STEVEN JONAS: Legislated Dictatorship: Coming to a State Near You?

Mitch McConnel, John Boehner, E. Cantor—GOP big whigs.

“The GOP likes to bleat that it is the party of new ideas (although most of them, like “lower taxes” and “smaller government” – except in matters of religious belief and personal choice, of course – are rather old).  Well these ideas — that is legislating dictatorship  — are surely new, both in American history and also on the world stage.  As noted, so far the dictatorial powers achieved legislatively by two state GOP administrations are relatively narrow (although not so for the affected parties).  But they are dictatorial in the sense that the executive branch operates on its own authority, with no checks and balances.  And yes indeed, unlike the powers seized in one way or another by dictators in the past, these weren’t seized militarily or on the authority of a monarch or through a rigged parliament, but were created as the outcome of the democratic process (at least on paper).  One can only say, look out, USA.  Here comes the GOP and it seems to have dictatorship on its mind.”

BY STEVEN JONAS
Crosspost with: http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12498

There were a number of other dictatorships established in the 20^th century in countries ranging from major world powers like Japan to very minor ones, like the land-locked Paraguay.  But none of them arrived on the scene through legitimate parliamentary means.  In the 21^st century, in the United States, the scenario for just such an advent of dictatorship may be unfolding, at least at the state/local level.  This is one that bears watching.

These are, to date, state and local government matters and to date they exist in only two GOP-controlled states.  In both states, the laws were arrived through the democratic process.  GOP governors were elected as were GOP-majority legislatures.  But there is apparently much interest in other GOP-controlled states in adopting similar measures, with either greater or lesser scope.  The fact that neither governor ran for office on such platforms would seem to be immaterial.  Most folks pay little attention to electoral platforms anyway unless an opponent picks out a particular feature of it/them and makes an issue of it.