'We feel paralyzed': Expert details how Trump 'disempowers' Americans with 'sadistic cruelty'
In an article published by The Bulwark on May 15, Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol laid out some reasons why he considers President Donald Trump "far more dangerous" than the late President Richard Nixon. While "Tricky Dick" acted in a "dodgy," corrupt fashion behind closed doors during the Watergate era, Kristol argued, Trump is openly authoritarian — and is normalizing extremism in the process.
Yale University history professor and author Marci Shore made a similar argument during a Saturday morning, May 24 appearance on MSNBC. Although Shore, unlike Kristol, didn't mention Nixon, she warned that Trump's open authoritarianism is making some Americans feel "paralyzed."
When host Ali Velshi noted examples of Trump taking revenge against his political enemies, Shore told him and Vanity Fair's Molly Jong-Fast — who was also featured as a guest — "What's striking about what's going on now is that there's not even an attempt to hide this. The fact that this is a retribution is open. It's shameless. It's laid bare. That has been the strategy of this regime from the beginning."
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Shore continued, "All of it is right there on the surface: the vulgarity, the racism, the flagrant disregard for the rule of law, the boundless corruption, the naked transactionalism, the sadistic cruelty. And that paradoxically disempowers us in the opposition because it's so obvious that we feel paralyzed and start digging around to see what might be hidden when the problem is not what's been hidden, but what has been normalized."
However, Jong-Fast (who was suffering from laryngitis) told Velshi and Shore that "the good news" is that "the courts have your back" and "have been protecting people" by standing up to Trump. And Shore applauded progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and others for being so vocal in their dissent.
Shore told Velshi and Jong-Fast, "The point that Molly made is very important. There are people resisting. There are judges resisting. There are judges with integrity. There are people like Jasmine Crockett who I don't know personally, but who have been absolutely fearless — you know, who are out there every day speaking truth to power. It's really important to acknowledge that and stand in solidarity, and recognize what so many Americans have been doing."
Shore continued, "The other thing is that when you have a situation of terror, you run into classic collective action problems…. Sometimes, the universities push back, and sometimes, people put their head down and try to get in line so that they're not going to be attacked next. And that's a classic collective action problem."
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