Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum
Today is October 19, 2024. Today also marks eighteen days to the date of the US presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. More or less, I have stopped watching the news. For 300 million people, again more or less, this is a severe anxiety producing time and watching the news worsens anxiety tenfold. As I write this, there is no way to know who will win the election. The polls, which I don't read or watch, have the election split 50-50. Despite the even odds split, many are going into the election with great confidence; that is, their candidate will win this election. I'm not one of those people. So I have stopped watching or reading much of the news. Not everything, of course. It's impossible to avoid everything.
Yesterday, October 18, 2024, I read Adam Gopnik's essay in the most recent print-edition of The New Yorker , October 21, 2024, titled Reflections: As Bad As All That, Donald Trump and the unmaking of America, pages 12-16. On-line New Yorker essays frequently have a different title. The same essay by Gopnik, published October 14, 2024, is linked here: How Alarmed Should We Be if Trump Wins Again? Even many of the ex-President's opponents haven't grasped the scale of the man's villainy.
The New Yorker blocks access to its essays and articles with a paywall. Perhaps they allow a one-time on-line reading. Hopefully, voters will get their hands on this essay and read it before November 5th, 2024. If you have been sleeping through the past couple of months, Gopnik's essay is an eye-opener. I was, yet again, denied sleep last night after reading it. Again, I swore off the news.
That is until this morning when I opened my on-line New York Times subscription to read David Brooks' Why the Heck Isn't She Running Away With This? Again, another stiff paywall will greet non-subscribers, but I think readers will be able to access the article at least once. The NYT allows comments, which are sometimes the best part of the essay - and sometimes not. I always read at least a smattering of the comments, and sometimes even write my own, although usually I am too late to join the discussion. Below is my comment to David Brooks op-ed linked above.
This is a coherent, and damning distillation of our current political state of affairs. I am not an independent. As soon as I realized that I could not vote for the Republican vision of our country, I abandoned the Independent canard long ago and decided to be honest about it. In the ensuing years I've found nothing that allows me to change my mind. I've followed David Brooks' writing, interviews and panel discussions for a long time. I know he does not want DT to be the next president. However, he seems to be coming down harder on KH and voting Democrats in this op-ed. Is this because there is really nothing more to say about DT - less is best. But what I cannot figure out is, "who are the bad guys here?" Is it us, the voters, or is it our system of government? It seems to me that our political machines (D, R and I) have worked overtime to keep things exactly as they are. Frankly, this includes the news media and, unfortunately, also the New York Times in this ignominious behavior. Until something gives in our national stranglehold, I think columns like this offer very little toward the direction of change to guide us differently. I'm 72 y/o and I have come to realize that I will not live long enough to again enjoy a settled United States. Our political system has dug us too deep in.
Addendum 12/18/2024
Have just finished reading Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum, 2024, Doubleday. I have heard Anne Applebaum interviewed twice and her responses to journalists questions about autocracy and how it works are revealing and chilling. She drills down on this in her new book Autocracy, Inc.
Autocracy, Inc. is a little book, 207 pages long including a detailed Notes section. Applebaum begins with a powerful introduction that will be revelatory to American readers. This is followed by five chapters, each with revealing titles: I. The Greed that Binds; II. Kleptocracy Metastasizes; III. Controlling the Narrative; IV. Changing the Operating System and V. Smearing the Democrats. The book ends with an Epilogue titled Democrats United. She closes with Acknowledgements and Notes.
I learned about Applebaum's book when Ezra Klein interviewed her for his 11/19/2024 podcast, "Trump Kicks Down the Guardrails". His introduction: "Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author who is also a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is an expert on authoritarianism, both in its past and present forms, and the author of a new book, “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” " I know that podcasts can only be as timely as their interviewee's schedule allows. Even so, you can see by the date of this podcast that Klein is late with the information. I'm pretty sure it would not have made a difference to the election results, but it's worth noting that Joe Rogan was able to interview Donald Trump (#2219) ten days before the election for three hours. Sadly, in my opinion (which I realize means nothing), in so many ways all of the legacy media sources that I follow (print, TV, podcast) really let the Democrats and their voters down. I include Ezra Klein - who I believe to be the best political journalist working now - in this ignominious fall. There are so many people and things related to this let down by legacy media sources that I could name but there's no point now. The deed is done. This was a real wake up call for Democrat[ic] voters.
You can read Ezra Klein's interview with Anne Applebaum in the link above or, if you have a NYT subscription, you can listen to the podcast. The NYT has recently paywalled its podcasts - I think that back-dated programs are available only to subscribers.
I don't know if I would have purchased this book, so I am grateful to my local public library for having Autocracy, Inc. available in book form (my preferred way of reading) for check out. Whichever way you prefer reading - physical book, tablet or audiobook - I highly recommend Autocracy, Inc. Donald Trump has not even assumed the Office of the Presidency yet, but we are already seeing the trajectory of his rule. Autocracy, Inc. helps us understand where we are going over the next four years and probably beyond. Let's hope we can shore up our guardrails. Donald Trump and his enablers and abettors are well on their way and they are not being sneaky about it.
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