoritarianism is politically positioned on the left or right the actual form of government is the same. Cult of personality, degradation of institutions that challenge the hegemony of the authoritarian, assault on the truth and the freedom of information, and the demand for loyalty. All of these were shared traits of both of the worst examples of authoritarianism on both the left and right, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. I think that we ought to stick to using authoritarianism and using both the Fascism and Communism of the 20th century as historical examples, because ultimately Fascism and Communism are artifacts, but authoritarianism type of government that is alive and can grow out of any political or ideological movement.
5
Stalinism was not a manifestation of the Left.
Stalin was a Right wing authoritarian sitting on top of a bureaucracy that preyed upon and exploited the underlying socialist economic system.
By definition, the Left advocates for control of their own government by working people and opposes all forms of dictatorship.
Madeleine Albright is a product of a by gone age when people and some politicians believed in talking to one another and seeking compromise through understanding. In some sense she is a conservative as opposed to the reactionary politics of our age. Fascists have one thing in common. They are reactionaries who take power and pretend that no one else counts, that they know best for the whole country. The old ideals of talking gives away to pure power.
It is interesting that Democrats must up hold Democratic ideals such as talking to one another while republicans who talk the talk of democracy shut everyone else out and trend toward fascism. We in this country who have pretended to be a democratic beacon on a hill must take back the ideals that we talk so much about and make it more than bluster.
7
When Trump was tweeting about all of his various "enemies" during the 2016 campaign, I raised red flags and warned people. No one in the media, that I'm aware of, called him out for declaring that segments of the American citizenry are his declared enemies. Fox, the RNC and Republican legislators have for years accused people who have differing views on policy of being treasonous, traitors, un-American, weaklings, soft on terror and the like.
When they declare Americans their enemies, they declare their status as enemies OF America.
This is why the Republican party is a clear and present danger, is a domestic enemy, and must be destroyed.
In the NYT review yesterday of Mr. Comey's book, the author stated that he was a Republican until just recently. All people of decency and who hold American values congruent with democracy and the Constitution must leave the Republican party and disavow it and all of its actions against America, Constitution and the American citizenry.
8
In her new book, it will be interesting to see if Secretary Albright discusses a common precursor to authoritarianism: the falling into extreme deprivation of a large portion of the citizenry of a state who slouches into it, almost as a law of political economy.
Mass starvation during and after WWI, followed by the Great Depression, enabled Hitler to rise to power. Even in America, the trials of the Great Depression enabled Huey Long to reach heights of power undreamed of in normal times.
The 2008 Great Recession is the current precursor. Since it was a global phenomenon, the rise of authoritarianism is global: Orban, Le Pen, Putin, Trump, Xi, Chavez, el-Sisi, Erdogan, etc. It was the precipitating period for radicalization of a struggling working class. Put aside the racism and intolerance that is always present among us; that, like the poor, will always be among us. So affected people saw their savior in a strongman; the niceties of the neoliberal order can’t be served on a plate at the dinner table.
Free trade, if done carefully to mitigate the fallout on affected workers, is a good thing. But it hasn’t been implemented that way - and a devastated, rusting, empty rural landscape, whose inhabitants were the most affected, was the result.
If only we could learn from these troubled periods, how to recognize the seemingly nascent suffering of a large part of our neighbors — and then to intervene while the symptoms presaging political repression are manageable. May it be.
6
"Fascism" is a difficult word to define. Its specific incarnations were non-democratic, state directed economic programs run by a single authoritarian figure, enabled by a large, loyal bureaucracy and devoted to ultranationalist aims. To the extent that the goal was "national greatness" and the concept of what national greatness meant was centered in the mind of one person and masses of angry and delusional supporters, hungry for mythical lost glory, enabled the whims of the leader, today's America looks a lot like an inchoate fascist state.
Ms. Albright is on the mark in making the charge against the trump administration (and Comey's observations of the demand for absolute loyalty to the leader are a chilling validation of her case). The question that needs to be answered now is: what is America today and what will it become tomorrow?
4
Ms. Albright is brilliant...Instinctively she knew there was a revival of fascism and sought to share her knowledge...Trump is merely an exclamation point. History will cycle like the climate...let us hope that we are not at the dawn of a nuclear winter.
3
Her father might have despaired if he hadn't been let in.
Guess who wouldn't have let him in.
8
I always admired Madeleine Albright's warrying spirit during the break-up of former Yugoslavia, but I have some reservations about accepting blindly all the views of a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
3
Madeleine Albright is well beyond "Worried" in response to not only the ever increasing damage to our Democracy from Trump and the GOP, as well as well as a the growing Far-Right around the world.
Secretary Albright is True-Witness to the most horrible atrocities of the 20th Century !
Living through Hitler as a Jew, and then Communism, affords Ms. Albright to be a true treasure of actual real-time destruction by the hands of Authoritarian Regimes.
I cannot even imagine the nightmares she is reliving while under the Trump Regime.
The growing number in America and globally of people who would welcome Authoritarian Regimes and Dictatorships should make us all "Worry" !
Not only are we challenged with "Taking our Country Back . . .
The Citizens of the World must also stand together for Democracy and Free Societies.
3
Those of us old enough know what Albright is talking about. We, too, hear the echoes of the Fascist past in our ears...and increasingly in our sight. Younger generations may well have to learn for themselves what that means because it appears that many of them see nothing wrong with what's happening in the world today. Simply read some of the comments in this section. This, I believe, is the result of having too much...of everything...without having to "pay" for it. What goes around, comes around.
3
In response to a question on how 5000,000 children were killed by sanctions against Iraq, Albright answered
"I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it."
One unfortunate consequence of Trump's victory, is that a whole crew of people with sordid histories and pretty awful politics have been elevated as virtuous and sane in comparison. Whe have Jame Comey, a whole group of socially, mean-spirited Never Trump reactionary Republicans, neo-liberal, militaristic Democrats, columnists from the NY Times who advocate for more wars, attack abortion and gay rights, want to assault the environment, who celebrate Reagan to the skies and others who made all types of apologetics for Hilary Clinton. And in fact, all in all, they are better (sort of).
4
When Eisenhower became President after 20 years of democratic party rule the State Department was full of communists and communist sympathizers. Alger Hiss, a convicted communist spy, would have become Secretary of State had Henry Wallace won the election of 1948. The State Department sympathized with Mao, seeing Chiang as corrupt-which he was-but Mao murdered 100 million people.
The State Department needed to be cleaned out again. John Kerry and his flunkies announced Syria was cleansed of chemical weapons 2 years ago. The Iran deal will terminate on its own without Iran doing anything to rid itself of the ability to make and deliver nuclear weapons. We normalized relations with Cuba in exchange for not a single dissident being freed. Obama's State Department dithered in Syria and North Korea, sympathized with our enemies, and attacked our allies.
Eisnehower and John Foster Dulles rebuilt the State Department in the 1950s and Trump has every right to do the same. The career diplomats there have a legacy of failure. Good riddance.
