Pity The Poor Dictator When His Time is UP

Dictators by their nature will eventually go too far. They cannot help it. It is fixed in their personalities.

They usually come to power through a bloody revolution where part of the military sides with the government and part sides with the rebel leader-become-dictator. By whatever means the man ascends to the seat of power, he is destined to fail unless he can refrain from brutal enforcement of his every command.

Many dictators are revered by an adoring populace (at the beginning). Those who do not question his authority and allow themselves to be ruled and forego their own freedoms in order to allow the dictator to exorcize The Others will do well under his thumb.

But even the most benevolent of dictators use their unlimited power to squash dissent when it ultimately arises. His promises to the people are withdrawn. He cannot fulfill those promises and must blame someone because it is unthinkable (by himself) that his perfect plan and implementation were in some way deficient.

Most of the world's dictators do not last beyond a few years. Those who do become more despotic by the day. They squash protests, imprison opponents, execute resisters and journalists. In short, anyone who voices disapproval must go. The purges start with deportations and exile but soon ramp up to prison and disappearances.

In countries like North Korea and Saudi Arabia they have no compunction about summary executions. They make no bones about their brutality in order to serve as a deterrent to others. Several of the South American countries make the resistance disappear while maintaining a smiling face toward the world. They deny their brutality for as long as possible, but eventually that facade disintegrates too.

Here in America, we blindly elected a proto-dictator who immediately set to the task of consolidating his position as the supreme leader who cannot be touched by the law, the Congress or the Judiciary. His approach has been to foment chaos to a level where nobody is capable of focusing on a single issue. Congress cannot unify to act. The people cannot agree on whether he is or is not a dictator or whether being one is a good thing or bad. The Judiciary is being stacked to rubber stamp his authority to do whatever he thinks up to do.

Every vile act and policy has a hint of good in it. A cursory view of his "accomplishments" looks good at the surface, but look a bit deeper and the malicious aspects are exposed. Tax cuts on the wealthy give them money in their pockets to supposedly improve the economy, but all the cuts really are are Revenue Reduction Acts designed to hamstring the government and give cause to reducing the amount of money ordinary American have in their pockets. Cut revenues and you cannot effectively regulate the pollution corporations create in the absence of oversight and regulations.

Saving a few millions on SNAP funding to reduce the reliance of poor people on the government sounds good until you realize there are no opportunities for them to make up for the lost funds with any job they can get.

Stopping abortions sounds like a good and moral act until you see that the women who are getting the abortions cannot afford the additional mouth to feed (even as the dictator seeks to remove her SNAP funding for food.) Cutting through the propaganda about who seeks abortions and why one can see that the abortion is never entered into frivolously. It is not because the woman is promiscuous or vain, immoral or careless. It is because she sees the reality of that mouth to feed, the medical costs, the burden on her keeping a job and the effect on her existing children.

Stopping the killing of babies sounds noble but the tissue being aborted is far from being a baby. While it might have the potential of becoming a child, there is a reason it is called a fetus or embryo. Yeah, an egg could hatch into a chicken, but it is still just an egg.

The dictator cares not for the quality of the lives of the people but in controlling their actions and behaviors in such a manner as to maintain his dictatorship. Women with babies they cannot afford are controllable. The dictator finds it far easier to outlaw the abortion than to eliminate the need for it.

Dictators prescribing the permission for businesses to refuse services or employment to same-sex couples, transgender persons, persons with disabilities and anyone who is not like the business owners might please a few proprietors but ignores the fact that such people still need those services. It is only a quantum step from gender-discrimination back to racial and religious discrimination. The dictator thrives on such adversity.

The level of power and authority of dictators rises. Peaks and declines on a Bell-curve over time. The dictator will eventually be overthrown, but he can do a lot of generational damage before he is taken out.