Episode 237 Show Notes- It’s Remarkable How Smug Bureaucrats Applaud Authoritarian Policies
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Episode Description
There is little doubt that those in power preach about democratic values, but really promote authoritarian policies. In fact, over the last several years, the world has increasingly adopted more authoritarian policies, and this move towards authoritarianism sped up dramatically throughout the coronavirus pandemic. We are now witnessing a perfect storm leading to this increased authoritarianism, and the warnings have been there the entire time.
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Show Transcript- It’s Remarkable How Smug Officials Applaud Authoritarian Policies
Intro
Welcome everyone to The P.A.S. Report Podcast.
Something that’s not a secret is the increasingly authoritarian policies we’ve been witnessing over the last couple of decades, but really, it’s happening at warp speed in the last few years.
However, the coronavirus became the main catalyst to really move away from Democratic principles towards an authoritarian state. And it’s not just the United States. It’s the entire globe.
Of course, they’ll scream it’s all in the name of saving lives but think about how much has been given up. Think about how we completely did away with many longstanding traditions. We’ve thrown away Constitutional norms, and for what?
No one seems to ask that question, particularly on the left. Think about it. All these countries did everything they could to undermine democracy. They revealed their true faces with their authoritarian policies, and what did you get out of it?
Are we any safer? Have their authoritarian policies stamped out covid? Have they made any difference whatsoever?
And now you’re seeing the fear porn being ramped up with the new coronavirus variant Omicron. Literally, within a couple of days, the authoritarians are out in full force decreeing another round of authoritarian policies. Issuing new States of Emergency, to continue to empower the petty tyrants.
States of emergency are supposed to be temporary, yet there being used as the main vehicle to usurp more power and authority.
Do you think it’s going to make any difference? Do you think the new decrees are somehow going to make coronavirus magically go away?
This brings me to today’s discussion. There’s a new report that was issued by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). This report warns about a perfect storm that is upon us, and how the world is becoming more authoritarian.
Now the report is flawed, and I’ll explain why, but the conclusion isn’t far off base, it’s how they get there that’s flawed.
See, that’s why you listen. I read these boring reports, so you don’t have to.
Before I jump in, make sure to visit The P.A.S. Report website, sign up for the newsletter, and follow the podcast so you’ll never miss an episode.
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Movement Towards Authoritarian Policies
Alright so getting to the report, there are a lot of different layers to the report, but first I should tell you about this organization, The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, also known as IDEA. I have a link up to their charter on The P.A.S. Report. (IDEA Charter)
In theory, it sounds like a good organization, and its goal is a commitment to the rule of law, human rights, the basic principles of democratic pluralism, and strengthening democracy.
However, when you read their latest report, The Global State of Democracy 2021, you’ll see that this organization takes on a globalist approach. It falls in line with this idea of The Great Reset, which I did an episode on several months ago so check that out.
The reason I’m highlighting the report is due to its conclusion that the world is moving towards authoritarianism, and while I disagree with some of the reasons they stated. There are other parts that deserve attention.
The report takes a multipronged approach explaining how authoritarian countries have become more authoritarian, and some democratic countries have begun a process called backsliding.
Now, I’m not going to waste time talking about how or why authoritarian regimes have become more tyrannical with authoritarian policies since covid. That’s common sense. During any type of crisis, these regimes will use it to increase their stranglehold on the population.
What I do want to focus is on this idea of democratic backsliding. This is a fairly simple concept to understand, and in a nutshell, it simply means the gradual decline of the quality of democracy and the institutions designed to guard against authoritarian policies.
Keeping that in mind, it’s also important to recognize that governments usually go through lifecycles, and Plato argued that democracies will usually end in tyrannies.
Where the Report Gets it Right
There are a few areas where the report gets it right. For instance, they explain the drivers of democratic decline and they get it mostly right.
They talk about how increasing political polarization is linked to democratic backsliding, and this is certainly true. I’ve seen this on both sides of the political aisle where people will essentially approve of authoritarian policies depending on who is in power.
Take executive orders, and just look at the last three administrations. I warned that we are seeing the growing use of executive orders in order to push policy agendas. Executive orders are not supposed to modify, manipulate, amend, create or dismantle laws.
Remember, during the Obama administration, Obama supporters would constantly say that Republicans in Congress were obstructing the president’s agenda, and so President Obama should push through his agenda by issuing executive orders. In fact, President Obama threatened that he had a pen, and he made good on that threat.
