Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "‘I’ve never seen this before’: Haberman on tense exchange between judge and Trump witness" video.

  1. "Many strongmen, past and present, have used populist rhetoric that defines their nations as bound by faith, race, and ethnicity rather than by legal rights. For authoritarians, only some people are "the people," regardless of their birthplace or citizenship status, and only the leader, above and beyond any institution, embodies that group. This is why, in strongman states, a ttacking the leader is seen as a ttacking the state itself, and why critics are labeled enemies of the people or ter rorists." -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mu55olini to the Present.
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  2. "From the start, authoritarians stand out from other kinds of politicians by appealing to negative experiences and emotions. They don the cloak of national victimhood, reliving the humiliations of their people by foreign powers as they proclaim themselves their nation’s saviors. Picking up on powerful resentments, hopes, and fears, they present themselves as the vehicle for obtaining what is most wanted, whether it is territory, safety from racial others, securing male authority, or payback for exploitation by internal or external enemies." Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mu55olini to the Present
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