Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done?
I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh. I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule. I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.
So I think that there is an answer to this question.
Strongman rule is a fantasy.
Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't.
In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.
Read or listen to the rest of Snyder's essay on his linked Substack.
As to "in democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents..." WHY do we take it for granted?
In Arizona, each Congressional district has more than 800,000 people in them. In these districts, how does a constituent get her or his voice heard?
Two ways, ACCESS, which is often granted based on campaign donations, and by staff aggregating information from constituents who contact them through phone calls and email (web forms on official websites).
In theory, such aggregation would equate to the Voice of the People and guide the Representative's voting decisions. In practice, it's not so simple. BUT they DO listen and have to make complicated decisions.
Nevertheless, Trump was apparently elected to a second term. He consistently projected himself as a "strongman." However, we KNOW from the last 8 years that he acts in HIS OWN interest. Not yours or mine.
Timothy Snyder has seen what dictators, autocrats, do, in practice.
Then there's journalist and historian Anne Applebaum. Her recent book, Autocracy, Inc. shows how dictators and autocrats of all flavors network to use, abuse and loot the treasuries of their countries.
It's been a while since I read Masha Gessen's Surviving Autocracy, but in light of the election result this week, it bears reading again.
A bestselling, National Book Award-winning journalist's essential guide to understanding, resisting, and recovering from the ravages of our tumultuous times.
After grieving--and millions of American voters are now grieving--the task before us, is to understand, resist and recover from the ravages of the certainly tumultuous times to come after January 20, 2025.
