"In Hungary and Russia, the rule of law has been bent and broken, to the benefit of the few, and to the detriment of the many.

Ending the rule of law is the Trump-Vance platform. …

The collapse of the economy is not a bug of autocracy, but a feature."

#Trump #democracy #autocracy #RuleofLaw #economy #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/9

"When Trump destroys our democracy, he will also destroy our economy.

Autocracy will bring poverty. …

Democracy is a method of checking corrupt rulers. When there is no functioning democracy, corruption is unchecked.

And democracy is an element of a more fundamental guarantor of prosperity, the rule of law."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #democracy #autocracy #RuleofLaw #economy #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/8

https://snyder.substack.com/p/autocracy-and-poverty

"It’s not surprising that Donald Trump thinks the 1890s were a golden age. For people like him — the lazy sons of the New York wealthy — the era had a lot to offer.

But for everyone else, it was an experience that ranged from bad to horrific. Anyone who’s actually studied this era should be terrified of a politician who sees it as a model to be replicated."

#Trump #GildedAge #1890s #McKinley #tariffs #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/7

"Meanwhile, nearly half of the country had no savings or investments at all. The wages they made in an industrial economy whose rules were stacked against them were barely enough to keep afloat. As a result, a full eleven million of the twelve million households in America — a full 92% of the country — lived below the poverty line."

#Trump #GildedAge #1890s #McKinley #tariffs #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/6

"The wealthiest Americans — the ones regular folk called 'robber barons' — made off like, well, bandits. A full third of the nation’s wealth was owned by the top 2% of American households in the late 19th century; three-quarters of it was owned by the top 10%."

~ Kevin Kruse

#Trump #GildedAge #1890s #McKinley #tariffs #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/5

https://kevinmkruse.substack.com/p/make-america-gilded-again

"and in cities across the country, the wealthy dressed their horses and coachmen in expensive livery, threw costly dinners, built seaside mansions they called 'cottages,' and wore diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. When the daughter of a former senator married, she wore a $10,000 dress and a diamond tiara, and well-wishers sent 'necklaces of diamonds [and] bracelets of diamonds, sapphires, and rubies.'”

#Trump #GildedAge #1890s #McKinley #tariffs #EconomicDisparity #RobberBarons
/3

"The McKinley years were those of the Gilded Age, in which industrialists amassed fortunes that they spent in spectacular displays. Cornelius and Alva Vanderbilt’s home on New York’s Fifth Avenue cost more than $44 million in today’s dollars, with stables finished in black walnut, cherry, and ash, with sterling silver metalwork,"

#Trump #GildedAge #1890s #McKinley #tariffs #EconomicDisparity #ConcentrationofWealth #RobberBarons
/2

"Joe Biden wants to make it easier for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. Donald Trump wants to let multinational corporations get away with exploiting workers and ripping off consumers. Joe Biden respects democracy. Donald Trump attacks it.

This election offers a stark choice on issue after issue."

#Biden #Trump #EconomicDisparity #taxes #SocialSecurity #workers #corporations #unions
/4

"Joe Biden wants to tax the rich so that we can fund the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Donald Trump wants to cut taxes for the billionaire class. Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security benefits. Donald Trump and his friends want to weaken Social Security."

#Biden #Trump #EconomicDisparity #taxes #SocialSecurity #workers #corporations #unions
/3

"It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism. …

This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can do better. We must do better. Joe Biden knows that. Donald Trump does not."

#Biden #Trump #EconomicDisparity #taxes #SocialSecurity #workers #corporations #unions
/2

@rbreich
Eye submit that the 344-to-1 pay gap between overpaid CEOs and their employees is fueling low pay for workers in ways that are both obvious -- in the US wealth gap -- and hidden -- as in the inflation of most goods and services.
And don't even get me started on how blatantly the toxic rich are purchasing elected officials, the judicial system, and policing.
#EconomicDisparity, #CEOPay, #EarningsGap, #TaxTheWealthy, #EatTheRich, #BongHits4Workers, #TuckersBalls

"More than half of Republicans now reject the idea of a democracy based in the rule of law and instead support Christian nationalism, insisting that the United States is a Christian nation and that our society and our laws should be based in evangelical Christian values."

#Republicans #EconomicDisparity #CultureWars #WhiteChristianNationalism #HeatherCoxRichardson

/4

"'It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.'

A generation later, that culture war has joined with the economic vision of the older party to create a new ideology."

#Republicans #EconomicDisparity #CultureWars #WhiteChristianNationalism #HeatherCoxRichardson

/3