Better Angels

You might have heard a rumor that the good ol' USofA may be slipping into authoritarianism - one man dictator rule. 

In the recent past, there were 3 separate - and equal - branches of government. The legislature passed laws and controlled the power of the purse, the judiciary determined the legality of laws and actions, the executive administered the laws and managed foreign policy. Well .. where are we today? The legislature is essentially powerless, each side railing against the other and doing nothing except shutting down the government. The judiciary appears to be compliant lackeys to the wishes of the authoritarian. reversing long standing voting rights laws. And the executive has taken over the role of law making and law breaking through a deluge of executive orders amplified by the DOJ as a revenge machine. States are brazenly perverting elections with gerrymandered maps. Troops are walking the streets of our cities invoking images of Brown Shirts. 

This is not the first time power hungry sociopaths have popped up here and elsewhere. You don't have to go to Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy or Spain, Russia or China to find examples. The list of countries who have succumbed to dictatorship is very long indeed. Astonishingly, a median of 31% across 24 nations are supportive of authoritarian systems, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

In America, land of the free, Charles Coughlin, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, George Lincoln Rockwell stood for anti-democratic values and their personality type and exorbitant egos are well documented - if not the means to rebuff them.  And throw in the KKK & John Birch Society for good measure.

American presidents have occasionally skirted into unconstitutional actions: Andrew Jackson (ethnic cleansing), Abraham Lincoln (Civil War suspension of Habeas Corpus), Franklin Roosevelt (Supreme Court packing), Lyndon Johnson (undeclared war), Richard Nixon (election fraud) and of course the current occupant. 

A recent Scientific American article examines "The Authoritarian Follower", those people who instinctively comply with a dictator.  Here's a quick summary.

Authoritarian followers share tendencies:

•  obedience to authority figures in their in-group (authoritarian submission)
•  punishment of breakers of their rules (authoritarian aggression)
•  rigid endorsement of long-held traditions (conventionalism)
•  opposition to equality

Authoritarian followers endorse a raft of anti-democratic prejudicial attitudes. To a large extent , they view the world as a dangerous and threatening place and feast on conspiracy theories, resulting in a willingness to accept actions that promise to suppress perceived threats and guarantee safety, even through extra-legal actions. The manipulative demonizing of the "other" successfully plays to these fears, which explains the prominence of the 'dangerous immigrants invading the country' story-line. 

What to do? You would think that increasing peoples' political knowledge, the values of tolerance and rule of law would be a logical step one. But ..  a study in the U.S. found that the relationship between authoritarianism and two core features of conservatism (opposition to equality and support for traditionalism) are stronger among those who are knowledgeable about politics.

On the other hand, a New Zealand study shows that the diversity of one’s neighborhood counters authoritarian thinking. Multicultural neighborhoods provide people with the chance to form close friendships with others from diverse backgrounds. In turn these experiences dispel worries that immigrants threaten deeply held cultural values or will take their jobs.

This needs to be understood. Outside the Civil War, there has never been a danger to American democracy like we are seeing today. But it takes the permission of Congress, Judiciary and ‘We the People’ for this to happen. The sad story is, if not directly impacted, ‘We the People’ seem to passively acquiesce. I am shocked at how fast and how easily this has happened and the whimpering weakness of opposition. Now is not the time to sit back and be silent. Hoping for the best is not an action plan.  

Somewhere along the way we have lost our better angels. We desperately need to rediscover them. As the historian Timothy Snyder has warned, “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.”

Addendum:  Read David Brooks.  American Needs a Mass Movement - Now.

Copyright ©  2025  Dave Hoplin