Godspeed Donald.
7
jkemp,
As I live and breathe, a real-life McCarthyite.
You must think that the entire Congress in the 1950s were communists, as they all, from both left and right, repudiated McCarthy and censured him for his lies.
Today, the Unamerican Activities Committee is justly reviled for its unconstitutional witch hunts. Sounds like you would like to revive it.
1
It COULD be worse than the Trump we have now. What if he were smart and strategic, with those same autocratic desires? I think it would be much uglier.
4
"...that they embody the spirit of the nation and that they have the answers and that their instincts are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.”
Rings true of China's current leader, Xi Jinping. His "thought" has been incorporated into the Constitution of China, and terms limits removed so that he can rule for life perhaps.
One question is: was he unstoppable by any elite actors let alone the common people, or did the elites actually willingly fall in line with his apparent one man rule and infallibility?
Furthermore, can the China economic juggernaut be successful with this political arrangement? If the economy falters will the leader falter?
3
I share Albright's concern about the rise of authoritarianism both here and around the world. An interesting aspect of this phenomenon is that willingness to accept and give more power to leaders who say they will fix our problems is more common in people who are more fearful.
This characteristic has been correlated with conservative views by many studies. There are also brain anatomical differences supporting these traits. Conservatives tend to have a larger amygdala, which is associated with processing fear. Liberals tend to have a larger anterior cingulate gyrus, which is associated with processing new information. Other studies have shown that conservatives have more difficulty with conflict and change and prefer the status quo. Liberals tend to be more interested in looking at new information and are better able to accept conflict and differences. An association between conservative views and indices of authoritarianism has also been shown, which might explain the election of Trump.
People generally also become more conservative in response to major stressful events, such as 911. The US took a more conservative turn after that event and gave Bush/Cheney the power to do what they said would fix things. The present-day world has become filled with many dangerous conflicts, so it makes sense that more people are fearful and are turning to perceived strong leaders to fix problems.
One solution might be less saber rattling and greater emphasis on diplomacy and compassion.
1
So many of the commenters reflect the extremes that gave us trump. trump voters claiming he represents the majority of the country and the Dems who didn't vote, or voted third party, demonizing "old liberals". The demagoguery of the alt-Right and the alt-Left will continue to erode democracy.
4
Ms. Goldberg paints an accurate picture of the rising risk of autocracy gaining ground worldwide.
We are at or near the point where families will, and maybe should divide over this issue. It’s no longer just conservative values on immigration or even race that are being argued over.
A system, and to use their language, a way of life, that has been hard fought for, with much sacrifice, is now at risk of being subjugated by the traditional cancer of fascism.
Maybe the dinner table should no longer be held sacrosanct.
2
The most revelatory thing I've read recently was Trump calling himself "white trash" and saying the only difference betweem himself and them is that they are poor.
It's easy to forget that some of the hardest, most dangerous work done in this country has been done by "white trash." That they were isolated and ignored for a long, long time. Take a look at photos of JFK visiting Appalachia, or the the people lined up for the "health fairs" to receive care, especially before the ACA. Look at what was done to their land by strip mining and run offs. At the rates of suicide and addiction. At what happens to a town when the factory leaves. Look at how many are serving in the armed forces.
There is plenty to criticize about them. But a lot of the "jobs whites won't do," a loy of the working and fighting and dying has been done by "white trash."
And there is no group educated white people, particularly liberals, hold in such contempt. Trump gave them some respect. We can either cintinue to ignore them, make fun of them--and get people like Trump for president. Or we can look in the mirror and try to figure out what to do better.
14
Very nicely said.
2
"White trash" electing trump is a myth. the median income of the 2016 viter was.$72,000, whereas the median income od the Dem voter was $58,000. the impact of "white trash" and economic difficulties was minimal in electing trump. trump lost the electoral collage because 4 million Obama Dems didn't vote. Clinton wasn't black enough or "progressive" enough.
7
The main reason the Electoral College did not elect Clinton is that she failed to appeal to enough independents in the swing states that decided the election.
You cannot lay collective guilt on millions of people. That won't win elections.
It's up to the candidates to inspire people to vote for them. Blaming them for favoring the other guy, as Clinton found out, is just stupid.
2
The rise of the right is due to the increased concentration of wherewithal in the wealthy. In its current form globalization only serves the process of this concentration. Losing the prospect of having enough to live on and fear of the future for one's children, makes people strike out. The wealthy, as the Romans did, divide and conquer, the masses through propaganda villainizing the "other", making them targets.
12
I am afraid senility can make someone say outrageous statements.
She is of the Clinton camp.
Another one who cannot accept reality. Accusing a winner of the worst possible accusations shows how at a loss for argument one is.
5
Trump hasn't taken his followers anywhere they didn't already want to go. The Republican Party has been slouching in this direction since Newt Gingrich brought "total war" to the House of Representatives in the Clinton era. Imperialism always carries the incipient strains of fascism along with it, and super-power America is nothing if not an empire. The Constitution cannot save us from ourselves.
256
Precisely stated. Thank you.
14
She knows what she's talking about. This is a book we should all read. since we seem to have forgotten, as a nation, the reasons for WWII. Might help to improve our educational system. I hope that will be one of the basic of the 2020 Democratic platform.
14
Pelosi and Speaker and H-Rod as candidate for POTUS. The Dems will never be accused of having "2020" foresight.
Uh, I find it very frustrating that when we hold a fair Democratic election and Trump wins easily, somehow all his voters are fascists. Comparing Trump and the problems Albright grew up with is ridiculous. America voted for someone to clean UP America, not clean it OUT.
39
Hardly fair. Hardly easily. The electoral college was close and Trump didn't win even the popular vote. Comey's lopsided announcement 10 days before the end put his thumb on the scale. So did Russian bots. First Presidential election with Voting Right's act protections lifted. Gerrymandering remains strong. All his voters weren't authoritarian just the ones that brought guns and racist/sexist signs to rallies.
92
Have you conveniently forgotten that Trump lost the popular vote by a large margin? He won the office because of gerrymandering and the Electoral College, which was useful for a very different population and historic time. Read some history, Pilot, and you'll see that Ms. Albright knows whereof she speaks.
72
Pilot--Well maybe, but NONE of things that were promised were delivered. The whole mess turned out to be a lie. Wait for the wave. And try reading a history book, if you can find a current one.
38
Madeline Albright, whose qualifications to serve the USA seem to be limited to having distant relatives that were victims of the Holocaust, accomplished very little during her tenure. I respect her for her intelligence and for her intentions. But I believe her to be just a little too self-righteous and convinced that others have no ability to think and act for themselves. Her aristocratic demeanor is actually a drawback in America. This seems to be a common failure of everyone at the top of the corporate structure of the DNC......they simply dont observe the Modern World for what it is....they insist on attempting to mold it to DNC corporate goals of maintaining a power structure as it existed in 1968....prior to Nixon, JFK was still a shining, smiling youthful appearing Icon of Liberal Democracy, everyone joined the Peace Corps, America was going to welcome the entire world(universe even) to its golden shores, our youth were taking to the streets to help the black man vote, to help the poor survive, free love, free drugs, free internet. Now these tired old liberal warriors sit at the court house square and bad mouth everything .......
