My GF truly believes that Republicans are the authoritarian choice this election. Her cited example was confirming ACB. Beyond that not anything concrete. Could you all help me compile a list or direct me to examples of Democrats authoritarianism. Me just giving examples isn't enough. I used attacks on constitution, "hate speech", taxes, but I feel coming from me she just doesn't believe it. Thank you. She grew up in Germany (army brat) which can give you some insight as to why she may feel that way.
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lockdowns obviously
She thinks those were absolutely necessary. Trump "didn't do enough". My response was "you would have called him a dictator. He did what he could within the confines of the office.
it still is authoritarian even if it is supposedly good also, stacking the supreme court is very authoritarian as people don't vote for supreme court judges
All authoritarians tell you "it's absolutely necessary" or "it's for your safety". They have to manipulate some basic psychological trigger to get the population to consent to the tyranny. They often use fear. In this case fear of an invisible enemy you can't stop or control....unless you give up all your freedoms of course. It was the same fear with terrorism. It could strike any town big or small. It could strike on the plane you take to visit grandma for Christmas, the concert you take your wife too, or even just a nightclub. It's the same fear with guns violence. Just give up all your gun rights and the fear can go away. So people beg to lose their rights just to make the psychological torture end.
Your girlfriend sounds extremely naive and easy to manipulate, like most Americans. You might want to start by educating her on historical authoritarian regimes and pay attention to how they came to power. Once she has historical references to draw on she might start making the connections on her own. If she is too dense to figure it out after all that maybe it's a lost cause. Some people are legit NPC's and can't evolve past their programming. Sad but true.
I explained my position on governors edicts bypassing our legislative process. We don't have kings in America, despite what some governors think
Tell her that there wasn't much Trump could do outside of limiting travel from other countries. State governments have the power to institute their own rules, such as NY not allowing 95% of the country into NYC.
Governors in 5 different blue states forced private nursing homes to admit covid patients into their facilities, when hospitals weren't overwhelmed, and that's where the majority of deaths came from.
Lockdowns are unconstitutional. Trump wants to open the country back up completely, much like Sweden who now has the pandemic entirely under control.
Thank you