'Ex-Intelligence Officials Warn We Are Dangerously Close To A Complete Unraveling Of Democracy'

Written by Nancy LeTourneau/Washington Monthly, June 3, 2020. AlterNet.

Less than a week ago, the president launched an attack on social media for fact-checking one of his tweets. Trump claimed that it was a violation of free speech. Nothing captures the dangers we face from this presidency better than that reaction, followed days later by scenes like this one in Kansas City in which a protester was maced and arrested for saying things that offended police officers.

-- What @kcpolice did today was UNFORGIVABLE and UNFORGETTABLE pic.twitter.com/WSmVqeSfIE — shadow clone wesly!*++ (@weslyinfinity) June 1, 2020 --

I’m sure Trump would laud those officers for “dominating” the scene. The president may be backing off his threat to use the military against protesters, but we are traveling dangerously close to a complete unraveling of our democracy. Former intelligence officials are sounding the alarm.



-- The scenes have been disturbingly familiar to CIA analysts accustomed to monitoring scenes of societal unraveling abroad — the massing of protesters, the ensuing crackdowns and the awkwardly staged displays of strength by a leader determined to project authority.
In interviews and posts on social media in recent days, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarity between events at home and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other nations.
“I’ve seen this kind of violence,” said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst responsible for tracking developments in China and Southeast Asia. “This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.”--

The question becomes, who will stop Trump when/if he escalates his autocratic tendencies in the run-up to the election in November? Can the country afford to wait and let voters decide?...

Read More, https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/ex-intelligence-officials-warn-we-are-dangerously-close-to-a-complete-unraveling-of-democracy/