I warned about this back then. First of all, the idea that Republicans in Congress are obstructing the President and so the President should issue executive orders to circumvent Congress is just plain stupidity. Why the hell do you think Congress exists? Congress doesn’t exist to just simply rubberstamp a President’s agenda, yet that’s what Obama supporters were saying, as those that opposed President Obama were screaming that it’s unconstitutional.
Then we saw this reverse when President Trump was in office. Many Trump supporters justified it by saying that President Obama did it and so President Trump should do the same thing. Meanwhile, those who were cheerleading President Obama were now calling President Trump a fascist. A dictator.
And we are seeing it again with President Biden, only his decrees are much more worrisome especially when he says things like Our Patience is Wearing Thin.
It seems that when it’s a person in office or a policy that we agree with, many are okay with authoritarian policies. I’ve always been consistent on this because I know where it goes.
Another area that gets it right is when it explains that economic crises are also tied to democratic backsliding. This is because many immediately look to the government because of their own economic suffering, and I understand that. If you’re in a financially desperate situation due to an economic decline, you look to the government to provide some level of support. Unfortunately, this contributes to dependency on the state, and when you’re increasingly dependent on the government, the government becomes more authoritarian.
Another area where the report gets it right is that similar nations will mimic each other. Just look at covid and how all these so-called free societies instituted similar policies. All it took was for one country to get the ball rolling. Sadly, there were too few Sweden’s out there and most took the authoritarian route.
But then the authors go off the deep end, and the report talks about how populism leads to authoritarian policies. Doing what’s in your country’s interest, and your people’s interest is not authoritarian. In fact, that’s what nation-states should be doing. It doesn’t make any sense to implement policies that are in another country’s interest at the expense of your own country and people.
Some conclusions of the report include:
- The number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction in 2020 outnumbered those going in a democratic direction. The pandemic has prolonged this existing negative trend into a five-year stretch, the longest such period since the start of the third wave of democratization in the 1970s.
- For the first time, the United States made the list of democratic backsliding.
- Democratically elected governments, including established democracies, are increasingly adopting authoritarian tactics. This democratic backsliding has often enjoyed significant popular support.
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But to me, the most important aspect of the report is where it states, “The pandemic has made it easier to justify this behavior, including the politicization of judiciaries, the manipulation of media, restrictions on civil liberties and minority rights, and the weakening of civil society.”
At the same time, this is where the report discredits itself. While the statement is accurate, it’s simply a passing reference whereas this should have been the basis of the entire report when it comes to democratic backsliding.
Just look at all the so-called liberal democracies that bypassed normal procedures and legislative bodies and moved to govern by decree. The authoritarian policies implemented by the petty tyrants, particularly the heads of state and the public health sector, have been nothing short of astonishing.
When we look at these so-called liberal democracies, we clearly see the continued violations of civil liberties. When chief executives can determine when, where and how you can practice your faith. When they determine when you can leave your home, what you must wear when you leave, and where you can go, how is that a free society? When they determine who or how many people can come into your home, or when children can go to school, or who you can associate with, how is that a free society? When they deem what businesses are essential and which ones aren’t, picking winners and losers in the economy. When they force children to wear masks throughout the entire school day. When in some so-called liberal democracies, they have forced quarantines and will remove family members from the home.
I ask everyone out there, particularly those that support these measures, how is this any different than what they do in authoritarian countries? Why? Because it’s a crisis? So are we really going to say that democracy and civil liberties only exist during normal times, and when a crisis emerges all that goes out the window?
I hate to break it to you, but that’s not a free society. Self-determination no longer exists, and it’s all because you have the sheep that want to feel safe. I mean, just take a listen to this clip.
Sound Clip That Doesn’t Fully Protect Me
But that doesn’t fully protect me. And that right there is the problem. You have people like this who believe that if they wear the mask, use constant sanitizer, social distance, and get the vaccine, they are still not protected, and therefore, your rights need to be curbed all because these scared and pathetic people want to feel better. They want to feel like they’re fully protected.
Well, how have all the authoritarian policies been working out for us? The coronavirus is still here. Of course, the fear porn is being ramped up with the Omicron strain. And there are more covid deaths this year post-vaccine than there was last year pre-vaccine. So, what exactly are we doing?
It would have been nice if this report went far more in-depth in this because these are the primary reasons for the democratic backsliding we’re witnessing.
