For each society the slide into authoritarianism is a pretty easy thing. Far more difficult is it for such a society to free itself again from authoritarian rule. Anecdotal evidence places the bar for such liberation pretty high. The society needs to be militarily conquered and defeated, then a program of "re-education" needs to be set in place by the victorious party. Self-liberation from authoritarianism usually isn't effective; the history of the fall of the USSR and the rise of the authoritarian and revisionist Russia is the prime example. But if that anecdotal evidence gives a reliable rule of thumb, then it is highly unlikely that the U.S. after the Trump regime can easily return to liberal values.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy put it bluntly recetnly:

« I guess we should have known that everyone who signs up to work for Donald Trump is signing up for one single project and that is the transition of American democracy to a kind of kleptocratic oligarchy in which the billionaires rule, in which they get to steal from regular Americans. And if that's the domestic project, then the way that you normalize that kind of government is to associate yourself with similar governments abroad, like the Kremlin. So it's all part of one big domestic project, the foreign policy, the affection for dictatorships abroad is, in effect, a means towards transitioning our democracy to something very, very different, something we've never, ever seen before in this country. »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTyCUqoVpfw

(Perhaps he should have added that such a procedure serves the purpose to make clear who has power and who has not, who is in charge and who has to obey.)

Thus, it is not just helpful for US-ians to think of the current U.S. foreign policy as in service of the domestic agenda. It also helps to explain to non-US-ians the seeming irrationality, the lack of principle, and the volatile nature of the current US foreign policy. There is neither a master plan nor a genuine interest in foreign events or states of affairs, because, like with Putin, the foreign policy is an opportunities-based approach that deals with world affairs solely in respect of how they are of use for the domestic policy.

#Authoritarianism (as is #fascism) is the figurehead and shining image of the mobster. It is what makes him think he is doing something worthwhile. And once the mobster class has hijacked and taken with it the whole society, there is no way back. Given that the U.S. will not be defeated militarily, it has no way to return or leave behind the authoritarian character it once acquired. There will be no re-education this time.

#talkingtomyselflettingyoulisten