Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum

 

Twilight of Democracy: The seductive lure of authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum is a book reviewed in The Atlantic.  Of course, it is more about the risk of Trump.

Started: 10/7/2020
Completed: 10/10/2020
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: The Atlantic

Review:

How can he think that?  This question comes to my mind most times I hear Trump speak.  The platitudes, the vicious attacks, the simplistic thinking from him nearly drives me crazy.  "It turns out it was a lot more complicated then I thought" is the phrase that always follows once he drives down some ridiculous path ("just replace Obamacare with something better").  This book addresses that.  There are people who are comfortable with complexity and people who are comfortable with simplicity.  Trump is a simplistic thinker who has managed to change his past to maintain his simplistic thinking.  The reason he turns everything chaotic is because the thinking is so remarkably black and white and he is comfortable changing on a dime from one simple approach to another.  Applebaum argues that this black and white thinking leads to authoritarianism and as the convoluted speech of Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams demonstrate, the founders were comfortable with complexity.  Oh.