6
Why do token liberals like Goldberg continue to shill for Albright? Albright's draconian sanctions on Iraq for possessing what proved to be nonexistent weapons of mass destruction produced half a million dead Iraqi children under the age of 5 as well as the re-invasion of Iraq. What possible lessons can be learned from Albright or selective amnesiacs like Goldberg?
10
We were warned. We let the crowd, the great unwashed wash over us. Sorry for the nastiness but really, the great crowds rallying to these "great leaders' and Hitler's side present no case for diplomacy and commodity regarding those who would emotionally charged, sell their freedom for a (broken) promise.
IMussolino was eventualy hung upside down in public, Hitler committed suicide:those who forget hostiry will indeed repeat it.
9
adam--I'd love to see the same thing happen to tRump, but not Melania. But, I will settle for his business to go completely broke, while he is shunned by all decent people.
1
To be honest though, is fascism all that bad? , could be much worse......
1
A large contributing factor to this hero worship is ignorance in civics-that is lack of civics education.
Ask the ignorants who profess worship of ‘ string’ leadership about the US Constitution and you’d be surprised how little they know vs what they THINK they know.
It’s high time to bring required civics education into the curriculum , standardized tests be damned.
12
My take on The Donald is a bit different - he is not the classic authoritarian - he is more a shape shifter. He has no moral compass, and very little actual knowledge. He is a hollow man who is more a performance artist than a politician. He will bend his message to whoever his audience is at any one moment. The Donald could just as easily be championing liberal/progressive policies if that was what his audience demanded. The correct description of POTUS 45 is con man/shape shifter. Right now he bis trying to appeal to the mean wing of the Republican party and his missives and policies are a guess at what they want. F&F gives him his daily assignments and he duly follows through on their leads.
24
Since I am Madeleine Albright's age I also hear the distant voices of Mussolini and Hitler.Hitler,famously promised to make the trains run on time!I hear echoes when there is a promise to "build a wall".Is it possible that we have become too complacent and prosperous in recent years and forgotten our devotion to democratic ideals.Most of all we have not studied our history and are thus doomed to repeat it.
228
(FYI, it was Mussolini, not Hitler, who promised to "make the trains run on time).
6
HE is not smart enough to be a full blown fascist. But, he can outsource the intelligence. Pompeo, for instance. A very intelligent zealot, the worst kind. A true believer, in his " vision " and himself. Pompeo and Pence are the perfect pair to a dystopian future, for anyone NOT a white, heterosexual Male. Pompeo WILL be the next Vice President, when Trump resigns. For starters. Seriously.
10
That is this nonsense about Trump not yet being a full blown fascist? Do we have to wait for goons with baseball bats breaking heads in the streets or journalists being arrested or camps for dissidents? What stands in his way if the rule of law and without it we have a fascist dictatorship. What does the rule of law depend on? The cowardly GOP majority in Congress and the conservative majority in the Supreme Court. Just watch. When Trump tells the Trumpocrats controlling Congress to jump, then will ask how heigh.
6
What's not to like?
1
Yes, and many of us have been complaining about it for a while, and saw it in the edict-loving Barack Obama, the grasping power-hungry Clintons, and an administrative state that has been weaponized to achieve the goals of the "progressive" Left. Such authoritarian impulses appear to be as much a "feature" of the enlightened Left as the unenlightened Right. Maybe we should all fall back on the Constitution, the separation of powers, and checks and balances. Nah, you guys wanna win at all costs as much as the "bad guys".
7
Never in all of my 66 years did I ever think America would turn to an authoritarian figure such as Trump. I agree with Albright; we need to be pushing back RIGHT NOW before some real or contrived event pushes us quickly into 'I alone can fix it' land, the land of Trumplandia.
We're actually lucky that we have Trump, a man who is showing us the future if we don't pay attention, but so clumsy about it all that we have a chance to fight back and never, ever let a 'real' strongman into the White House.
Trump voters are so ignorant of their man and what he and his henchmen stand for. They stand for Trump and nothing more. Trumpian Power is what they all want and I pray we stop them.
17
If trump be considered 'merely' authoritarian (crazily presumptive, in his case, of his "authority") and not fascistic ... I think I'd prefer most fascists!
One thing is 'for sure': Any trump-mussolini similarities (symbolic or otherwise), if not mere coincidence, must come from some trump acolyte's plan/ideas ... 'cause there ain't no chance that trump read up on Mussolini (or anything else).
P.S. I can't see Fox & Friends as trump's 'mussolini generator' -- since it's hosts and producers must surely be as illiterate and incurious as their master and patron.)
1
Yes, the Italians despised the Press-they even brought Mussolini back for another go-round, with the aid of the German Special Services-but few people in the US know the extremely unkind and often bloody minded relationship between the "press" and the political class here. The "Broadside",(a large, easy to print and paste log of lies and disgusting drawings-many pornographic and demeaning), was invented to put ideas in illiterate heads on several levels-Most Americans couldn't read, and few understood the nuances of political discourse-"Inside Baseball" of politics. How many know about the Levi Liuncoln countown on Sec. State, J. Marshall signing judgship appointments-alleging he was a tool of federalists. That Abe Lincoln and family-3score years later, called reporters and papers the "Vampire press"?
For absolute nadirs of political acting-see Andrew Johnson and his pardoning of almost every important traitor from Dixie. Without him, America might have grown upless like antebellum Alabama.
We are the fruit of the loins of the lowest, but most priapic, political thugs among us-it is the easy way to go-Just don't think. But there is little-almost nothing new , about it. If Dems would vote for their candidates-the GOP/Russian axis would have no "purchase".
4
Where was this person when thousands were being slaughtered in Rwanda?
5
People like Madeleine Albright light up the world, while people like Trump are the darkness that destroys it. Although Goldberg is the only woman of the light to be writing in the Times Op Ed section today, she is the only columnist I have bothered to read. The paper should be adjusted accordingly, if it is not to be considered a supporter of Trumpian fascism.
3
Some people pussyfoot around declaring that Trump is a fascist. I don't. I think Charlottesville says it all. Neither can I forget the image of Trump's demagogic campaign rallies, his strutting condoning of violence and hatred of the press. And most of all his declaration that the election was "rigged" and he would not accept the results, a not so subtle call for right wing violence in the event, which seemed likely at the time, that he would lose. When he rails against the "deep state" and the "elites", he is echoing Hitler's similar accusations of a " left-wing, Jewish conspiracy." Say it in black and white: Trump is a fascist.
