American Authoritarianism: Its Roots and How To Uproot Them
By David Comfort
More than sixty years ago, Ronald Reagan warned Americans, “Freedom is one generation from extinction.” Later, in his first Inauguration address, he claimed that government is not the solution, but the problem. The freedom evangelist went on to condemn the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” inflicting “totalitarian darkness” on its citizens.
Stealing Reagan’s Make American Again campaign slogan, Donald Trump won a second term after not only allying himself with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other totalitarians but suggesting he might overrule the freedom protections of the Constitution. The populist who recently announced, “I run the country and the world!” claims to have a mandate for doing so, having won both the electoral college and popular vote. Despite the authoritarianism, racism and misogyny displayed in his first term, 45% of women voted for him, 46% Hispanics, 40% Asian.
The Economist Democracy Index now classifies the US as a “Flawed Democracy,” demoted from the 8% “Pure” governments and moving toward the 40% Authoritarian. Among the reasons: Electoral College handicapping, gerrymandering, voter rights limitations, dark money, the narrowing of Church/State separation, the ascendency of the executive branch at the expense of congressional power. As a result, more and more citizens complain of feeling disenfranchised, powerless, and fearful of a second Civil War.
The first foreign commentators on American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stewart Mill, expressed admiration for the new government but also their misgivings about a possible “tyranny of the majority.” Thomas Jefferson and our other founding fathers, fearing that democracy could indeed degrade into a mob rule tyranny, took preventative steps. Believing citizens must be well informed to participate in a democracy, all stressed the importance of public education. More importantly still, every individual and group must be allowed free speech, so this became Madison’s First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
After Trump won his first term he declared: “I love the uneducated!” Now, in his second term, he sues universities, dismantles the Department of Education, and promotes parochial schools run by fundamentalist Christians, many of whom call him “the Chosen One.” His first wife revealed that he kept a collection of Hitler’s speeches which included Mein Kampf statements such as: “What good fortune for governments that the people do not think…. If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” Still, the mantra of the media — even the papers and networks publicizing Trump’s more than 30,000 lies – remains: Americans are smart and can’t be fooled.
Championing the 1st Amendment, but only for himself, the Reality TV star, claiming genius and “the best words,” calls his critics enemies of the people, deranged Marxists, vermin, scum, and threatens to jail them. We recall how Stalin and Mao arrested millions, journalists and intellectuals first. Hitler replaced German newspapers with the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Similarly, Trump launched Truth Social, a forum for libel and death threats against opponents, judges, and his own former vice-president. For the first time in American history, many nationalists, like their champion, call fact fake news, and fake news fact. The truth is, when America was great, lying was a liability. As the professional prevaricator’s two victories prove, today the greatest obstacle to winning the highest office in the land is honesty.
Our founding fathers’ second freedom protection, the right to bear arms, has made a radical right turn, too. Originally, defensive and mandating “a well-regulated militia,” the 2nd Amendment has become individual, offensive, and a license for vigilante intimidation and even assassination. Denouncing gun control advocates, the author of Think Big and Kick Ass said, “Part of the problem … is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.” Recently, after a boast that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue without losing voters, he warned, “I was the hunted, now I’m the hunter.”
Despite the Constitution’s No Harm principle, the weaponization of the 1st Amendment led to the 2nd Amendment J6 Capital siege with flagpole spears, nooses, and brandished crucifixes by a mob so feared by the Constitution framers. During the insurrection, the MAGA Messiah’s Christian soldiers wore “GOD, GUNS, TRUMP” hats, AR-15 pins, and concealed weapons in black leather Bible holsters. In earlier times, the assaulting, vandalizing, defecating mob might have been tried for treason. As it was, some were jailed briefly, but now the inciter-in-chief has pardoned all as patriots while seeking to prosecute the J6 committee and others who hoped to bring them to justice. Meanwhile, his own thirty-four felonies have been suspended thanks to executive immunity given him by his Supreme court. Establishing precedent, Richard Nixon declared, “If the president does it, it’s not illegal,” and was pardoned unconditionally too.
How did we get to the point where Rightist “democracy” is tyranny for the Left, and Leftist democracy is tyranny for the Right? Let’s examine the DNA of the parties. Republicans play hardball and tackle; Democrats softball and touch. The grand party kindles fear, the people’s party appeals to hope. One lives in a binary, feral world of winners and losers; the other in a unitary world of equals. Is it any wonder, then, that Trump MAGAs have usurped the GOP, reversing its states’ rights and economic responsibility platform while calling liberals snowflakes and delighting in “owning” them?
To stop the slide toward Trumpian authoritarianism, how might democracy defenders change tack without losing their soul? The Soviet Union had its De-Stalinization dismantlement of a personality cult, so how do we undertake a De-Trumpificaton?
To date, a few judges have temporarily halted his draconian orders, especially where deportations are concerned. Good. But hardly enough. The larger responsibility falls on Congress, the legislators once an equal branch of the government, now a rubber stamp. According to recent polls, Democrat congressmen have a 30% approval rating while 85% of their constituents demand that they oppose the Administration more forcefully. But all most have done so far is fire adjectives across the aisle: “Deplorable!” “Appalling!” “Unconscionable!” Unprecedented!” “Dangerous!” “Unhelpful!”
How is that so many idealists still haven’t learned history’s most repetitive and disheartening lesson? The shameless cannot be shamed. How is it that so many still chant “If they go low, we go high!”? Lovely idea but those who lived by it — Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, et al — were either nailed up or gunned down. Meanwhile, bottom-liners — Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, et al — overran the world.
Of the many reasons for the 2024 rout, the most damaging were Woke hypersensitivity and elitist attitude of the extreme left. Pro-democrats must tack back to the middle while strategically targeting each element of Trump’s playbook: Lies, Chaos, Distraction, Intimidation. Combating the last is the most challenging job. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face.” Bullies live on fear and die in the face of fearlessness. Democrat congressmen well deserve the increasing criticism for cowardice. To date, freedom champions are lone voices crying out in the wilderness: a few politicians, media anchors, actors, rock stars, and comedians. That all are alive, well, and still speaking out should motivate others to join them. Just as cowardice can be contagious, so can courage.
The other great disabilities of Democrats are division and leaderlessness. As the saying goes: United we stand, divided we fall. Trump and his forces are in lockstep and shout with a bullhorn, 24/7. Our three former Democrat presidents are, in effect, MIA, as are minority leaders Schumer and Jeffries. A defeatist attitude seems to prevail. The people’s party badly needs a David to face the GOP Goliath but, to date, a champion is not in sight. Many naively think the solution is at the ’26 and ’28 ballot box. But, unless he is stopped ASAP, Trump — though he swears “I don’t feel like a king” — may control the judiciary, the military and the ballot box by that time.
To avoid this, pro-democrats must laser focus on voter suppression, gerrymandering, Constitutional breaches, and Trump’s countless broken promises especially those relating to transparency, Ukraine, middle-class protection, plus a non-inflationary economy – now deficit and tariff-hobbled. The last is Trump’s Achilles’ Heel. In the long run, the art-of-the-steal bankruptcy king can’t smoke-and-mirror skyrocketing food and shelter expenses; they impact his MAGAs as much anyone else. The American Revolution was triggered by taxation without representation. Ironically, the GOP Tea Party fathered MAGA. Now a Democrat pro-Constitution Tea Party must be established.
As Founding Father, Patrick Henry, declared before Lexington, “Give me liberty or give me death!” With democracy on the line today, freedom fighters must share the same strength of purpose. If we act now undivided, intelligently, strategically, we may reclaim the first while avoiding the second.
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