Would argue the case of spain’s transition. The only violent act that can be directly linked to a change in direction was the death of franco’s preferred successor carrero-blanco.
Also I know Pinochet was not exactly a fascist (more like fascist-adjacent) but he also was able to die peacefully in his sleep.
The trick is being friends with the correct people. Make sure your powerful friends know how good of an ally you are, and know when to retire.
Both Franco and Pinochet were allies of USA (and Pinochet also a very good friend of Margaret Thatcher). I think nowadays would be more difficult, but US of A -and many other countries, the time of US being the hegemon is past- still supports or at least tolerates extremist goverment and small time dictators if it suits their interests.
It did work to some extent, but democrats abandoned calling republicans weird in favor of touring the country with Liz Cheney and talking about how lethal our military was.
notion lacking proof: i think this sort of campaign desperation is the result of campaign managers depending almost entirely on ‘flash’ polling. “oh@#$! now we’re 2.3 points down in Pennsylvania among the over fifty years olds, better up the centrist/patriot crap!” Despite many of us convinced that accurate national polling is not possible, they would say: “What else do we have??” …and sticking to talking up progressive policy is apparently a non-starter sigh
And it’s so much bigger an issue than that - if you stop allowing water to flow through rivers to the sea, the bays and rivers of California get destroyed by an invasion of salt water, which also infiltrates and destroys the ground water sources for much of the state’s population. All because farmers want more water than actually exists these days. It’s just so profoundly stupid. I suppose this is how everything is going to be in the new Trump era - a desire for a physically impossible state of affairs, ignoring the reality and all facts, and as a result destroying everything to achieve that impossible state as a result. Trump is both ignorant and delusional, plus he’s happy to buy into other people’s delusions as well.
It’s the same thing with Trump complaining about the Panama canal fees and slowdowns - climate change has reduced rainfall in the interior of Panama, that water is no longer available to fill the canal, as a result there are slowdowns and higher costs. Trump only understands the effect, not the cause, so he blames China. If the US took over the canal, nothing would change. They’d then have to invade Panama more widely, steal the water, and deprive the population of the water they need to farm and live, and it still wouldn’t solve the problem entirely.
It was such a baldly cynical ploy by his lawyers, it really would have been outrageous if anyone had allowed it. (“After we’ve done everything we can to delay proceedings, it’s really unfair that this is happening so close to his campaigning the election his assuming office. It should wait until after he takes office, at which point it won’t happen at all!”)
didn’t Stalin have his people try to reverse the flow of a river, to much environmental disaster?
and where will suddenly impoverished and displaced Panamanian refugees look to start over? gee tRump, do you want more refugees looking for asylum in the us? because that’s just one of the ways the us has fked over Latin America and caused migration north.
FAFO just doesn’t even register. it’s like you said:
Last time they were saying they should just build more reservoirs, as if this is a video game where they magically start full. Anything no matter how stupid rather than to say the water is actually short. The response to climate change is ending up just like people dying in hospitals while cursing doctors for their fictitious pandemic.
