Only one major journalist has explicitly said that trump is close to becoming a Dictator. That is surely the implication of Charles Blow's piece available below. The New York Times is graced by this op ed columnist. Before almost everyone else cut Trump slack, Blow said no. No is the most powerful word of all when you are dealing with a potential dictator.

Here is Blow's piece, published this morning. He has gone farther than anyone I know in assuming that the sheer growth in gun ownership is a major factor in the present fearsome drama that is unfolding.

Dictator Trump -- get used to it

Calling Trump a dictator will evoke tweets that will fuel his support and most likely cower those who are daunted by his march to total immunity from the law. He will wrap minority-bashing and worse in an American flag, but his actions will speak the minds of Putin, Erdogan, and Duterte.

He will justify midnight raids on innocents in the soothing rhetoric of national security.

Trump is trying to buy off the electorate

No one believes that Trump will get far with his tax proposals. But in a nation that is already half prosperous, relatively speaking, he can buy lots of wiggle room.

The reason is that his base is unprosperous. Not all of it, but enough to suggest a majority when you add it to all the rich and near rich who are OK with a police state and a Fortress America armaments campaign.

Obama saw it all and was too polite

Barack Obama is a seer. He saw how bad government was and came up with a load of executive orders because he saw the Congress was bought and paid for.

He rolled over as his legislation got trashed. He should have sat in like John Lewis. He has been a foil for Trump, a pinata. Obama is smart though. He still has aces in the hole. He may prove that he was right to be cautious.

Zombie zealots?

When Blow talks of an army he also means the Trump base. He calls them an "unwavering ...

army of zombie zealots." That would not sit well with Trump's evangelical supporters and many other conservatives who see themselves as thoughtful, calculating people. They play the odds and they know that the other side is near as tainted by money and perks.

Many strategies

Lots of initiatives are needed to chip away at the formidable dictator construction underway. Trump's cruelty will not sit well with the hard nosed but it will speak to those in whom empathy is not a lost virtue. Trump's dictatorial behavior may speak to the greatest generation who died to defeat a dictator.

A frank acknowledgment by Democrats that they feed at the same trough as the GOP would help. With a shade over 8 weeks to go the curtain is closing.
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