11
The Pink Lady, and all, should be concerned about the coup being waged in Warshington. Its ideological cousin --- kill-Brexit, is excepting failure along with a misguided embrace of a Khanistan. Let's hope the frustrated and confused Warshington establishment reckons the same -- without further violence.
If you are really worried about fascism, you had better deal with the gross economic inequality in this country.
And an increase in the minimum wage isn’t an answer. It’s an insult.
206
True, there is much work to be done beyond increasing the minimum wage. But a $15 hr. minimum is the best starting point. It may be the only way eliminate the permanent underclass of slave wage workers.
37
Actually, an increase in minimum wage works really well. Go look at countries like Denmark and Germany.
And German is known for high-tech manufacturing. They have better schools for the working class, training for trades and high-tech manufacturing in addition to college.
They also provide universal healthcare at half the cost per person of the US. That's really good for business.
After 35 years of trickle-down Reaganomics, we got an opioid crisis.
And those countries consistently rate higher on the Forbes Best Countries for Business list.
54
and Fascism is the answer ??
18
Mrs Albright in her advanced years is beginning to recognise the fascist overtones of American Exceptionalism. American Exceptionalism has always been used to ignore International Law, on the grounds that they (USA) embody the spirit of the goodness, that they (USA) have the answers and that their instincts (USA) are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.” By ignoring International Law, the USA chooses ‘Might is Right’. The USA has regularly resorted to extrajudicial violence (e.g. murder by drone), Regime Change (Multiple examples including Syria where they right now choose to invade and risk provoking WW III by confronting Russia who is legally present in Syria (at the invitation of the Syrian Government) and quite willing to provoke a nuclear exchange WW III, which may be the shortest war in History.
80
Thanks to Mr. Jennings for his reasoned comment, no one wants to hear the truth and thanks to The Times for giving him “ a Pick” I hope many people give the issues Mr. Jennings outlines serious thought, we can no longer be the bully in the room nor do we have the fiscal ability to continue on this path without accelerating our race to the bottom.
17
Gosh, I guess it doesn't matter that Assad with the assistance of the Russians is gassing his citizens to death in direct violation of the international law of which you speak.
16
I hold that human life is sacred. I condemn the death of any person by poison gas, American killer drone, Blackwater Mercenary, Russian, French, British soldier deliberate murder.
I look for evidence for provocative actions that happen in a timely manner. used to kill more people. When a strange incident in the UK provokes an immediate decision to blame Russia – before evidence is produced; when a very strange use of gas in Syria provokes an immediate decision to blame Russia then I look for evidence.
When the British case falls apart, a “lethal military grade chemical weapon” attack is survived by the three people affected, I wonder about the truthfulness of those noisily blaming Russia. When the UK Foreign Minister is shown lying on German Media and this lying is excused I wonder why the media is so pliant.
When I see a convenient set of incidents point to a desire to reignite a bloody war in Syria, that is almost over, I ask ‘who benefits?
When I use my own judgement, not the propaganda from the Military/Industrial complex I conclude that perhaps the British are having Political troubles and need a war and bloodshed to ‘get out of jail free’.
I have seen many many false flag incidents used to justify bloody wars that have thrown young men, usually young men, into the most awful debasement of human life.
When I see that once again then I shout stop! Not in my name!
Madeleine Albright joins the growing list of former high-ranking government officials, now including former FBI Director James Comey, warning of the anti-democratic wave sweeping the nation under the banner of Donald Trump and his "America First" nationalism that smacks of the pro-fascist movement of the same name in the 1930s. Trump has been relentless in his attacks on our Constitutional "rule of law" to the point where we're on "Mueller watch" with his threat to fire the Special Counsel. He has abused his pardon power by granting it to fascist former sheriff Joe Arpaio who ran what amounted to a death camp for Hispanic immigrants. He engaged during the campaign in "extrajudicial" threats against his opponent Hillary Clinton with the chant, "Lock her up!" and the not-so-veiled threat that his 2nd amendment fanatics could gun her down. He excused neo-Nazis in Charlottesville who murdered a young woman as having some "good people" and equivalent to the anti-fascist counter-protestors. And, even now, as the legal net has ensnared his "fixer" Michael Cohen, he has ratcheted up the attacks on the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and especially his deputy Rod Rosenstein along with Special Counsel, Robert Mueller III to a "fever pitch" where we face the imminent threat of a Constitutional crisis pitting Trump's autocracy against our Constitutional democracy. Meanwhile the complacent and complicit Republican-controlled Congress remains eerily silent.
4
I have long admired Ms. Albright as a true states person and voice of high intelligence.
Her writing comes at a critical moment in our history. The ideology of nationalism endangers rampant ignorance and white supremacy far too blatant in this disastrous administration.
We have a gangster in the Oval Office who puts his personal greed and egomania above the oath of office and his neglect to protect our democracy from foreign interference and domestic extremists. Democrats and Independents must get out and vote-the Republican enablers out in November
3
Fascism is an irrational response to a general but unnameable sense of threat.
Trump's manner and language says just swing hard at whatever is lurking out there and it will be afraid. Kind of like what you are supposed to do when a bear threatens you - look big and frightening, make lots of noise even though you are small and defenceless.
That is an appealing message to those who are afraid of losing their property, their status, their 30 years of economic gains. Those are the real Trump voters, not the coal miners and farmers that are the media darlings representing T supporters. Scratch that surface and you find the white middle class who watch too much TV and feel threatened by a world they see there that they don't understand.
Democracy isn't about how much taxes we should pay or the size of the military budget and it isn't even about immigration. Democracy is about preserving the unalienable rights given to us by the Constitution that no lawmaker can take away. Albright is right on the money when she sees Trump trashing the supports that protect those rights.
His supporters see him as one of them. he embodies their fears of the other. That other will use these American rights, once exclusive to the white well off, to get ahead and force a re-examination of what it means to be a citizen of the US. Democracy becomes dangerous and a fascist leader looks like the savior.
6
It is worrying that the president has already borrowed some of the characteristics of authoritarian leaders he seems to admire currently on the world stage. Denying the birthplace of his predecessor, calling for his political opponent to be locked up and referring to the free press(as opposed to the quasi run state news from Fox)as enemies of the people, reveals how Donald Trump has already embraced some elements of fascism.
5
There is truth but also a historical mistake when lumping Trump with the cadre of fascists around the world. America will not become a fascist country: before that happens, it would break apart at its natural fault lines. The country has always had its Southern-Caribbean authoritarian strike, and when that trend succeeds in recruiting Appalachia and the "Heartland", it gains enormous power (and there is the risk of a really big and all power federal government: handing over a huge army to Rumselfd or Bolton or Trump). So Trump succeeded. But Lincoln did so as well, and turned the tide even through a bloody war. Paraphrasing Lincoln, we are still on that battlefield.
