Autocracy 101: The Purge Before the Surge

 

Trump’s self-posting on Truth Social

Autocracy 101: The Purge Before the Surge

Eliminate the “Enemy from Within”

“I know nothing about Project 2025… I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” 

 Donald Trump on the campaign trail in July 2024.

Simple logic will tell you that if you want to institute a complete takeover of a country, if it is remotely possible to eliminate the defenders who might oppose you before you mount that final major effort, that is the most obvious track to take. The process “from within” is almost always begins with a combination of demonization of some obvious identifiable group (usually based on religion, cultural hallmarks like clothing identifiers, skin tone, delineated neighborhoods or community gathering places or linguistic differences) and then marginalizing, prosecuting, arresting and isolating any legitimate leaders in any potential opposition movement. Then the takeover is quick, organic and avoids the optics of armed soldiers and tanks rolling down the streets shooting any protesters along the way. A military coup d’etat. If you did it right, the opposition is pretty much helpless. It is a relatively bloodless coup.

Those bloody coups we have seen in Germany, Italy, Afghanistan, Iran, all over Latin America, increasingly in small Asian nations… well that’s yesterday’s news in modern democracies choosing autocracy as their replacement. It took years for NATO allies Hungary and Turkey to replace their democracies with autocracies run by dictators who repealed term limits, took over the press and arrested or otherwise disposed of opposition leaders. Once situated, oppressive violence keeps the new regime in power. Blogger Jack Hopkins summarizes the slow approach we have seen in Russia and NATO allies like Hungary and Turkey:

Why Do Authoritarians Purge Before the Storm?

Purges aren’t about efficiency. They’re about control. Look at the logic:

• The first people you remove are the watchdogs. The prosecutors…the generals… the inspectors…the ones who might raise the alarm when the walls are breached. If they’re gone…the alarms stay silent.
• The next goal is fear. Fire one…silence a hundred. Everyone left knows: keep your head down…do what you’re told…or you’ll be next.
• Then you fill the vacuum with loyalists. Not experts. Not professionals. But people who answer only to you.
• Finally, with loyalty secured and expertise gutted…you have the freedom to make moves that would’ve been blocked…slashing budgets…ignoring intelligence warnings…rewriting defense protocols.

That’s why you purge before the storm:

To leave the house unguarded…weaken its defenses, and ensure no one dares to stop you when the real blow lands.

This Isn’t an Isolated Event…It’s a Cascade

But whether it is product of President Trump’s seeming acceleration of dementia or raw arrogance, perhaps desperation as his approvals continue to plunge, he has recently become impatient with the progress of imposing autocracy. That 900 page Project 2025 that he knew nothing about is now his road map, looking for excuses (like provoking a government shutdown) to justify massive changes his rich oligarchs want to keep their taxes low by cutting congressional allocations of benefit to middle and lower classes while directly punishing Democratic constituencies by shutting off their infrastructure, government workers and social benefits. Yes, targeting Democrats as directly and unambiguously as he can. Trump chosen incarnation above is as the Grim Reaper coming for anything that looks blue.

In early October, as Blackhawk helicopters hovered above an apartment building on Chicago’s South Shore Drive, federal agents in military fatigues descended by ropes, while others broke into the building and “smashed through doors with flash-bangs, dragged residents into the street in zip ties (some of them naked), and left families outside for hours while apartments were trashed. Eyewitnesses say children were zip-tied together. One agent reportedly laughed and said, ‘f*** them kids.’

“DHS offered no evidence for its sweeping claims [that this building was a hub for that mysterious Tren de Aragua cartel from Venezuela that was ‘invading’ the US]. Some of those detained are U.S. citizens… This is not ‘law and order.’ It is collective punishment. It is an assault on a neighborhood by our own government.” Steve Schmidt, Save America, October 3rd. Pretty good training for assault troops… using Americans as their victims-in-training. Just as little man Pete and Donald Trump promised in their Quantico harangue to the highest ranked officers and NCOs of our military. Even the “fat” ones…as Trump’s belly didn’t exactly set the model body for generals.

Well, that Grim Reaper, “President Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign, as one of its architects works to use the government shutdown to accelerate his goals of slashing the size of the federal workforce and punishing Democratic states… In a post on his Truth Social site Thursday morning, Trump announced he would be meeting with his budget chief, ‘[OMB director] Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.’

“The comments represented an about-face for Trump, who spent much of last year denouncing Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s massive proposed overhaul of the federal government, which was drafted by many of his longtime allies and current and former administration officials….” Jill Colvin for the October 4th Associated Press.

But there is some good news in all this. Had Trump been a tad more patient to let complacent voters simply ignore what he was doing and remain the pliable mass they were becoming, he might have succeeded. But he couldn’t wait, and even his gerrymandering demands of red states just might not be able to overcome his and his MAGA clowns’ unpopularity to assure GOP victory over both houses of Congress in the midterms.

The shutdown was just the “perfect emergency” to allow him and his incompetent minions to impose those controls he so desperately wanted. Except Trump is not mentally able to run this effort, and his minions have redefined toxic incompetence. This is the moment for all those who are truly aghast at Trump and his colossal mismanagement of the country to raise their voices, take to the streets and scream “No Kings.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and there really is time to stop this madman and his demented vision for America.