Why Do Powerful Individuals Abandon Their Principles to Support Dictators? (Why Do Republicans Support Trump?)

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

We often wonder how once reasonable people end up abandoning their principles and support obvious dictators and despots who are only concerned for their own gain.

Anne Applebaum’s article* in ‘The Atlantic’ suggested common reasons. She used historical situations to explain why the US Republicans have supported Trump, despite what is obvious to most of the world – that Trump is shaping the US into a dictatorship, despite the apparent democratic processes and institutions that exist there. As this process is also occurring in a large number of countries (eg China, Russia, Venezuela, Hungary, Poland, Philippines), it’s worth looking at why individuals might do this.Read More »

70… : REFLECTIONS ON BEING

October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

So how did it come to this? I’m 70. It’s inconceivable. But it’s real, it’s true. I’ve been planning my 70th birthday year. Now it’s here. As they say on TV, ‘How do you feel?’

How Can We Save Democracy?

November 7, 2018 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

It’s clear in many countries, particularly since 2016 events, that democracy itself is under threat. It’s clear why it is under threat. It is not clear what can be done to restore democracy. Here are some proposals for what we can do personally and in groups to restore democracy to being a trusted institutional fraemwork we can rely on.Read More »

Dear Jacinda (Ardern)

September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

What a wonderful breath of fresh air you are to world politics. If only we had leaders like you in this and other countries. I love you…and so does my wife! Here’s why.Read More »

Trump is a Success. Forget what he says. Look at what he does.

July 18, 2018 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

Liberals (including me) hate Trump. We look at what he says, his fallacies, inconsistencies, morals, the people he chooses, the processes he uses. But liberals fail to look at his amazingly successful achievements – what he does. He is on his way to being one of the most successful, influential US Presidents of all time, rather in the way that Reagan influenced world economics and politics for over 20 years.Read More »

REFUGEES…SHORT AND LONG TERM VIEWS

September 15, 2015October 1, 2015 ghubbard2014Leave a comment

REFUGEES…SHORT AND LONG TERM VIEWS

Some of my in-laws were refugees from Eastern Europe after WW2. They were forced out of their houses and forced to march to…Austria and then Italy. They love Australia. They have raised QCs, doctors and other professionals. One became Managing Director of a major Australian company. For me, they gave me an insight into the many sides of refugees’ lives and the impact on their futures and a perspective on the current refugee crisis.