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Where This Report Goes Wrong
And the report further discredits itself when they focus far more time and energy on other areas. I want to briefly go through the parts of the report I disagree with and why it’s nothing more than pushing globalism as part of The Great Reset.
When reading this document, you’ll see the usual social justice and Marxist verbiage like equity and equitable. In fact, in one section, it reads that democracies should further “equitable and accountable sustainable development and post-pandemic recovery…and going forward, the alliance should support democracies to deliver services that citizens want and need, politically, economically, and socially.”
Obviously, wants and needs are two very different things. There are a lot of things people want, it doesn’t mean that the government can or should provide wants. In fact, it’s incumbent on officials to balance what’s in the people’s interest vs. what’s in the interest of the nation. They have to practice statesmanship, and simply providing everyone with all their wants and needs only makes people further dependent on the government apparatus that leads to authoritarian policies. In addition, it also can lead to the tyranny of the majority which our founding fathers warned about. It’s why we are a republic and not a pure or direct democracy.
Another area where this report fails is when it says questioning the outcome of elections leads to democratic backsliding, and they particularly mention former President Trump. It’s actually the main reason the United States was added to this report and for the first time was labeled as a backsliding democracy.
This is not only ridiculous but insane. The report states, “Electoral integrity is increasingly being questioned, often without evidence, even in established democracies. The former US President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations during the 2020 US presidential election have had spillover effects, including in Brazil, Mexico, Myanmar, and Peru, among others.”
First of all, to say that because former President Trump dared to question the election, that it has lead to other countries following suit is completely ridiculous. Just look at the countries they mention- Brazil, Mexico, Myanmar- these countries have a history of major electoral corruption. Are they really comparing the former President with Myanmar which has been a disaster for decades? I mean how many coups have we seen there in a matter of the last decade? Equating the two is sheer stupidity.
Also, there are legitimate questions that have yet to be answered regarding the 2020 presidential election. If questioning the integrity of elections was the key indicator of democratic backsliding, why wasn’t it a big deal when the Democrats questioned the integrity of the 200 or 2004 election? Why didn’t we get the democratic backsliding label in 2016 where Democrats and the media repeatedly questioned the integrity of the elections, and openly pushed a lie of collusion with Russia? Where many in the Democrat party started not my President hashtags. But all that was okay. See, if you question the results of the election when the ruling class candidate loses, that’s okay, but if the ruling class candidate wins, you are not allowed to ask questions.
If a democracy is so weak that it can’t withstand questions, it doesn’t deserve to stand at all. And what better way to strengthen democracy and democratic principles by having a nationwide forensic audit that ensures any mistakes that are found are corrected, and any fraud that may have occurred is prosecuted. Wouldn’t that make everyone have more faith in the electoral process?
I can also go further. Just listen to the Mollie Hemingway interview I did, which was a fantastic episode. She shows hard evidence of how the media and the big tech giants manipulated our electoral process. I would argue that this is, by far, a bigger threat to democratic values than questioning the results of the election, yet this report doesn’t mention anything about that.
In fact, the report shows how they selectively pick and choose the issues. In one section, it criticizes the Polish President for, “trying to bypass parliament and the National Electoral
Commission to move forward with an all vote-by-mail presidential election. Criticism was raised
about unconstitutional changes to the electoral law less than six months before the election, removal of functions from the National Electoral Commission.”
So changing election laws six months prior to a presidential election thrusts Poland into a backsliding democracy, but there was no mention of that exact thing happening here where we had a number of states change election policies and procedures in an election year. Even worse was that many of these changes were pushed through by chief executives and the courts even though Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution explicitly states that state legislative bodies are the ones responsible for changing election laws.
Funny how that works isn’t it. Also, the report calls out a number of Eastern European countries as using the coronavirus virus to consolidate power and implement authoritarian policies, yet nowhere do they mention France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and other European countries that had just as many, if not more restrictive authoritarian policies. Nowhere does the report call out Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, which had some of the most restrictive policies in the world.
So, while the report brings up some good points, and is largely right that the world is moving towards authoritarianism, it’s not for the reasons they mentioned.
Petty Tyrants Want to Replicate China’s Authoritarian Policies
However, our bureaucrats in the United States are petty tyrants. You don’t have to look far. Just look at lord Fauci who once again stated that any criticism of him, is really a criticism against science, and those that criticize him are anti-science as if he embodies science.
