(4 min ) If there was anything missing from Biden’s fiery Labor Day speech in was this visual. If our president is finally trying to reach people lost in right-wing information silos, kudos. But he needs to use techniques perfected by ad agencies: images, branding and repitition – to be most effective.
Look at the map. Red is autocracy; yellow is democracy; orange is democracy under attack. There are more people ruled by autocrats than governed by democracies. There is more land held by autocrats as well. And let’s face it, autocratic rule has been the norm on planet earth since the city-states of Babylon – 8000 years and going. Democracy is the newcomer in this struggle. If it were not for the USA’s nuclear arsenal and military superiority, I dare say the autocrats would have taken the entire planet by now. That is the autocrats’ goal, more so now than ever before. (The internet has something to do with that.)
The map was more yellow (democratic government) only five years ago. Brazil, Turkey, and Hungary have effectively flipped without shots being fired. Their governments went from democratic to oligarchal autocracy via their own people unwittingly voting in the oligarchs, much like we did here in the USA with Trump. And though Trump is on the ropes, American democracy’s functionality is still under attack by most GOP Congressmen. This phenomenon is global. Social media companies and soldout corporate media are fueling this fire … for profit.
Putin’s military aggression towards Ukraine is part of a grand plan. Putin knew he could not beat the USA with bombs. So he employed thousands of Russians to infiltrate our social media in 2016. There were Russian nationals present at the 2016 GOP Convention. And now, as we approach midterms, that alliance of the GOP and autocracies have midterm candidates who have openly said they will overturn democracy – the will of the people – if they don’t win.
The 14th Amendment Section 3 clearly says no one who was in an insurrection – or even comforts an insurrection can be in government, state, federal or judicial. The issue with the amendment seems to be that the last sentence says they can be removed by a 2/3 vote in Congress. But they did not anticipate that 50% of Congress would some day be insurrection supporters. I’ve long said a those who will not openly disavow the Big Lie and speak openly against the insurectionists do not deserve a vote in their own trial by 2/3 Congress. Where in law do we allow accused crminals to sit on their own juries?
The current United States administration, along with NATO countries, Australia and the other few remaining democratic countries rightly figure Putin’s grand plan is to help take the entire planet for the autocrats. That is the only way dictators can survive long term.
And make no mistake about who is the alpha-male in this brotherhood of dictators. That station is always taken by the most powerful in the group, just as it is with wolves. And though Russia is not a large force financially, Putin himself is worth hundreds of billions by virtue of him seizing the largest businesses in Russia. Putin’s vast wealth was one of the prime reasons candidate Trump never said one bad word about him.
And of course, after Trump won the 2016 election with much help from his Russian ally, Putin made it clear there was a debt due him. That’s how financial criminals operate. Financial criminals know they can totally escape prosecution by seizing their government. Payback due Putin, and possibly others, is the most logical reason Trump took top secret documents to Mar-a-Lago. I hope the DOJ knows that. Trump knew the risks. He knows what happened to the Rosenbergs. He does not need money so badly to risk his life or freedom. It figures he iisin a pinch, the way Manafort was when he did his crimes. it figures that Donald Trump was compromised and had classified documents. Trumpism is a national security issue now. It always was. The Biden administration knows it now. Good. Much better late than never.
The Russian Mob from the 80’s
I had business in Atlantic City New Jersey in the 80’s and became aware of an association of people known as The Russian Mob. Trump had many associates with Russian accents introduced to him by his first wife, Ivana. Some of them became my clients. Melania Knoss (Trump ) eventually became a client too.
The Russian mob had their fingers into basic crimes like store robberies, truck heists and, in time, they moved up the ladder into real estate fraud. Russian mob profits and booty were mostly taken back to the countries they came from. The Russian mob players were here in the USA to pillage, much like the Vikings did a thousand years ago. Most people don’t know that the first Russian king was a Swedish Viking named Rurik. (862 AD) . The lineage of the kings and queens of England also began with Vikings. William the Conqueror was from Normandy, France, but his grandfather was a Viking who was given Normnady by French aristocrats so he would not seige Paris. Vikings were rightfully feared. When they toolk a country, the killed the ruling men and forceably took their wives and children.
Autocrats are money launderers in their own ways. They need cooperation from foreign governments to provide safe harbor for their stolen booty because the people being robbed are citizens of their own country. That’s why Russian oligarchs own real estate in New York. They are keeping those assets safe, just in case the people ever regain power in mother Russia. And vice-versa. That’s also why Trump owns hotels in Turkey, and why his banks are rarely American. It’s why we use financial sanctions of autocratic rulers when they get out of hand. There is an informal association of autocrats based on their common goals. I call it “Dictators United”.
The Internet Changed Everything for Autocrats
In 1996, the internet began connecting the world at a blinding speed. I’m old enough to remember something called “The Iron Curtain”. This was a physical and communicative wall placed between the USSR and the NATO counties of Europe. The Berlin wall was part of that Iron Curtain.
Autocrats prefer their people be kept blind to the status of citizens in countries that offer a better standard of living for their citizens. People cannot seek better, if they don’t know better exists elsewhere. The internet has made keeping people blind to the status us other countries nearly impossible – though Russia, China and North Korea still do quite well at it.
Joe Biden’s speech on September 1 2022, finally made it clear that he knows what’s at stake. It’s six years late, but there is still time to save our democracy. ( I had wished Obama had made this speech at “Russia, if you’re listening”. )
But words alone are not remembered easily. That’s why advertisers use images and jingles to keep their products easily recallable. It’s the coordination of two senses that forges a pathway for better memory. Lyrics without a tune don’t stick in the brain. And words without an image are easily forgotten.
So if there’s one thing I want the Biden administration to do with all the blogs I have written over the last six years, it’s SHOW THE MAP. Fear is a great motivator. We need to feel afraid – as we did in WW2. US voters will know what’s at stake – at last – once they see that map over and over again. And yes, this will stick with MAGA voters that have not got totally lost in the rabbit hole of misinformation. Recreate the map if need be. Many don’t know what autocracy means – but everyone can identify with a Risk board.
Autocrats want America to go fascist more than any other country. Look at the map again. If the USA flips, they will roll over the rest of the world quickly and easily. Putin is trying to show the other dictators this strategy right now in Ukraine. He must be stopped. Trump must be stopped. None of this will change until they these two men are stopped.
That’s all I wanted to say today. SCOTUS Justice wife, Ginny Thomas, recently said “there are no rules in war”. We must recognize we are at war. The enemies of democracy are playing for keeps, as if this was a war. If we fail to do the same, I cannot yet imagine how the USA will still be a functional democracy after 2024. Time is not on our side. Midterms must be about democracy first.
Joseph Aronesty
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