Trump drive to pursue critics puts US on path to dictatorship, Democrats warn

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sun 21 Sep 2025 15.23 EDT
Last modified on Sun 21 Sep 2025 23.19 EDT


Top Democratic leaders on Sunday warned that Donald Trump’s drive to go after his political opponents is putting the US on a path to becoming a dictatorship and a “banana republic” just eight months into his second presidency.

The warnings came a day after Trump’s public call for the justice department to take action against perceived enemies – and after ABC yanked its late-night talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel off the air in the wake of a threat from regulators at the Federal Communications Commission who are loyal to the president. Such behaviors, along with others since his return to the Oval Office in January, has prompted many who are not fiercely aligned with him to describe him as an authoritarian.

Turning the justice department “into an instrument that goes after his enemies, whether they’re guilty or not … is the path to a dictatorship,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said on CNN. “That’s what dictatorships do.”

Schumer’s fellow Democratic senator Chris Murphy, meanwhile, suggested the US was already becoming a “banana republic”. “The president of the United States is now employing the full power of the federal government, the FCC the department of justice, in order to punish, lock up, take down off the air all of his political enemies,” Murphy said on ABC.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/21/trump-democrats-dictatorship

[no_hypocrisy]

1. On a microcosm level, that's the MO my father took.

My father was a malignant narcissist.

He targeted me, criticized me, punished me, threatened me, etc. because I was "on" to him. He couldn't gaslight and fool me, and he knew I knew.

He went after me to send a signal to my mother, my sister, and my brother not to challenge him. He was in charge, and we weren't free to criticize where it was warranted. (Dad didn't have good judgment.)

While Dad is dead, my sister has taken on his role to keep me in my place. Except I haven't let her. She doesn't have the economic power, familial power, the psychological power to do that. I stood up to our father and I stand up to her.

[murielm99]

3. I had a mother like that.

I was the family scapegoat.

Mom had my dad bamboozled. He was her enabler. My baby brother, ten years younger, got anything he wanted. My middle brother and I bought into his "specialness" for a while. Eventually, I backed away from the youngest. We have a cool, distant relationship.

My middle brother and I were close. We both had a lot of therapy. Everyone is dead now, except for me and the baby brother. I talk to my youngest brother once in a while. BTW, he is no baby. He is ten years younger than I. He is 67.

[J_William_Ryan]

2. Democrats are correct, of course.

The Trump regime’s criminal, unconstitutional efforts to prosecute political opponents absent evidence of wrongdoing is what despots and dictators do.

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. We ARE a dictatorship

We are well past "paths".