Trump Uses the Playbook of Authoritarians

By Dan Rather, Dan Rather's Facebook Page

30 April 18

ive me a break. If this weren’t a family page, I may be inclined to put a more colorful adjective in front of “break.”

The disingenuous outrage machine is in full effect today, led by the President himself. The issue is allegations against the now former nominee to head the Veterans Administration. Some of those allegations may not be holding up to scrutiny. These are legitimate questions. And something that the news media should, and is, reporting on. But it also should be noted that the former nominee was considered unfit for the position by members of both parties on the basis of his lack of experience and serious questions about his judgment and temperament. With those "qualifications" he would fit right in to a cabinet that on the spectrum of competence is a lot closer to the Marx Brothers than Lincoln's "team of rivals."

But the bigger joke is the President and his allies raging against a smear campaign, character assassinations, and "allegations (that)...are proving false." This is a group that has weaponized lies and debased the truth to such a degree that the world has become numb to
the daily slanders and dishonesties. Remember the repeated claims of millions of fraudulent voters in the last election? What would be the biggest scandal in American political history, just to name one example that continues to rankle me.

No one is perfect. People make mistakes and say things that aren't true. It is the responsibility of the press to hold the powerful accountable. But to take missteps from an opposition and blow them completely out of proportion as a pretext for overreach has long been the playbook of authoritarians.

We cannot let the truth become a weapon of war against democracy. We cannot let the gaslighting of America go unremarked. Will the truth be a rallying cry for political activism? Will it be an inspiration at the ballot box? These are the questions that hang in the balance in our current moment in history. But I remain an optimist that most Americans know that the truth will set us free.