The Authoritarian Playbook
It is amazing to me to watch how Donald Trump, his media cronies and even a national political party is helping him to undermine the checks and balances on government and even the government itself, to support authoritarian aspirations.
The Wikileaks release seems to play right into this plan. This struck me the other night while watching Sean Hannity(yes--I watch to see what propaganda they're pushing). He actually floated the theory that the Wikileaks release reveals that the C.I.A. could have "set up" Trump by making it "look" like the Russians were involved with him and that this may have been some sort of elaborate plot by Obama. Now he's careful. He does this subtly but the charge is easy to see and among the faithful it will become a cherished "truth" and more reason to dismiss anything that does not come from Trump himself.
I'm going to link the video and I set it(if it works) to start at the part about Wikileaks. Unfortunately I can't set an end time so he rambles on afterward but you can stop it any time. In any case, I do think this is important to note--to understand exactly the sort of thing happening on the right.
They are trying to discredit the media with "fake news". They are trying to discredit the intelligence agencies.
They will discredit anyone trying to tie Trump to the Russians.
And when the American people no longer trust the media or the government, the country is ripe for an authoritarian takeover.
That is how I see their strategy right now.
They do not have facts. They have a lot of problems with the Russia connections. This is a defense strategy and the Republican party and the rightwing news media has signed up to be part of it.
It's very disturbing. It deserves more coverage. It should be shown for what it is and for the consequences it has for our nation if it succeeds.
Note: It doesn't work when I embed it--it wants to play the whole thing. Just fast forward to around the 3:49 mark. It ends around the 5:29 mark and then he brings on a reporter to discuss more Obama paranoia so be warned.
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These despicable people have been grooming their viewers for the biggest lie of all for a long time. Even if the truth is staring them in the face, the brainwashing they have had via Fox's daily stream of their twisted version of the "news" will have done its job.
I don't know how all of this will play out, but I do know that getting the dedicated followers of Fox and the tRump voters to accept the reality of what had been done to them is not going to be easy. Watch Fox double down on their lies and distortions even as the truth of it all comes tumbling out. Our ride through this disaster is about to get a lot rougher. 
