How to Make a Dictator: A Conversation with Strongman Expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat

The PoliticsGirl Podcast

MeidasTouch Network, Leigh McGowan

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.9 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Authoritarian propaganda is full of empty promises of unity. Of uniting the nation under a leader who alone can fix it. Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat and I had this conversation BEFORE the events at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, but the facts remain the same if not more poignant now. The shock and awe we’re seeing is a tactic to distract us from what this party plans to do to our country, our democracy, and to anyone who doesn’t pledge absolute fealty or fit into their limited box of “acceptable” Americans. What happened at the Trump rally changes nothing about who Trump is or what he will do to this country if he and his party gain power. If anything, Ruth’s warnings of how a strongman comes to power, are more dire now. We are witnessing the playbook of authoritarianism unfold, we can not simply go along. As always, if you find worth in what we do, please consider SUBSCRIBING to PoliticsGirl Premium. You’ll get this podcast ad free, along with a bunch of other perks, like the rants directly to your inbox and the knowledge that you’re making this kind of highly researched, factual information possible. If that interests you, please go to https://www.politicsgirl.com/premium and subscribe today!! Thank you so much! xoPG Guest social: Twitter: @ruthbenghiat Website: https://ruthbenghiat.com As always, please RATE and SUBSCRIBE so we can grow the show, open the dialogue, and inspire change moving forward! All show links here!: https://linktr.ee/politicsgirl This episode is sponsored by… https://lumen.me/politicsgirl https://rhone.com/politicsgirl code: PoliticsGirl Vibes Only Podcast: https://couriernewsroom.com/vibes-only-podcast-trailer/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everything the Republicans are doing is designed to make you give up, make you become fatalist,
0:07.1	make you feel it's not worth it because they're going to come in anyway.
0:10.6	And that's why when Kevin Roberts says we are going to win. We're coming in. It's designed, it's like a steam roller, and that's what all
0:19.2	authoritarians do. Sometimes they're like Mussolini, the first one he's already using violence, like copious violence.
0:27.0	So that scared people into silence.
0:30.0	So we have a chance to turn this around.
0:32.0	Why can't we be like France or the UK? So we have a chance to turn this around.
0:32.6	Why can't we be like France or the UK?
0:35.2	But we've got to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan.
0:51.6	Let's get into it.
0:53.0	Well, as we discussed with Supreme Court expert Dolly Aleithwick last week,
0:56.7	we have slipped into some pretty new territory in the United States,
1:00.3	where the Supreme Court has now given the American President the power of Kings,
1:03.9	with the ability to sit above the law. To paraphrase Dahlia herself,
1:08.0	we have moved out of the world of those who have expertise on the courts
1:11.5	and into the wheelhouse of those who have expertise in
1:13.9	tyranny. So with that in mind today we're going to be talking to Ruth Ben Giat
1:17.6	author of Strongman from Mussolini to the present, a literal expert on the rise
1:22.4	of heads of state who damage and
1:24.4	destroyed democracy and promised law and order rule only to legitimize lawless
1:29.1	behavior by themselves and their inner circle. A professor of history and Italian studies at NYU,
1:34.1	Ruth is also an advisor to protect democracy and the recipient of the Guggenheim
	...

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