Trump goes full autocrat with disgusting announcement - Brian Tyler Cohen

[TexasTowelie]

just in case the slide toward autocracy
wasn't obvious enough we now have some
insight into Trump's birthday plans this
year the AP is reporting that Donald
Trump is planning a massive military
parade involving more than 6,000
soldiers to celebrate uh well him
Because nothing screams patriotism quite
like a taxpayer funded show of military
might Not in honor of a national holiday
not to mark the end of a war but to
glorify one man Donald Trump And
remember this is the same Donald Trump
who during his presidency repeatedly
tried to force the military into his
political theater We saw it when he
wanted tanks at the Lincoln Memorial for
his salute to America event We saw it
when he tear gas peaceful protesters
outside the White House just to hold a
Bible upside down for a photo op And now
we're seeing it again A man obsessed
with using the military not for national
defense but has his own personal props
The final cost of the parade is still
being determined but one defense
official tells CBS News early estimates
put it at tens of millions of dollars
Held near the National Mall it would
involve more than 6,000 troops 50
military aircraft plus 150 military
vehicles like Bradley's and strikers
also tanks And a US official tells CBS
News they'll likely have to be put on
flatbed trucks to distribute their
weight to prevent damage to roads
President Trump's been calling for such
a parade since his first term It's
scheduled for June 14th which besides
being his 79th birthday is also the
250th anniversary of the army It's also
worth noting how completely unamerican
all of this is Military parades like
this are not a part of our political
tradition and there is a reason for that
This is the kind of display we see from
regimes like Russia and China and North
Korea These spectacles are about
domination fear and power not about
freedom democracy or any of the values
that we claim to stand for The reality
is that it comes straight from the
authoritarian playbook Just look at
Vladimir Putin Russia holds massive
military parades every May 9th for
Victory Day with tanks rolling through
Red Square soldiers goostepping in front
of the Kremlin and fighter jets
screaming overhead All of which is meant
to reinforce one message the supremacy
of the state embodied in just one man
Vladimir Putin No wonder Donald Trump is
so far up his ass He wants to be him by
proximity Or look at Kim Jong-un North
Korea stages grandiose military parades
with ballistic missiles and thousands of
troops all marching in unison And the
centerpiece of those parades a smiling
waving dictator on a podium soaking in
the agilation from his carefully
controlled audience Or how about
Xiinping china's military parades are
highly choreographed demonstrations of
force meant to convey the strength of
the Chinese Communist Party under his
command Something to keep in mind when
Republicans lose their skulls over the
communist Democrats all the while
cheering on a leader who sure does seem
to emulate those very communists But
Trump has taken note of all of this He
admires it And more importantly he wants
it He sees those parades and he sees
power Not democratic power not the power
of the people but raw personal
authoritarian power In fact Trump has
been obsessed with military parades
since he witnessed France's Bastile Day
celebration But here's the critical
difference France's parade celebrates
their national day and Republican values
not President Mcronone's birthday The
distinction here is quite large But of
course Trump saw the French parade and
thought to himself "Wow look at all
those tanks and soldiers I want all of
that but you know make it about me."
Because that really is Trump's
superpower Seeing literally anything in
the world and figuring out how to make
it all about himself And uh I don't
think I should have to say this but the
US military swears allegiance to the
Constitution not to any one man
Certainly not to a twice impeached
indicted ex-president who tried to
overthrow our democracy on January 6 And
yet the idea that the military would
participate in a spectacle like this
shows just how much the normalization of
Trump's authoritarianism has already
taken root Again this isn't about
honoring veterans It isn't about unity
This is about using the military as a
political weapon against its own voters
own citizens and worse as a symbol of
loyalty to a man not to a country I mean
just imagine for a second if President
Barack Obama had requested a massive
military parade for his birthday Fox
News would have spontaneously combusted
Sean Hannity's head may have literally
exploded on live television It would be
enough for Judge Janine to swear off
boxed wine for good We'd have seen
congressional hearings for the next six
years about Obama's birthday parade gate
The same people defending this now would
have been apoplelectic and they would
have been right to be concerned by the
way because that's not how Democratic
leaders behave But Trump isn't
interested in how Democratic leaders
behave because his priority is showing
outright hostility to our democratic
allies This is the same Donald Trump who
openly mocked NATO who considered
pulling the US out of the alliance
altogether The same Donald Trump who
called the European Union a foe who
cozied up to dictators while trashing
democratically elected leaders like
Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau While
Donald Trump embraces authoritarian
regimes he abandons the very alliances
that have kept the world including the
United States of America safe and
prosperous since the end of World War II
And now he wants to march tanks down
Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate himself
If this isn't a giant flashing blinking
red light I don't know what is But the
sad reality is that we have seen this
before and we know where it leads The
use of military force to celebrate a
leader's birthday is not a neutral act
It's not just political theater It is a
signal a test It is about seeing how far
Donald Trump can go before we stand up
and say enough In autocratic regimes
those displays come before the loss of
civil liberties and civil rights before
the purges before the censorship They
start as parades The way they end is a
hell of a lot less jovial Donald Trump
wants to rule like a king not govern
like a president And a military parade
in his honor is just another step in
exactly that direction The sad truth is
that he's not trying to emulate Lincoln
or Roosevelt He is trying to emulate
Putin she and Kim This is where the
descent into autocracy begins with
symbols with gestures and frankly with
silence The good news is that we still
have a chance to stop it And if and when
Trump does his military parade I can
promise you that there will be
counterprogramming And I would ask of
everyone here that we take to the
streets for it If Donald Trump wants to
turn Washington DC into his own personal
thief then we show him what the rest of
the country the hundreds of millions of
us are willing to do that are going to
dwarf whatever little personal
insecurity parade that he's running in
DC Donald Trump relies heavily on making
us feel powerless But the reality is
that Republicans can run all three
branches of government They can pass
executive orders They can hand down
autocratic edicts But I can promise you
that nothing they can do will be able to
supersede the voices of millions of
Americans taking to the streets Do not
forget that political gravity exists and
that we're here to wield it If Trump
wants to compensate for his failed
presidency with an ego trip for himself
then we will show him what a parade
actually looks like For a guy who cares
a lot about crowd size I can assure you
his will never look smaller in
comparison.