Why is this guy still around? I mean, if you want a definition of narcissism, they should just show lord Fauci’s picture in the dictionary. I’ve had it with this idiot. I don’t know why the administration even lets him speak to the media. It seems like lord Fauci spends more time doing media interviews than anything else. Take a listen to the latest ramblings of this narcissistic sociopath.
Sound Clip lord Fauci
I mean really? It’s clear that Fauci has become a complete political hack. He is supposed to answer to the elected representatives in the House and the Senate, yet he shows clear contempt for anyone that challenges him. He doesn’t want to be challenged. He just wants everyone to bow down at the alter of lord Fauci and heap praise on him for being blessed that the embodiment of science exists.
And then you have the now CDC Director praising China’s authoritarian policies when it comes to the coronavirus. Here is a clip of her from a year ago. Take a listen.
Sound Clip Walensky
Ladies and gentlemen, this is our current CDC Director. What’s is she really saying? That we should adopt China’s policies? First of all, you have to be an idiot to believe any of the numbers China puts out there. The Communist regime is notorious for lying and covering things up. It’s actually how we got into this mess in the first place.
She’s not the only one that has heaped praise on Chinese authoritarian policies. Just think when Hillary Clinton called for the regulation of political speech to avoid the “manipulation of information” and that social media “should pay a price for what they are doing to our democracy.” Now it’s not that she wants social media to pay a price for the nonstop bullying that happens to teenagers. It has nothing to do with silencing and censoring one group of people. It has nothing to do with the increased depression and anxiety as a direct result of social media.
She only wants them to pay a price for anyone that attacks her or the ruling class narrative. She’s essentially calling for authoritarian speech controls to be implemented.
You have people like the weasel Congressman Adam Schiff demanding the tech giants censor any deemed misinformation and false information by the powers that be. You have a Harvard Law Professor and an Arizona State University Law Professor saying that China largely has it right when it comes to regulating the internet and speech, and they call for Chinese-style censorship in the United States.
You have the White House flagging posts for the tech giants. You have one of the most powerful Democrats, Congresswoman AOC, I know it’s scary, saying that the social media platforms should take down what she deems as lies.
And sadly, the tech giants have been all too willing to acquiesce to these morons.
It’s not just the tech giants. Just look at corporate America as well. Look at how corporate America has weaponized our economy and essentially punishes states when duly elected legislative bodies pass laws that the corporate giants deem as anti-woke. Take Georgia for example. You had the state legislature pass voting laws in an effort to provide more oversight and control over the election process. And what did the woke corporations do? They threatened and economically punished the state.
These authoritarians said we don’t care that the state legislature was elected by the people and represents the people. We don’t care that the state legislature has every Constitutional right in crafting election laws. Since the powers that be in the woke corporations don’t like the law, they must punish the state economically to show them who is really in charge.
See, even our corporate world doesn’t care about democratic principles and shows they’re nothing more than authoritarians themselves. How many states have been threatened or punished because they passed laws affirming the very basics of biology and gender?
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Closing
You have all these people calling for a new normal, and then you have many of the sheep accepting the idea of the new normal. Yet, they never defined what the new normal entails.
Think about that. So many are willing to accept this idea of a new normal without ever questioning what exactly this new normal will consist of.
Once again, even if you disagree with me, do you believe the new normal will provide people with more power within society or do you think the new normal will grant government more power and authority?
The answer is clear. It always is. It’s obvious the government and the bureaucrats will be granted extraordinary powers under this new normal.
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In many jurisdictions, we’ve been operating under emergency decrees for nearly two years. We’ve relegated state legislative bodies to the sidelines and have allowed chief executives with enormous powers. States of emergency were meant to be implemented for short periods of time, yet we are witnessing a never-ending state of emergency as more and more petty tyrants push authoritarianism.
Democratic values are under attack, not from adversaries like Russia and China, but from within. You have these wannabe dictators who have no regard for individuals, yet they believe they are the moral holy warriors and it’s up to them to save you and society.
And unfortunately, there are all too many people out there who defend and justify the authoritarian policies all because they want to feel fully protected. They want to feel safe. I’ve never seen so many grown adults act like scared little children in my life.
They’re clueless to the fact that full protection and safety are nothing more than an illusion, but continuing down this path, reality will kick in, and I can assure you that the illusion of safety and security will quickly vanish. Hopefully, we never get to that point, and hopefully, people begin to open their eyes.
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I want to thank you for joining me, I want you to stay safe, and I’ll be back next week.
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