It' Not Really Baby Steps Any More

Our rush to dictatorship. (You can call it "totalitarian," "authoritarian," or whatever. It's dictatorship.)

To start, from the No. 1 source for "fake news," Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

NBC's Kristen Welker was asking Sanders some pretty reasonable questions about why Rob Porter was allowed to have access to classified documents when he did not have the clearance to do so. As the questioning became more pointed, Huckabee Sanders got more defensive.

Finally, she let fly. “I think we’re doing and taking every step we can to protect classified information,” Sanders snarled. “I mean, frankly, if you guys have such concern with classified information, there’s plenty of it that’s leaked out of the Hill, that’s leaked out of other communities, well beyond the White House walls. If you guys have real concerns about leaking out classified information, look around this room. You guys are the ones that publish classified information and put national security at risk,” Sanders said, taking aim at every reporter in the room.

Dictators don't like an independent press.

Digby goes into this issue more thoroughly in an earlier post:

I don't think E.J. Dionne is a hysteric, do you? And yet he seem concerned. Very concerned:

The autocratic leader lies and then falsely charges his opponents with lying. He politicizes institutions that are supposed to be free of politics by falsely accusing his foes of politicizing them. He victimizes others by falsely claiming they are victimizing him.

The autocrat also counts on spineless politicians to cave in to his demands. And as they destroy governmental institutions at his bidding, they insist they are defending them.

In fact, dictators don't like independent anything, especially anything that restricts their power. (This one is a must-read, for sure.)

Next, an almost offhand remark from Digby:

Tuesday's televised annual Global Threat Hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee seemed like a rare and special event. What used to be considered routine and ordinary in American political life -- open hearings with government officials testifying about the issues of the day -- felt like an exciting look into the secret workings of the Star Chamber. Considering that we are in the midst of one of the most significant presidential scandals in American history, concerning possible conspiracy with a foreign power and an active coverup, it's extremely odd that we have so little public congressional testimony about any of it. That's not the way our system is supposed to work.

Dictators like to do things behind closed doors.

Digby brings up another telling point later in the post:

But that wasn't the most dramatic moment. That came when Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., asked a simple question that sent shockwaves through the hearing room. He asked the assembled intelligence leaders if the president had ever urged them to address the threat of further Russian interference.

He has not. When pressed, Rogers said, “I can’t say I’ve been specifically directed to blunt or actually stop" future Russian attacks. Pompeo tried to defend Trump, but the best he could come up with was to say the CIA takes “all kinds of steps to disrupt what the Russians are trying to do.” Wray said he had not been specifically tasked to combat Russian interference by the president. Coats said the same. When asked if the president has ordered an inter-agency strategy, he replied, "We essentially are relying on the investigations that are underway."

Dictators like to control things. Everything. Especially examination of those things that brought them to power.