Right after Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election, former Russian Journalist and author Masha Gessen penned an article in the New York Review titled Autocracy: Rules For Survival
She recognized all too well an autocrat when she saw one and what America had likely gotten itself in to having lived through the rise of Vladimir Putin in Russia. She wanted to warn America of what may lay ahead. We would have done well to heed her warning as we are now living through the reality laid out in her piece.
Here are some of the rules she listed to help America better understand what it was in for:
Rule #1 Believe The Autocrat
The outrageousness proclamations and outlandish calls for actions that appear dangerous or illegal such as calls for journalists to be silenced, opponents to be locked up, or build a wall are not just hyperbole, he will do them if he can.
Rule #2 Do not be taken in by small signs of normality
To create the appearance of a legitimate democracy the autocrat will allow some normal processes to continue or feign conciliatory acts with others. We have watched this with Trump. For example, calling for meetings with Schumer and Pelosi, or saying he might be in favor of legitimate policies like infrastructure or gun background checks. He meets with foreign leaders publicly and attends summits. These are all for show.
Rule #3 Your institutions will not save you
Ms. Gessen lists the timelines for how quickly Putin was able to corrupt the institutions in Russia and take control of the judiciary, influence the media and dismantle opposition from his opponents.
The most dangerous enemy of democracy is the public normalization of systematic attempts to undermine opposition and dismantle institutions. American citizens are watching outrageous behavior yet the sense of outrage is being muted and confused by the sheer volume of it. They are being desensitized by design. Americans are not used to, and have little experience with the systematic gaslighting they are being subjected to.
The media is trying to push back, but appear themselves to be overwhelmed by the volume of corruption and malfeasance perpetrated, now hourly it seems.
Social psychologists have determined that about one third of the people are drawn toward preferring an autocratic style government. The autocratic leader becomes a proxy for their own desire for power and control. We see them at the Trump rallies, frothing at the mouth as they bask in the power they think they share in by being in his presence.
America has an election coming up and we have the opportunity to correct our short fling with a wanna be despot. In a way we were fortunate to have gotten such a weak and inept example as Donald Trump. We would do well to remember that even with his obvious mental limitations and bufoonish style he might have pulled it off again if not for this Ukraine situation. What if we had gotten someone more savvy, calculated, smart and charismatic? Trump exposed weaknesses in our system that the designers of our constitution didn’t anticipate. We will need to shore these up. Next time we may not be so lucky.