Strongman Rule is Fantasy

 

The Strongman Fantasy (text and audio) by Timothy Snyder

And Dictatorship in Real Life

Read on Substack

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. 

 

  

The LIGHT of America's Promise will ALWAYS Burn Bright...

 ...as long as we NEVER give up, and AS LONG AS as we keep fighting...

"While I concede this election, I do NOT concede the fight that fueled this campaign... the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people...fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation. The ideals that reflect America at our best. THAT is a fight I will never give up... this is not a time to throw up our hands, this is a time to roll up our sleeves. 

"This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom, and justice, and the future we ALL know we can build together... let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant, billions of stars; the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service. And may that work guide us even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America."   -- Kamala Harris.

By the way, did you notice Kamala Harris did not BLAME anyone for anything. 

Thomas Paine's American Crisis

Paine began his essay/pamphlet thus:

December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men's souls. 

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but [s/]he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. 

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. 

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

November 5, 2024

THESE are also times that try the hearts, souls and backbones of woman and man alike. We do not yet know whether the American Electorate has, in the 2024 general election, brought an end to the nearly ten year long national nightmare which is convicted felon Donald Trump.

But we DO know that WE are citizens of a great nation, regardless. 

Citizens are responsible. Citizens have duties, responsibilities.

As such, if Donald Trump is again put in office, our obligations are to the US Constitution, and each other. 

You've left it all on the field! Time to let it go.

Whether you believe it or you don't. You have done all that you can to positively influence the 2024 general election. You've left it all on the field.

To expend the utmost of one's energy and effort, typically while playing a sport.

At this moment, the night before the last day to vote in this election, you may need a good night's sleep.

You may need to unburden yourself of election anxiety. 

Perhaps the best thing might be to Let It Go.

When I was 22, I set out on a hitchhiking adventure. I had lived for half a year in Los Angeles, working full-time in the telecommunication technical field I trained in while in the Air Force. Like many young adults, I knew too little of what I wanted to know. I won't bore you with the long story.

However, I believed God would provide. In this case, safe rides from Los Angeles to Gunnison, CO.

To get that to take place, I had to do something. Namely, stand along side highways with my backpack and sleeping bag while sticking my right arm out and my right thumb. The trip was eventful. It was summer in the desert, no less. One long ride was on the back of a motorcycle across I-40 in California and Arizona. The daytime was VERY hot. Once the sun set... the ambient temperature dropped precipitously. Staying awake, thus not falling off the bike, wasn't easy. The gracious bike rider got me as far as Gallup, NM. 

Automobile traffic was pretty slow going north from there. I spent a night sleeping alongside the road just outside of Durango, CO. By morning, I was getting anxious because I was on a deadline to get to Gunnison. I kept thinking I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. 

After about two hours with my thumb out, I felt like I had hit an emotional and mental wall and finally said to myself, and to God, "I give up!" 

Within a few short minutes, I got a ride to Grand Junction. The next ride, east to Gunnison, came along very quickly.

That was how I learned, roughly 50 years ago, to Let GO and Let God.

Of course, life since then hasn't been a bowl of cherries. Nevertheless, this was an important life lesson for me.

So, when I encourage people to Let it GO, it means something to me, whether it does for a reader or listener or not.

So, regardless of any possible Disney Corp motive for the animated movie Frozen, (which I've never watched anyway), I have listened to women and girls sing the theme song a few times. It's a good message for emotional intelligence nevertheless.

Many of you, like me, have left it all on the field. Staying focused is all we can do now... and let it go.

One catch. Staying focused only gives you peace and control over what you have a right to control, which is yourself.

IF what happens tomorrow and in the run-up to the next (peaceful) transition of power in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025 differs from what we want and hopefully expect, that will not be the end of the story.

As Yale historian Timothy Snyder teaches, we do NOT obey in anticipation of what an autocrat MIGHT command. We are citizens tonight and we will still be citizens, not subjects of a despotic ruler, after tomorrow.

We will still have citizenship responsibilities even if loser Donald's coup d'etat succeeds. I will blog about those if the need arises. At minimum, we will NOT be silenced.

The Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, a prime mover (besides Trump) of Project 2025 quietly, but boldly declared a revolution in the event Trump wins. If that happens, we will NOT be silenced.

Consider what happened after Project 2025 (WaPo gift article) began to attract unwanted attention. People spoke UP and OUT. Heritage and Trump backed away from the project.

We will NOT be silenced.