Now more than Ever Democracy needs an Informed Populace to Survive

After the recent alleged murder of a police officer by a “Boogaloo Boy, the indictments in a conspiracy plot to kidnap and murder the Governor of Michigan (Gretchen Whitmer) and with Trump “inciting the Proud Boys” during the Presidential debate saying, “Stand back and Stand By” (rather than condemning them and telling them to stand down), many of us are very wary of the possible dangers to Democracy swirling around the 2020 election.

These threats, although likely impotent, are still very real. So now would be the perfect time to consult history, and those who are experts on history, in order to know more about the potential dangers of fascism and wannabe dictators to democracy and the democratic rule of law.

Book burning is impossible Today but the Truth is still being Attacked from all sides

Just as Trump cries and whines daily about “fake news” a term originally coined to describe his penchant for constantly lying, Hitler wanted to banish history from the minds of his German subjects by exhorting them to set libraries ablaze in bonfires meant to banish all but his mandated “truth”. Those bonfires are, to this day, a symbol of absolute evil, no less so than concentration camps and mass murder.

Fortunately there are recent classic as well as new, important titles coming out at this critical time. While many in the masses might be easily fooled into admiring those that primp and preen and bluster like Mussolini once did, or attack a designated “other” group like Hitler (the Jews) and Trump (Mexican immigrants and other asylum seekers as well as the imaginary threat of ‘antifa’) anyone who has studied history, and in particular these books, will know that the path to freedom, justice and real democracy lies and the exact opposite direction. Always.

Origins of Totalitarianism

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I.

Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time–Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia–which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left.

From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination. Click here to see “Origins of Totalitarianism” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference

Click here to see “Rigged”
and help independent bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

Russia’s interference in 2016 marked only the latest chapter of a hidden and revelatory history. In Rigged, David Shimer tells the sweeping story of covert electoral interference past and present. He exposes decades of secret operations–by the KGB, the CIA, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia–to shape electoral outcomes, melding deep historical research with groundbreaking interviews with more than 130 key players, from leading officials in both the Trump and Obama administrations, to CIA and NSA directors, to a former KGB general.

What Americans should make of Russia’s attack in 2016 is still hotly debated, even after the Mueller report and years of media coverage. Shimer shows that Putin’s operation was, in fact, a continuation of an ongoing struggle, using familiar weapons radically enhanced by new technology. Throughout history and in 2016, both Russian and American operations achieved their greatest success by influencing the way voters think, rather than tampering with actual vote tallies. Click here to see “Rigged” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

Click here to see “The Road to Unfreedom”
and help independent bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States.

Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself. The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies. Click here to see “The Road to Unfreedom” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Fascism: A Warning

Click here to see “Fascism”
and help independent bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption. Click here to see “Fascism” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America

Click here to see “Democracy in Chains”
and help independent bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution.

Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance.

But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect–the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan–and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. Click here to see “Democracy in Chains” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

How Democracies Die

Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang–in a revolution or military coup–but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.

Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die–and how ours can be saved. Click here to see “How Democracies Die” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates directly to your inBox.

Find books on Politics, Sustainable Energy, Racial Equality & Justice and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org

Enjoy Lynxotic at Apple News on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Lynxotic may receive a small commission based on any purchases made by following links from this page.

Photo Collage – Adobe Stock / Lynxotic / Evan Vucci/AP/Shutterstock

Trump Cuts Obama-Era Fuel Efficiency Standards By Half, An Economic Risk With Environmental Costs

On Tuesday, March 31st, President Donald Trump delivered yet again on one of his more cryptic campaign promises—to roll back environmental policies set during the Obama Administration in order to boost the fossil-fuel economy. This time, his instrument of anti-ecological attack is the automotive industry, which he seeks to send back to the carbon spewing dark ages at the peril of destroying all life on earth.

The new standards being pushed into action are regressive from the 2012-initiated Obama standards. Eight years ago, President Obama called for automakers to increase efficiency by 5% and aim for a 54 mpg average on vehicles. Trump’s new plan reduces that efficiency to 2.5% and aims instead for a more conservative 40 mpg. The EPA and the Department of Transportation recently wrote up and expressed support of Trump’s amended standards.

The stated rationale behind this change, according to Trump and his colleagues, is that it will help the economy. These standards will decrease the price of cars by an estimated $1,000, in order to incentivize people to buy newer and safer vehicles. Meanwhile, it is meant to increase manufacturing and savings and production costs of automakers. This is probably why car companies such as General Motors, Toyota, and Chrysler champion Trump’s new standards—they buy into the trickle-down economic ideal that Republicans are also promoting.

Not only dangerous for the Environment, also Zero Economic Benefit

Many, however, question the validity behind Trump’s economic optimism. For starters, under a 40 mpg average, drivers will have to pay more for gas. According to Consumer Reports, car owners will have to spend $3,200 more on fuel over the course of a vehicles lifetime, dwarfing the original $1,000 savings at the time of purchase.

Meanwhile, the plan could hurt car manufacturers operating in international markets. Just because the United States remains lax in its fuel efficiency standards does not mean that the rest of the world will follow suit. Gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing cars might be fair game in America, but they may not meet legal requirements overseas. Thus, American-made cars may fail to turn profits in foreign markets, causing financial strife and employee layoffs stateside.

And then there is the environmental cost. Gas powered, ICE vehicles are the greatest contributors to carbon emissions in the world right now. According to the New York Times, Trump’s new plan would allow cars to emit almost a billion more tons of CO2 over the course of their lifetimes. While the long-term financial price of these increased emissions is unclear (yet probably very expensive), their consequences will inevitably extend far beyond monetary concerns.

Using Economic “Stimulus” as an excuse to gut Environmental Safeguards is the New Anti-Eco War Tactic

Carbon dioxide trapped in our atmosphere is the leading contributor to climate change. The planet is already in a dangerous situation with more parts-per-million than what is ecologically sound. Industrially, the world demands a turn away from fossil fuels and a decrease in emissions.

Trump’s new plan, however, digresses from the planet’s urgent environmental needs. The penalties could include biodiversity loss, extreme temperature shifts, natural disasters, rising sea levels, and more. Even in shorter terms, greater emissions can compromise air quality, leading to increased illnesses and health issues—something that the world certainly does not need under the current circumstances.

Click to buy “The Uninhabitable Earth”
and at the same time help Lynxotic
and All Independent Local Bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

While Trump has his powerful profit-driven supporters for these new standards, many are pushing back against him. Most notably, the state of California continues to aim for its own emissions standards that are far more stringent than the federal ones. The Trump administration deemed California setting its own standards unconstitutional back in September, but the Golden State has not given up the fight, launching lawsuits and municipal plans to decrease its statewide fossil fuel reliance.

Environmental groups and electric car manufacturers also disagree with the President—BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen have already struck deals with California and twenty-three additional states opposing Trump’s federal standards are expected to join Cali in filing suits against the administration.

With everything America is fighting right now, environmental issues have seemed to take a temporary backseat to more immediate matters. This late addition to Trump’s ongoing list of environmental rollbacks comes at a precarious time, but it should not be overlooked. Despite everything going on, the climate continues changing and the earth continues warming. When the pandemic passes, environmental problems will still be here. The least we can do is make sure they do not gain an upper hand while we briefly focus our attentions elsewhere.

Enjoy Lynxotic at Apple News on your iPhone, iPad or Mac

Find books on Global Warming, Climate Change, Sustainable Energy and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org