How the Dems plays it out is important, because the GOP is Trump. But if they focus on "Trump" they will make this battle unnecessarily long. They need to peel off his supporters, just enough of them, not scream at them that Trump is mean and ignorant and whatever. They do not care. Get them to be with you on the issues, repeat repeat repeat and persuade, do not deride. That is the game of democracy.
And do not forget that there is no warranty that the Union will remain a union. WWII wiped out a sprouting horror, but did not wiped out the roots of it. And the roots are everywhere, even in America.
113
Albright gave a lengthy interview on Pod Save America this week. Highly recommend listening to this interview. Albright is a fascinating, articulate speaker. What a contrast to Bolton and Pompeo.
3
I too am concerned, but for a slightly different reason. Her statement, “What they do have in common,” she said, “is this assumption, or decision, that they embody the spirit of the nation and that they have the answers and that their instincts are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.” I agree that is why I am baffled by Christians support of Mr. Trump. Indeed we have been taught since Sunday School that we should pray for our leaders, but we weren’t taught to justify wrong. The deal breaker for any Christian should have been when Mr. Trump said, “I and I alone.” Those words revealed an ungodly arrogance that should have never been taking lightly regardless of his stance on abortion. How do you overlook greed and threatening to shoot someone when you proclaim Christ Jesus and hold fast to abortion when we are taught there are no degrees of sin? Sin is sin. To overlook a character trait that has implications beyond so many different areas is insane. Conservative media has infiltrated our Christian Churches and by many Christians failure to read the Bible for themselves, they have replaced Nationalism for Christianity and politicians and preachers like Franklin Graham have taken advantage for their own lusts. Agreed, I’m worried about facisim, but I am disturbed by the manipulation of Christians by their pastors, by our President and by Conservative Media who have replaced money and power over Jesus. Ignorance creates facisim.
3
Secretary Albright is a treasure. Her extemporaneous speech is as clear and coherent as an Orwell essay. Such pleasure to hear and read considered analysis given without false equivalence or the current Washington insiders' idioms of, "Listen . . ." or "Clearly . . ."
Our leader is semi literate, immoral and without the attention span required to understand the issues before him. His party does not believe in science and is based on cutting costs and restraints on the rich and powerful at the expense of all others. There is nothing else.
Keep speaking out, Madame Secretary.
3
I am hopeful Secretary Albright's is a messenger whose words are heeded and not just a latter day Cassandra.
3
It's a bit hard to say Trump is "our most undemocratic president" when he, unlike George W. Bush, was elected without benefit of massive voter-suppression, vote-flipping, and the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Before we get swept away with Trump's awfulness (And he is indeed awful), we would do well to remember that under Dubya, we went from being a nation of laws to a nation of war criminals and torturers.
Trump's presidency is, at least until proven otherwise, an aberration. Many of the bricks that form the foundation of Trump's voting base were put in place by his immediate three predecessors.
1
I see signs that Republican support for Mueller is weakening and their fear of a November debacle may move them to align with Trump to kill the investigation and suppress the findings. If this happens you can pronounce our democracy officially deceased.
6
No one is going to change Trump's way of speaking and acting. He's a cranky old man. He's going to do whatever he wants with the special counsel, just like Nixon effectively removed the guy investigating him. It was Congress that found Nixon's "smoking gun." It's not clear Trump has one, and it will be up to Congress to find out. That will require a change in congressional leadership, and voters will decide in November whether that happens.
2
Ms. Goldberg has been selective in her presentation of the situation. Most of the violence at political rallies and on university campuses in the USA has been inspired by the Left - and not by President Trump or his supporters.
Ms. Albright is a co-investor with George Soros and the Rothschild banking family in a venture to establish cellular phone service in Africa. Perhaps she can use it as a vehicle to spread democracy by operating as a non-profit and to fight the dictatorial and corrupt regimes on that continent - or as an income-generating machine which will vacuum pennies and dollars from the poor of Africa. Gee, I wonder which will be the favored strategy?
There are many skeletons in Ms. Albright's closet and her credibility is seriously at issue. Ms. Goldberg should be presenting both sides - and letting the reader decide. This column presents only one side.
6
The entire government has slid inexorably towards the far Right and total corporate control of every aspect of American life, and you are accusing a few — very few — opponents of fascism of isolated acts of violence.
That lack of perspective conforms perfectly to the Republican playbook's strategy of obscuring the big picture and cherry-picking trivia to demonize their opponents.
1
"...and not just be an observer.." What a marvelous woman and a gift to us during this perilous time of the Trumpism threat to our democracy. Ms Albright's sage advice must be put into action. It is not enough - it is never enough - to merely mouth or fret or grieve over the rampant dishonesty and thuggery spewing from the Oval Office. It is rather about action and getting involved even at a local level to stop the flow of bigotry, hate, and discrimination espoused by Trump and nourished by a Cabinet, Congress, and rabid supporters the likes of which I have never before witnessed.
Heed this former Secretary of State's warnings and profound knowledge, America. Not only vote this November. Do more where we can now. With this administration, November can be an eternity.
6
She’s right to be concerned not just locally but globally. This week, Hungary lost its last independent daily newspaper - the rest are under state control.
Think about that the next time our “Dear Leader” denigrates the press, and calls anything he doesn’t like “Fake News”. It’s not a long leap from where Hungary is now, to where we seemingly are headed.
7
Shame on all of us if we do not heed her message.
3
“If we think of fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab,”
Madame Secretary correctly chose a pain metaphor.
We won’t be getting out if this unscathed.
The forces of oligarchy and fascism have already quietly united in a monsters ball of anti democratic lawlessness.
The next shoe to drop is about to take its step forward in Hungary.
4
Well now let’s slow down here. Yes the book has a great title and I don’t wish to be mean but Ms. Albright also rationalized a hundred thousand deaths with the sanctions on Iraq. She also advanced a kind of American Hegemony not unlike a kind of financial fascism from Wall Street.
Sincere lady, smart, appreciate the contribution but let’s not get carried away. The lady is a war criminal.
7
I think people need to be careful about tossing around terms like fascism without clear definition. That doesn't mean Trump is a nice fellow. But there is a danger of crying wolf here: if anyone we don't like is a fascist, communist, etc. what happens when you confront a real one?
5
Sec. Albright should be worried. But unlike this very 'soft interview' by Ms. Goldberg, Sec. Albright was once asked, almost appologetically on 60 Minutes, "what about the claims that the US was responsible for the deaths of Iraqi children?"
Her boss, Bill Clinton was asked the same question and he went into a finger waving tirade, but never answered the question.
However, Sec. Albright was completley forthcoming when she replied that the death of those 500,000 children "was a small price to pay for advancing American interests."
The interviewer was stunned and there was no follow-up question. Those children died becaue the US bombed the Bagdad water treatment plant in 1992.
The CIA target assesment report made it clear that the plant had no militray value, but would result in "widespread water born disease affecting mostly the very young and the elderly."
