Lovendures and Deetoo brought up this subject and suggested a separate thread on it, so here it is. I am fascinated and looking forward to whatever people say about it. Masha Gessen is a good journalist source and I'm sure there are others.
What exactly is a banana republic? Brings to mind the unstable South American republics that the USA destabilized by influencing their elections and planting CIA paid operatives in those countries to overthrow legitimately democratic candidates. We did it for the purpose of making profits for multinational companies like United Fruit and Dole Pineapples.
Now Russia has done it to us by planting the Trump puppet and undermining democratic candidates.
Are we now a Banana Republic?
It sure would seem so. Here is a great article about how the US becoming a Banana Republic.
With President Donald Trump and his minions abusing the language so egregiously, it’s time for a brief refresher course in political vocabulary.
First, we need to re-learn the meaning of the term “banana republic.” Consider this. As retribution for his testimony against Mr. Trump during the House impeachment investigation, the president ordered the unceremonious removal of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman from his national security post at the White House. To be sure that the message was clear, the White House also removed Vindman’s brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, from his position at the National Security Council, even though he had not testified in the impeachment proceedings. According to the New York Times, the president’s (fourth) national security advisor, Robert C. O’Brien, explained the removals by saying that “we’re not a banana republic where lieutenant colonels get together and decide what the policy [of the country] is.”
Yet O’Brien’s explanation came right on the heels of a very banana-republican series of events at the Justice Department. Four DoJ lawyers were overruled by their superiors when they recommended a seven- to nine-year sentence for one of Trump’s swampier cronies, Roger Stone, who had been convicted of obstructing an inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee into Russian interference in the 2016 election and of lying to Congress. The move came immediately after Trump tweeted about the “horrible” “miscarriage of justice.” The president has since tweeted “congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control,” accusing Robert Mueller of lying to Congress in the process.
More can be found here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johntorpey/2020/02/12/what-is-a-banana-republic/#7dd4db0b60b0
Posted by: @lovendures:
Are We Now A Banana Republic? It sure would seem so.
I agree. If not, then we are hanging off that cliff by our fingertips.
I think opening a separate thread on this is a great idea. A lot has been written about recognizing the signs of a collapsing democracy. Timothy Snyder and Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen are two writers who immediately come to mind.
We could post any helpful links and our comments under that specific thread. We need to know how to deal with this, while maintaining our sanity and remaining hopeful.
Even the judge that was presiding over the case of Andrew McCabe, who was appointed by GW Bush, said that the govt's failure to give a good reason why they were delaying in just admitting they weren't going to prosecute him was banana republic stuff. A conservative judge. This morning trump tweeted a reference to himself as a king. It's astounding how quickly we've fallen, not only because of this clown, but because of his enablers. Are we a banana republic? Not completely yet, but we're on our way, and the ride is accelerating.
@lynnventura. I didn't want to click "like" but I agree. Last night I was watching the movie Midway and thinking about all the young men who died in WWII protecting our country from dictators, only to have people vote for the one in the Oval Office. Then I read about the low turnout in Iowa and NH. Too many Americans have become too complacent to protect our country. They don't realize what is at stake here, not just for the vulnerable but for them. We have watched many Trump supporters fall hard who were given high level jobs working for that man.
Autocracy: Rules for Survival (Masha Gessen, 2016)
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/
For what it's worth my intuition tells me that USA is definitely becoming a banana republic but it won't last forever. Reason being is the truth will eventually prevail and the people will no longer stand for it.
I also see that the country will become more divided than ever because people will not budge from their viewpoints no matter what.
@deetoo Thanks for posting Masha Gessen's 2016 article. When my group was meditating in July 2016 on the 2017 Inauguration, I had seen Trump standing on the platform as a full fledged fascist. I didn't believe he had won but thought he was there in spirit.
After the election we were hoping the Electoral College delegates would not approve his election. When I did a remote viewing of the December 17, 2016 Electoral college vote, I saw Trump as a baby lion looking for validation. The vision was clear -- that if given the power, Trump would morph into full fledged dictator. Many people sent messages to Obama to issue a state of emergency and halt the transfer of power.
Both Clinton and Obama knew what they were dealing with but neither wanted to set precedents for halting the peaceful transfer of power. As Gessen said, they were wrong. Excerpting Gessen's 2016 advice, even though it is now appearing at the 11th hour before this country falls.
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. He has called himself "king", and "perhaps I will do as President Xi has done, become president for life," he wants the mainstream press punished and removed, he wants to jail his critics, remove and replace the judges, and remove and replace congresspeople who oppose him. He adores Putin who has done all of those things in a swift takeover of Russian democracy.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. I have never ever been taken any by any sign of normal. Never. Everything, no exceptions, that comes out of his mouth or his twitter feed has been a manipulation to increase his power and impunity.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. It took Putin a year to take over the Russian media and four years to dismantle its electoral system; the judiciary collapsed unnoticed. There are ways to do this. It is in his plans. He can buy them out, sue them out of existence and have his crony judiciary try the case, shut them down in a state of emergency decree, or jail their owners and editors.
Rule #4: Be outraged... it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. I feel the press has not been outraged enough. Maggie Haberman early on wrote in a NY Times article that they don't use the word "lie" to describe Trump's lies because it is too emotion-packed. Big mistake on the part of the Times by not showing their outraged quickly and strongly enough. They were and are still playing by old rules that no longer apply in this new normal.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises. Like Ted Cruz, who made the journey from calling Trump “utterly amoral” and a “pathological liar” to endorsing him in late September to praising his win as an “amazing victory for the American worker,” Republican politicians have fallen into line.
Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever. Here she says the Democrats need to propose big change, to get rid of outdated institutions, especially The Electoral College which is now anti democratic. The Senate is much worse and needs to go. Both prevent us from having fair elections.
As for Gessen's first 5 rules, our leadership and the press have been like froggie who failed to jump out of the water that was gradually being heated up to a boil. That is what happened with Hitler and Putin. Both dictators moved swiftly right in front of disbelieving people's eyes.
I cannot see what I wish I could see which is a nationwide protest of millions of people marching on the Capitol and the White House and demanding that he leave.
I think exhaustion and disbelief are combining to prevent people from protesting. I also think the propaganda we've been fed forever, that the US is the greatest country on earth, is preventing many from really seeing what's going on, mainly, that we're not the greatest, that we're as vulnerable as any other country. Couple that with the GOP feeling that they can use this monster to get in a few years what they've been trying to do for decades, well, it's toxic mix.
I don't know at this point what I'm picking up. I do feel the right wing's energy, and if feels animalistic. It feels like brazen, craven, savage, brutal, lust for power and control. Is that will will happen? I don't know. I'm too wound up to distinguish what I feel will happen from what I'm picking up from this group. I hope we step back from the precipice. The next few months will tell that story.