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-Short Attention Span Theater-
CIA advisor and expert in foreign conflicts believes the US is 'closer to civil war than anyone would like to believe' and claims America is no longer a democracy but an 'anocracy'
2021-12-28
[MAIL] A political science professor who serves on a panel that advises the CIA on when countries might slide into civil war amid factors like undemocratic tendencies has identified the U.S. as farther down that potential path than many could imagine.

'We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,' said Dr. Barbara Walter, who serves on the Political Instability Task Force, which guides intelligence analysts on countries overseas that might be on the brink of conflict.

The University of California San Diego academic, who has studied hotspots like Syria and helps run a blog on political violence, said the U.S. meets several of the telltale signs that are part of a road to insurgency.

'No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war,' she writes in her forthcoming book, How Civil Wars Start.

'If you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America — the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or the Ivory Coast or Venezuela — you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory,' she writes, according to the Washington Post.
Posted by:Skidmark

#13  Some expert - the U.S. has never been a democracy - it is a Republic.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2021-12-28 21:26  

#12  I explained this once years ago. Briefly, up until WWII all Americans were no more than 3 gen's from "Mother Culture" and shared varied commonality in culture, religion and livlihood across the US. The beginning of the cold war, and various other factors, coincided with an erosion of this "Mother Culture" connection. We identified by what we were not; communists, authoritarian, godless, opressors, etc. When the cold war ended we had to look in the mirror, 2.5 generations later, we were becoming a different America, with erosion in the glue a culture needs to be monolitihic, United We Stand, Divided we fall. Supreme Court nominees, infection of military. What is lacking is the understanding we now live an a country with a fractured and widening cultural divide. We essentially have different "kinds" of Americans and they all believe they are entitled to their version of the heritage that is America. Whether they hate it or love it. In our current environment, right now, there is no mechanism powerful enough to walk this back and nor is there a desire from 30%+ of the country, to do so. Sorry tried to be brief, but its a complex issue over 80 years.
Posted by: jefe101   2021-12-28 20:28  

#11  As to "anocracy," the hybrid of democracy and authoritarianism, well, once again, UCSD Prof. Walter is on the mark.

Biden and his party, along with the DOJ, FBI and their compliant puppets in major media outlets, have without question done extraordinary damage to our democratic institutions.

In October 2020 they suppressed the biggest news story of the decade -- the factual, incontrovertible, directly sourced with forensic evidence story of how Joe Biden was lying when he claimed he had no knowledge of or involvement in his son's business dealings with CEFC, a known front organization by which the Chinese government bribes and gains influence over foreign politicians.

This cabal suppressed a factual story that easily would have swung the election to Trump.

And for the preceding four years, to spread a preposterous lie about that same opponent, these powerful elites perverted or undermined virtually every national political institution our democratic republic is based upon.

They trashed the Constitution, faked evidence, planted false stories with their media friends and then pretended that those fake tales themselves warranted wiretapping in their false submissions to the FISA Court, broke laws left right and center, lied to the public, forged documents to claim the exact OPPOSITE of verbatim CIA testimony, suborned perjury from witnesses, and then coaxed over $1 billion in "dark" and non-dark spending by all of five deci-billionaires to ensure the desired 2020 election outcome.

Thank you again, Professor Walter!

You've just given us the intellectual basis on which to conclude that our national elite are authoritarians who lack legitimacy.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-28 14:12  

#10  Pictured on his tranquil Arizona ranch and wedding venue, the ex-Marine accused of being an 'FBI plant sent to help incite January 6 Capitol riot' refuses to answer to right-wing conspiracy theory
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-12-28 13:59  

#9  I haven't read her book, but I'm not sure her argument -- if this capsule summary is true -- is off the mark:

"[Walter] said the two best predictors of whether violence is likely to happen is whether a nation is an anocracy and “whether ethnic entrepreneurs have emerged in a country that are using racial, religious or ethnic divisions to try to gain political power.”

Well, it's without question true that the BLM grifters, "Ibram X." Kendi, the NYT "1619" fabulist and their merry crew of race-hustlers are "ethnic entrepreneurs": they have made and are busy adding to small fortunes out of ginning up hatred of an ethnic group.

In fact, the civil-war expert has done us all a great service by introducing this new term, ethnic entrepreneurs. That summarizes nicely much of the BLM and "BIPOC" Woke movement's m.o. and energy. If the definition of "ethnic" could be stretched a bit to include the Tranny Mafia, it would cover >90% of the Wokesters.

Thank you, professor!

You've just provided the rationale for a severe crackdown on BLM, Antifa, Kendi, the "1619" hustle and the rest of these civil war fomenters.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-28 13:56  

#8  The stolen 2020 election and the suppression of any questions or dissent proved that the US is now an anocracy.
Posted by: Eohippus Throsing2556   2021-12-28 13:43  

#7  You see another brick in the structure being created out of whole cloth to cover the attempt to seize overtly the power of the Central Committee at the Kalorama Kompound. All the destabilizing efforts to transform our institutions and public confidence creating the backlash anger in the remaining parts of the population aware of what America looked like a mere decade ago. This pretext of lies about insurrection and criminal justice reform/racism sets the stage, along with the deepening infestations in our government and military, for direct actions in the coming elections of 22 and 24. They aren’t advancing so rapidly now as the ruse is widely being seen, ut they are deeply entrenched behind most of the key mechanisms of power. They do seem to be fracturing a bit.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2021-12-28 13:25  

#6  Anocracy = We Are Ruled By Moronic Assholes
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-28 13:08  

#5  Well, to the extent they predicted the fall of the Soviet Union and 9/11 so well, I guess they might be right by accident at some point.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-12-28 12:46  

#4  Anocracy - as in "anal"?
Posted by: Mercutio   2021-12-28 12:14  

#3  And Dr. Walters and her panel along with our friends at the CIA are concerned about a US 'civil war' for what reason ?

Have they been tasked with writing white papers and summaries that support particular desired outcomes ?

Are foreign intrigues and threats to the United States no longer of interest? Has their focus somehow been expanded, or have their interests always been rooted in political domestic control ?

Posted by: Besoeker   2021-12-28 10:54  

#2  The fights over Supreme Court nominees should have been a signal that 9 people sitting for life, unaccountable to the people making decisions that have significant impact upon the nation and society, that this is not a form of democracy or republic.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2021-12-28 10:33  

#1  
Posted by: Greng Black3494   2021-12-28 10:13  

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