Subject: Re: Bolton Indicted
We've had Presidents sic various departments on their political enemies. We've also had Presidents give speeches and label half the country as political enemies.

But never the formal power of the prosecutorial arm of the government. That's different. There's a reason why nearly every state doesn't let their Governor oversee actual prosecutions, having an independently elected AG.

I'm beyond sick of the NaziHitler crap and am going to dismiss those who bring it up as morons.

That's your prerogative, but you should at least understand that when people bring it up they're not comparing the current Administration's policies as being NaziHitler circa 1938, but NaziHitler circa 1929. The "rise to power" part of Nazi Germany, where the Nazis converted Germany away from a liberal (small-l) "rule of law" society into an authoritarian society where all governmental decisions revolved around a single person and party.

The dissolution of German rule of law didn't happen in a day. It was a long, gradual descent marked by eliminating barriers to authoritarian power one at a time.

People are right to be troubled by the gradual descent into illiberalism we're experience in the U.S., and indeed many other countries. To quote another discussion on the point, liberal democracy depends on a shared belief in individual rights, equality of all citizens, and the rule of law. It can only function if the major political factions don't behave as if they have a monopoly on the truth or a right to power. Illiberal actors think they have both.

I agree that folks tend to ignore the distinctions between actions being illiberal, anti-democratic, authoritarian, or illegal. A lot of what Trump does is illiberal (meaning the conservative sense of small "l" liberal) without being authoritarian or illegal or anti-democratic. That doesn't make people who use the wrong label "morons," and I think you do yourself a disservice in not trying to understand what points are actually being made.