Down The Red Brick Road.

They even admit it that they are pining over the dictators, Trump even admitted that he admires the dictators and that if elected he will go after his political opponents!

In Iowa speech, Trump praises foreign dictators’ strength, slams ‘weak’ Biden

The former president spoke favorably of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, while claiming he’s the candidate who will ‘prevent World War III’

The Desert News

By Samuel Benson

November 18, 2023

Just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to the U.S., former president Donald Trump heaped praise on him, calling him “a great guy.”

During a campaign rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Trump called Xi “fierce” and “smart,” contrasting him with President Joe Biden, who Trump called “weak” and “a very stupid person.” Biden said the Chinese president is a “dictator” after meeting with him in California this week.

“Now, the press doesn’t like it when I say good things about (Xi),” Trump told a crowd of about 1,400 people in a high school gymnasium. “What can I say? He runs 1.4 billion people with an iron hand.”

[…]

During his remarks, Trump also spoke favorably of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, praising both of them as some of the “strongest leaders” in the world. Later, he bragged about a conversation he once had with Abdul Ghani Baradar, a leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, boasting that Baradar called him “your excellency.

The Republicans are paving the way to authoritarian government. One party, one supreme leader. And what is really scary is half of the country is right there with him!

As Trump stepped up to the lectern, he was greeted with raucous applause and chants of “U-S-A!”

That reminds me of the movies of the guy with the funny little mustache Germany in in the 1930s standing up on a podium pounding his fist.

Editorial: State leaders muzzle Floridians who want to speak out

Just look at what the guy from Florida is doing to that state.

By ORLANDO SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD

November 19, 2023

Floridians, take notice. Your right to a representative government is being stolen away.

Recent headlines document angry eruptions among an audience of people who show up to meetings ready to tell their leaders what they think — only to be muzzled by time limits that shut down some would-be participants before they could utter a single word.

More often, however, the exclusion is happening quietly and secretly, in meetings that never take place. Closed doors that should be open. A row of empty seats on a dais, facing a roomful of chairs that are also empty.

The result, however, is the same: The only people who can register their concerns face-to-face with their elected officials are the elites who can afford the private clubs and campaign contributions that give them direct access to power. The voices of regular Floridians are shut out or told to shut up.

[…]

In a cruelly related dictate, Board Chairman Brian Lamb denied them the right to speak in favor of free speech, diversity and inclusion — by imposing a 15-minute time limit on all public comment. When he gaveled the discussion to a close, the crowd chanted “Let us speak.” But a majority of board members were unwilling to listen.

Lamb said the limitation was “customary,” Martin reported. That’s categorically false. Across Florida, elected and appointed boards and commissions have taken it as a point of pride: When their constituents show up to a public meeting, they deserve the opportunity to be heard. It’s even enshrined in the state constitution.

I have spoken at many hearings and it is customary to give each speaker 3 minutes setting a 15 minute limit would only allow 5 speakers to testify! And it is not just school boards but…

‘These committee meetings are essential parts of Florida’s legislative process, because they are the public’s only opportunity to directly address lawmakers on issues that are important to everyday Floridians. Of 35 House committees, 16 canceled their meetings last week; the ratio was even worse in the Senate, where 17 of 26 committees did not meet. Among them: All 10 of the committees Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, serves on, including Banking and Insurance; Governmental Oversight and Accountability; and Appropriations. Stewart said she didn’t even bother to return to Tallahassee after the November 6-10 special session.

You know who also does that… fascists. Dictators.

Back in May PBS News Hour reported that back in the spring the Republicans were trying to make it harder to change the Constitutions in some states,

Republicans work to thwart state constitutional amendments protecting reproductive rights

By Laura Barrón-López, Gabrielle Hays, Matt Loffman

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Republican legislators in multiple states have proposed measures that would make it harder for voters to change state constitutions.

That includes Ohio, where, last night, lawmakers scheduled an August special election for a resolution that would require future amendments to receive 60 percent of the vote to be adopted. That's ahead of a pro-abortion rights effort heading to the November ballot. A similar bill is moving through Missouri's legislature.

[…]

However, there are also plenty of voters who are not very happy about this being something that the legislature is looking at. Critics argue that it is anti-democratic, that it is taking away the people's ability to share their voices to participate in the democratic system.

The Republicans just don’t trust the voters to vote the right way… the Republican way! The Rolling Stone put it this way,

Ohio Republicans Say It’s Their ‘God Given Right’ to Restrict Abortion Access

Republicans in Ohio want to undermine the will of voters who approved a measure enshrining reproductive freedom into the state’s constitution

All of these initiatives goals are to accomplish one thing… to strengthen the party from the will of the people to the will of the party. The Republicans are trying to restrict voting rights, which could make it more difficult for Democrats to win elections and their gerrymandering makes it easier for Republicans to win elections. The Republicans also opposed the For the People Act, which would have expanded voting rights and made it more difficult to gerrymander districts.

Last year Politico wrote,

The number of states with one-party rule has steadily been on the rise in recent years. Seventeen had divided governments in 2018. That dropped to 13 in 2020 and is now down to 12, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Having a trifecta is necessarily bad, it is how they use that power that is bad.