The report was accurate. Cholrah and other diseases ravashed infants and they died painful deaths by the thousands. When under the sanctions regime Iraq requested to import chlorine, the most common disinfectant for water they were refused. The US claimed that while it would improve health it might also be used for weapons. And so more children died.
The final toll is estimated at half a million, a number more stagering than anything we've seen in mordern times.
But for Albright and her "establishment" they died for a good cause, our cause. But not my casue so I cannot allow their memory to go unmentioned.
7
Our "American exceptionalism" was built on the backs of slaves, women, the pogrom of native Americans, and other minorities so that white men could claim we are a nation of laws claiming to be a "more perfect union." Progress notwithstanding, until America faces its shadow, its original sins and all the lies we have been told, we will never be an honest democracy--- all progress remains threatened by our prolepsis. The current Trumpian lapse into authoritarianism is led by those too ignorant or religiously captive of anachronism--- all driven by profit over human values--- to deal with the difficult business of history and citizenship. When the likes of John Yoo can grace the pages of the Times--- the same dangerous reprobate who argued that torture is legal--- we are not only imperiled by our current failed leadership and under prepared citizenry. We must address too the powerful inclinations of our always incipient fascism, an America bereft of a moral foundation, so willing to justify and rationalize violence at the expense of human rights.
1
Most of the purveyors of fascist thoughts in America are on right-wing talk radio. Trump and his supporters were "created" by them. American democracy will not survive them...because the rest of us will not find a mechanism to neutralize them --- unless the average American voter suddenly becomes motivated to seek the truth on his/her own.
149
Why did left wing talk radio fail?
3
When did it ever exist?
Because forward-thinking people don't need regressive blowhard types to tell them how to think.
I do not blame Ambassador Albright for striving to be relevant as she, at 80, has "passed the threshold"as RL put it. But neither Albright's book, as far as I can gather, nor in MG's article do we read a comprehensible, clear definition of fascism. Simply to have survived the Holocaust because your parents had the connections to get you out does not make you an expert on this system of ideas. Best definition I have read is that it is "anti modernity," and thus Pierre Poujade, who defended "petits commercants, agriculteurs , artisans"would qualify as a fascist. Likewise Goering who said that every time he heard the words, "liberte, egalite, fraternite" he reached for his gun. So, anyone against the beau ideal of the French revolution would be considered a fascist. Combine that with exclusion of certain groups--anti semitism in Germany preceded Hitler--and a strong foreign policy operation, militarism, and you have fascism.But what I fault the Ambassador for is first for criticizing TRUMP w/o clearly articulating an alternative, but most of all, for her weak stance in not advocating relief efforts for victims of the Rwandan genocide, victims of Interhamwe death squads. She went along with Clinton's weak foreign policy during the mass murders, and instead of requesting that UN PEACEKEEPERS REMAIN TO HELP, she ordered a withdrawal.leading to more casualties, deaths. In her official role, Albright was seen as a "beni oui oui" to her boss, the President. Not very courageous!
3
“authoritarianism that marked her childhood now sweep the globe”
Michelle if you truly believe this statement you haven’t really been a student of history. Whether due to ignorance or a desire to exaggerate (to trump up your anti- Trump sentiment) we are not in a period of sweeping global authoritarianism.
7
When, Ms. Goldberg, will you write about the fascism of government raiding lawyers' offices and thumbing its nose at attorney-client privilege? When will you write about secretaries of state willfully maintaining their own computer servers, and deciding which records to provide and which not to citizens, in order to hide information, and about presidents who condoned if not actively supported all that? When will you write about the fascism of FBI directors usurping the role of attorney general and inappropriately pronouncing on the guilt or innocence of presidential candidates, thereby influencing elections? When will you write about the fascism of using FISA warrants to spy on presidential candidates and presidents-elect? When will you write about Congress willfully arrogating to itself the executive power of hiring and firing executive branch employees, thereby usurping Administrative authority and perverting the Constitution? When will you write about the fascism of an Administration willfully hiding Russian interference from the public in order not to have an election seem “tainted”, only to turn around and claim a tainted election because of Russian interference when the preferred candidate lost?
And when, Ms. Goldberg, will you write about the fascism of a party trying desperately to destroy the presidency of a legitimately elected president by any means possible?
4
Attorney-client privilege doesn't apply to conspiracy to commit a crime.
Clinton was found not guilty of any crime after a lengthy investigation by a bipartisan committee and the FBI.
Trump himself has by his words and actions rendered himself unfit for office.
Presidential privilege does not extend to "anything goes."
1
I ordered her book. Ms Albright is from a quickly vanishing generation whose relatives actually experienced the loss of freedom and democracy not just read about it. In spite of violations and outright stupid actions from the police in America, we are still a nation that provides it's citizens with freedoms and laws that protect us. It is my hope and it's only hope that there are still enough rational thinking Americans who will vote the corrupt, spineless and unprincipled hypocrites in the Republican Party out of office and Trump will be a one time president. But we're left with the people who still support this con man and are completely unreachable when it comes to seeing the damage Trump has caused to our great nation of Democracy.
174
"Ms Albright is from a quickly vanishing generation whose relatives actually experienced the loss of freedom and democracy not just read about it."
Mr. Behun, it's not my relatives who "actually" experienced, it's me who experienced it, having grown up in Communist Eastern Europe, and I am not vanishing, quickly or slowly. And to tell you the truth, I see a greater threat of authoritarianism from the left than from the right, with all the entitled Hillarys and Javert-like Elizabeths and socialist Bernies and prosecutorial judge-cum-executioner Kamalas and overzealous Adams, and the corrupt and compromised FBI, just to name a few. Half the Democratic Party believes in something they call "democratic socialism" - I guess they never read the Road to Serfdom (have you?).
I disagree with every sentiment you express in your post, if not every word. And I have standing.
8
No. You don't have standing. Throwing insults at Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, Bernie Sanders and the FBI is just parroting the worst aspects of republican party.
Democratic Socialism is what they have in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, etc.
Those countries don't have the poverty we have. They have better education for their working class.
They have trades and high-tech manufacturing as well as university.
They have universal healthcare. We have parts of America with infant mortality worse than Botswana.
And we are the richest industrialized country GDP / capita on the planet.
Be aware that Albright's warning is very much applicable at the local level as well. In towns and cities and states across the US.
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We're all worried, Michelle Goldberg. First step: borrow the Albright and Comey books from our local public library and read 'em and weep for our country. We are on the edge of a frightening abyss we haven't seen in our history since the run-ups to the Civil War and World War II. History is repeating itself with new awful players on the American stage. Heed history we must. And will.
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Stop weeping and get out the vote. We can stop this but it takes effort and crying in our collective beer isn't the answer. Join a local committee, heck, run for office, or join a campaign. But do something, don't just sit there.
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Thank you Michele Goldberg for introducing us to Madeleine Albright's book and throwing light on the international nature of our current crisis.
