Infrastructure

I was thinking about how countries get to the brink of accepting authoritarianism and things usually need to get fairly desperate. Sometimes it is thrust upon them through a coup but other times it is through despair that their current system does not work and never will. 

In the early 1970's after Watergate, the American right wanted to avenge what happened to Nixon and over a number of years an infrastructure was built. They had their own radio programs where they could rail against the left with impunity and people like Rush Limbaugh could spout screeds about the evils of the democratic party.  They also built think tanks like the Heritage Foundation which helped cook up Project 2025 which is ready to be force fed to a largely unsuspecting public.

Enter Rupert Murdoch with his own right-wing leanings as he expanded his empire from his native Australia to add to that foundation of resentment against a society increasingly hostile to the old ways which perfectly suited the white man. 

If Trump won the election it was certainly aided by this echo chamber which fed the same diet of hate pablum to audiences who weren't necessarily politically savvy but loved to have their fears stoked into anger from the safety of their living rooms. 

Last night, Jimmy Kimmel delivered a monologue to America asking they make the best of it and at times fought back tears. Later in a segment he showed people in the street being asked if they were going to vote when the election had in fact already happened. All of them, save for one who said he never voted, were obtuse and said that they intended to. That is of course also part of the problem and I laughed but wasn't surprised in the least.

Many who voted for Trump, have no clue what is going to hit them and there will be buyers remorse like there always is. Except that this remorse will be a little worse than usual.