On the level of rhetoric, few notions are so antithetical to democracy as the idea that no ill must be spoken of retired military officers who wade into politics.
It's amazing. We're told that liberal democracy is under threat because of Trump's buffoonery by the same very serious people who, in their next breath, imply that certain figures are "heroes" with judgment beyond reproach.
These people don't care about democracy or human rights. What did McRaven do when the Bush administration of which he is "a big fan" was not just "normalizing" torture, but actually torturing people? Their problem with Trump is that he's a fat, illiterate, obnoxious lower-class slob. It's not about what he does, it's that he makes them feel bad.
On the contrary, it is very much about what he does. Within the last month wanna-be Dictator Don has:
deployed the military donestically as a political stunt
attempted to dictate election results in defiance of the law
illegally appointed an Acting Attorney General for the implied purpose of obstructing an investigation into his crimes
tried to override existing asylum law via executive order
There are more examples than I can readily list.
I am no fan of the lightly amoral technocracy that the pre-Mango Moron status quo represented, but I am appalled that anyone could think the destructive petty fascism of the modern GOP is in any way preferable. Trump threatens democracy not because he is a clown, but because he is also an arsonist.