By comparison, it is comforting to stick to the MSM almost singular focus on the Mueller investigation and the ins and outs of all the suspense surrounding the emerging evidence--including the search of Trump's lawyer's office and home and the doorman of Trump Towers story of yet another transfer of money to hush some suspected Trump mistress and the daughter he might have sired. The intrigue and suspense keep me glued to the media anticipating the next episode in this addictive thriller. In addition, the marches--the Women's March, the March for our Lives, the teacher's strikes, etc.--give me so much hope and even joy.
Although I knew at some level that this multifaceted thriller was not confined to the USA, I cocooned myself in this narrative.
I had to force myself to read Michele's piece about Albright's book because it is so so frightening. Are we caught in some collective unconscious inspiring us to murder whole swaths of populations in anticipation of the effects of climate change or some combination of factors threatening human existence? It makes me think that we have met the enemy and it is us. Frightening.
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Growing up in the 50s and 60s, there were truths every child was taught.
America was the land of freedom. We believed in democracy. We fought to liberate nations, not to conquer them. We rescued and fed the oppressed. Unlike people behind the Iron Curtain, our leaders told us the truth. We did not have to build walls to keep our people in, nor did we build them to keep people out. We took pride in having the longest demilitarized borders in the world, north and south. We were a nation of immigrants. Everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, could succeed by dint of hard work. We were a nation of laws, not men. These ideals made America exceptional. These ideals made America great.
Of course, in reality, we often fell short of these ideals, but at least most American leaders, Democrat and Republican, seemed to agree that we should aspire to these ideals.
To me, the most shocking aspect of the rise of Trump is how he and much of his base seem totally unconnected and even opposed to the ideals I always thought defined America.
I agree with the author and Secretary Albright that we all have a role in saving America from rejecting its finest ideals and falling into the grip of authoritarianism. We can all speak up and we can vote. Indeed, it seems like the least we can do.
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Extremely well said.
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The challenge is to get the Trump/Republican supporters to see the true danger of the Republican policies. Thanks to the Republican tax bill, the stagnation of wage rates, the threats to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, Trump's trumpeted racism and misogyny, and now, the effects of Trump's trade wars and isolation of the US on farmers and small businesses, the Republican voters may be getting a hard education on the reality of a Republican dominated government. We can only hope they wake up in time, and that the Democrats come up with attractive alternatives.
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What government? When is the last time Republicans REALLY governed anything? Trump and his cronies, the REAL swamp, do not govern, they slash taxes for the wealthy and corporations, steal health insurance from the poor, create heart-stopping debt, and gouge the taxpayers by using OUR money to enrich themselves through their goverment positions. At least Bush is LIKEABLE, and in a crisis (see 9/11) he could bring the country together, not tear us apart.
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Not to belabor the analogy, but pulling off the band-aid and picking at the scab is exactly the right thing to do when the infection is deep. And it is deep. America is haunted by many ghosts from its complicated origins.
As painful and as counter-intuitive as it might be, confronting the inner demons of our country's soul is a necessary step in the direction of freedom for all.
For some of us, Trump is the infection, for others he's the Band-aid. But really he's just the fever telling us that something is very wrong.
(BTW, another excellent column from a welcome new welcome new voice in the NYT.)
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excellent point, he is just the fever.
2
What all authoritarians have in common “is this assumption, or decision, that they embody the spirit of the nation and that they have the answers and that their instincts are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.”
Trump uses the phrase 'believe me' at the end of very many of his proclamations which are all too often false. And his assertion is intended to forestall and blunt any future criticisms of him and his statements. The lemmings that follow him are all too happy to applaud and roar their approval. And the man-child in Trump feels thrilled and elated.
This is the sad state we find ourselves in today. Trump's followers, er, lemmings, allow him to usurp power and act authoritarian. And that is the truly scary part. Many of the other fascists or dictators came to power via the elected route. Once elected they successfully used their office to inveigle a large swath of citizens into believing that "they embody the spirit of the nation" and that "they have the answers" to the nation's ills.
Everyday I hope and pray that someone will help open the eyes of our citizens. In the meantime I also hope and pray that enough of us come out and vote in the mid-term elections and flip the House and the Senate.
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According to a new report from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, "Follow the Leader: Exploring American Support for Democracy and Authoritarianism”, 29% of Americans say an authoritarian alternative to democracy would be favorable.
The highest levels of support for authoritarian leadership come from those who are disaffected, disengaged from politics, deeply distrustful of experts, culturally conservative, and have negative attitudes toward racial minorities.
The highest level of openness to authoritarian political systems is among those voters who supported Donald Trump in the primaries.
Nonvoters are about 10 points more likely to express support for a “strong leader.”
Cultural conservatives are 20 points more likely than the culturally liberal to support a “strong leader.”
Those who say it is fairly or very important for someone to have European (code for 'white') heritage to be an American are 30 points more likely to support a “strong leader” than those who decisively reject this racial conception of national identity.
Those who are mistrustful of experts are 25 points more likely to support a “strong leader” compared to those who trust experts.
https://www.voterstudygroup.org/publications/2017-voter-survey/follow-th...
The desire for authoritarianism is not a new feature in humans or in America, but Donald Trump did Make Authoritarianism Great Again.
The solution is to register to vote AND to vote in record numbers...in other words, DEMOCRACY.
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Socrates, so glad to find you again!
13
Mr. Trump is often pictured with a picture of Andrew Jackson . I often debate to myself which is the worst president ?
Populist is a good thing, but ignorance or being uninformed is not. Fox News has made it possible for people to be uninformed while thinking they are gathering information. That's the harm of real fake news as presented by Fox.
Thank You, Ms. Albright for your past service and your continued efforts for democracy!
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Tom. Liberals have 10xs as much “fake news “ while conservatives only have one (I.e: MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, All late night sophomoric talk shows, NYT, WP, vs FOX,). Liberals are the most ill/informed, intolerant, and dangerous to our democracy.
5
First of all, there is no comparison between the NYT's, WP and Fox News. The papers actually have on the ground reporting. The Fox News platform piggybacks off of their work by trying to tear down their arguments. without the Times or WP, Fox would not exist.
As for the 10x's thing, NOT! turn the radio on and tell me the ratio of left to right leaning stations.
I think we're experiencing another cyclical event in history wherein Nationalism is embraced by other nations and here in the United States as well. Of course this is disturbing to say the least but we've been here before. When this takes place, the last time just before WWII it never ends well.
The one thing that binds the nation together and separates us from other countries is that no matter where we all come from, the only thing that makes us Americans is the constitution and the rule of law. It seems that Donald Trump's willingness to ignore both has made us lose the one thing that does make us different. That's the danger here. Ignoring the very institutions that made this democracy the greatest governmental experiment in modern history. It would probably be a good idea if Republicans and Trump supporters read Ms. Albright's assessment of the current situation and where it may take us with Donald Trump's attacks on the judiciary, the Department of Justice and especially the free press, but they won't. They'll take us down the road to destruction and when things collapse they'll go back to their default position of blaming Hillary or Barack Obama.
