![Bruce Bialosky](http://www.flashreport.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/userphoto/4208.thumbnail.51b9d51077b0a.jpg)
Trump the Authoritarian
President Trump has been called an authoritarian a lot lately. He has also been called a fascist, dictator, totalitarian and autocrat. I do not think I have seen him called imperious or a despot perhaps because the name callers are unfamiliar with a thesaurus. Whether he is any of these is the question to analyze.
We can look at many cases in history, but we have two prime examples during recent times that define what these people call him. And when I say “these people” it goes all the way up to the Speaker of the House. The two cases are Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro. These are prime examples of authoritarians.
The rule of these people has been relatively short — Chavez took over in February of 1999 and Erdogan became Prime Minister in March 2003. Though they came to office through open elections, during these respective periods of time they have coalesced power in their own hands through lessening the powers of the citizens and suppressing their freedoms, particularly the freedom of the press and simultaneously freedom of speech. Both countries are no longer free democracies.… Read More