Swiftly and decisively rebutting would-be authoritarians works better than hoping it works out for the best.

[orangecrush]

By James Downie, MSNBC Opinion Editor
Just before 11 p.m. local time Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a televised address to the nation. Shortly after, Gen. Park Ahn-Soo, the martial law commander, announced that “all political activities” would be banned and that “all media and publications will be subject to the control of the Martial Law Command.”

Within three hours, lawmakers and protesters gathered outside the National Assembly, as soldiers tried to bar the entrances. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, livestreamed himself clambering over a wall to enter the building. Within five hours, 190 legislators unanimously overturned Yoon’s decree. And within six hours of the president announcing his power grab, Yoon made a second television address ending his declaration of martial law. By Wednesday afternoon, the opposition had introduced articles of impeachment against Yoon, with a vote possible as early as Thursday.

The heroics of South Korea’s Democratic-led opposition were a welcome and riveting sight for supporters of democracy around the world. And they provided a lesson for Democrats and other Trump opponents in America.

It may seem glib to immediately interpret another country’s crisis through the American political system. But the parallels between the two countries’ political situations are beyond eerie. Yoon narrowly defeated Lee in 2022 with just under 50 percent of the vote. “The political novice has been compared to the former United States president Donald Trump and has been prone to gaffes throughout the campaign,” reported the BBC at the time, “He had to walk back a comment that the authoritarian president Chun Doo-hwan, who was responsible for massacring protestors in 1980, was ‘good at politics.’”

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/south-korea-martial-law-president-democracy-trump-rcna182732

[no_hypocrisy]

1. That's why I usually countered and corrected

my authoritarian father right away. Yeah, I caught flack, was accused of oppositional defiant disorder, and more, but I was right. I stood up to him. Nobody else in my family had the balls. (Even called him. Czar to his face. Priceless!)

[canuckledragger]

5. I'm in good company then.

Nobody in my family has the spine to stand up to my narcissistic, abusive, alcoholic step father but myself either, catching the kind of flack you described as well.

I cut ties with them all around a decade ago and am the better for it.

[DSandra]

2. Coups are not handled lightly in other countries

Not like America.

[orangecrush]

3. Truth

[chowder66]

4. Seems like a good idea. Rapid-response protests popping up all over when they pull their crap.