12-8-2020
Turkish journalist issues a dire warning
about Trump’s ongoing power grab.
The Istanbul native opens her article by describing
the various coups d’état that members of her
family observed living in Turkey.
And the events following the United States’ 2020 election,
she warns, give Tufecki to use another French phrase
that has been imported into the English language
a sense of déjà vu.
“In English, only one widely understood word captures
what Donald Trump is trying to do, even though
his acts do not meet its technical definition.”
“Trump is attempting to stage some kind of coup,
one that is embedded in a broader and ongoing power grab.
And if that’s hard to recognize, this might be your first.”
Americans, Tufecki argues, don’t have first-hand
experience with coups d’état.
Her Atlantic article, she stressed that if the
events following the 2020 presidential election
were happening in other parts of the world,
it would be reported as an attempted
coup d’état by a would-be “strongman.”
“This is an attempt to steal an election….
The fact that Republican leaders are not
standing up to (Trump) makes it dangerous…..
74 million people voted for him,
and all they’re hearing is that the
election was stolen from him.”
In her Atlantic piece, Tufecki describes recent
events in the U.S. and she argues, in essence,
that they are characteristic of a banana republic.
The Turkish journalist observes;
“The president and his key allies have
repeatedly called for Republican state legislators
to steal the election for him by appointing
new electors who will support him
instead of backing the winner of the state’s electoral votes….
The president’s high-profile allies are holding rallies where supporters are chanting ‘Lock him up!,’
calling for the imprisonment of Georgia’s Republican governor,
who is opposing his attempts to steal the election.
The president’s election lawyer said that ‘the entire election, frankly, in all the swing states, should be overturned, and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump’.
Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser
a powerful post who was just pardoned by Trump,
has amplified calls for the president
to suspend the Constitution and hold another election.”
Tufecki warns Americans that democracy isn’t
something they can take for granted.
“We’re being tested, and we’re failing,”
Tufecki says of her adopted country.
“The next attempt to steal an election
may involve a closer election and smarter lawsuits.
Imagine the same playbook executed with better decorum,
a president exerting pressure that is less crass and
issuing tweets that are more polite.
If most Republican officials are failing to police
this ham-handed attempt at a power grab,
how many would resist a smoother,
less grossly embarrassing effort?”
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