We're in a really bad place here in the USA.
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If being a populist is right-wing, then I think that it is OK to be right wing.
A decent person should be populist: caring about the life and fate of ordinary people, who are always in the majority.
.
7
I just ordered the book. I think that what she has to say is worth listening to.
PS. Saw the Smithsonian exhibition of her brooches. She must have 1000's and they are all pretty cool.
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Long before Mr Trump was conflating himself with the state, Mitch McConnell was doing the same thing. Trump learned to treat honesty as a liberal weakness from a right wing propaganda industry that has been growing for decades. We are justifiably alarmed by Mr Trump's occupancy of the White House, but it is the entire machinery of Republican ideology, corruption and media that put him there. We are as effectively duped as his supporters if we believe he is an anomaly, a dissenter from the Republican ranks. If he gets bored playing president, they have plenty of willing candidates who are only worse because they are somewhat mentally competent. And none of it could have worked without the complicity of the Democrats, who from the Clinton administration on, in and out of power, have worked with the Republicans on the things that have alienated the population from their legitimate democatic power: the deregulation of the economy and the transfer of ever more wealth and power to the wealthy and the powerful. As long as we frame the situation in terms of identity politics, or as a choice between a moderate & competent Clintonian corporatism and extremist Republican ideological corporatism, we are part of the problem.
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Justice Souter surmised the thing that should keep us up at night is the product of civic ignorance, which allows someone power hungry like trump to come to power. We need to empower our future electorate more fully with the history and knowledge of how our government works.
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yes. Teachers are the vanguard.
12
Trump isn't a fascist that's absurd. Goldberg exaggerates his power. He isn't causing the political chaos in the world either. He's reflecting it. We reached a tipping point decades before he entered the public arena. We're where we are today because the mainstream parties are intellectually bankrupt. They've sold their soul to Wall Street, stopped listening to the voters & abandoned the working classes. The 1993 NAFTA treaty is a good example. President Clinton defended it saying it would promote more growth, more equality, & more jobs. He predicted NAFTA would create a million jobs in the first five years. That was a lie. First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as companies moved their production to Mexico, where labor was cheaper. Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits. Third, NAFTA drove several million Mexican workers & their families out of the agriculture a& small business sectors, which could not compete with the flood of products — often subsidized — from U.S. producers. This dislocation was a major cause of the dramatic increase of illegal immigration in the U.S. Fourth, & most importantly, NAFTA created a template for the rules of the emerging global economy, in which all the benefits would flow to corporations & all the costs to workers. This is an indefensible treaty. If things are coming apart at the seams then it's because our neglected chickens have finally come home to roost.
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Textiles used to be made in New England. Then they moved south for cheaper labor. Then they moved to Mexico and Asia. NAFTA really had very little to do with this phenomenon but it points out how globalizaton has its own compelling logic. It's a useful scapegoat for the Luddites and demgagogues but it misses entirely the economic complexity behind it. Authoritarianism ultimately derives it strength from cheap explanations posing as universal truths. It comes primarily from the right but the left is not immune to its siren song.
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"Trump isn't a fascist that's absurd. Goldberg exaggerates his power. "
Mr. Brown, it is quite possible for someone to be a fascist without having the power to put it into place. But, I am afraid that you are hugely underestimating the power that Trump and his backers in the GOP and their financiers have. No, it's not enough to sweep fascism in overnight, but it is quite enough to bring in the pieces and quietly assemble them - and then present us with a fait accompli.
23
When NAFTA was proposed I remember sitting in a backyard gathering discussing it with an activist woman, a woman always on the front lines for the working poor and underserved. She predicted exactly what you just laid out. It was obvious that it would have a very bad effect on our middle class who would then slip into 'the working poor' category and she would have more work to do. It all came true. But now we're so intertwined, to unravel it all will also hurt many. Elites creating tools to help elites.
11
American exceptionalism is the most foolish belief it is possible to entertain.
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The thing that is exceptional about the United States is the fantasy that we are exceptional. We sweep reality and history out the back door and pretend it never happened unless we can manipulate facts to suit national dogma.
21
Secretary Albright was not exactly a progressive when she was in office. She is a gifted thinker and diplomat, and, yes, we should take her warning very seriously. The dividing lines are more between true democracy and fascism than the variations we have all enjoyed. The choice is clear. And the work is endless at this moment.
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Godspeed Ms Albright.
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"“What they do have in common,” she said, “is this assumption, or decision, that they embody the spirit of the nation and that they have the answers and that their instincts are good, that they are smarter than everybody else and can do things by themselves.”"
I read Albright's other essay with the same dismay I read yours, Michelle Goldberg.
If anyone can be an expert on this subject, it's she.
I did detect a ray of hope in her urging people that we "all have a role" in not giving into despair. What that role is will vary and may not be apparent now, but to do nothing but hide under a pillow can't help our futures.
Watergate prosecutor Jill Winebanks also wears a ton of pins to denote holidays, memorials, and her mood. I'll watch to see which one she wears today, because I have a very bad feeling about today.
Something is cracking and will likely get worse before it gets better. This experience of watching American be pitted against American by a manipulative would-be autocrat is clearly anything we've ever seen.
I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, but I also feel that thanks to good journalism, more of the public is willing to fight this deepening cloud of false reality as well as the sizable number of people eagerly embracing it.
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I think Trump supporters living in the 'heartland' think Trump is being persecuted and it's all hogwash.
8
Perhaps we would feel less pitted against each other if the Left laid off the identity politics and went back to American culture as a melting pot. It wouldn’t hurt to stop assuming the money I make would be better spent in wealth transfer programs.
3
Another element of hope, is the young people on the verge of voting. Signs are they are a progressive group - hopefully they will stay that way. The Boomers (I am one) have been something of a disappointment.
1
It's difficult to see what brooch she is wearing in the photograph. Perhaps it represents the sun that sheds light on our current mess.
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I blew it up as large as I could in my computer. It is round and the surface looks like a bas relief of field flowers or stalks of grain. An homage to spring?
7
The photo used here is a Getty stock image (see the source), not a photo of the interview between Goldberg and Albright.
Were they perhaps red poppies?
It is depressing to contemplate that for Trump supporters, his authoritarian impulses are feature, not a bug. The silver lining, though, is that more and more Americans are worried and turning that worry into action. A strong showing by progressives, moderates, and principled conservatives in November will show America and the world that we are better than we appear to be at present.
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I really pray and hope that your optimism will be borne out.
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kjb, you've described Trump supporters quite accurately.
Thank you for speaking out.
9
To Mike James ~
Re: "... while plenty of on-topic and civil comments are censored for not hewing to liberal talking points."
Rest assured Mike, my comments hew to liberal talking points with no vulgarity etc. and sometimes are taken down. The moderators wield their powers equally.
7