How exactly do terrible people gain power — and how do they hang onto it? What makes it possible?
We are facing a pivotal choice in November. It is no exaggeration to say that it could be the end of America as we know it if the former guy gets back into the White House, by hook or by crook. Further, he won’t be wreaking havoc alone. There’s an entire political/media ecosystem and too many corrupted institutions enabling his attempted final coup, while he manipulates the ‘justice’ system to avoid facing any consequences for his actions.
People can’t imagine what fresh Hell he is planning to unleash, but they don’t have to. They just have to pay attention. He’s not shy about it — he brags about it, and his supporters are fully on board.
By purely random chance, I ran across an episode of “This American Life” that documented the rise and fall of a petty tyrant — how he rose to power, how he stayed there for decades because too many people looked the other way or didn't ask questions, or benefitted from keeping him in place — and what finally led to his downfall. You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript. The story is from 2010, but it’s too relevant to today to dismiss.
Petty Tyrant documents how one man, Steve Raucci, worked his way up from a low level position in the Schenectady, NY Public School System to become an absolute dictator over people who worked in the school, and made himself unaccountable to anyone.
We face a far more open threat coming from the Former Guy — but the story of Raucci shows how easy it can be for such people to manipulate ‘the system’ and those around them to get what they want. He twisted local government in the form of the school system to create an empire, worked the politics to stay untouchable, made life hell for anyone who crossed him, and managed to stay under the radar of the police, the press, and the public for far too long.
IRA GLASS: From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Today on our program, how one guy came to be untouchable, how he grabbed power and dominated everybody around him, sometimes with fear, sometimes cruelty, playing by rules that he invented. And how people all around him, including people with the power to stop him, let it happen.
And what's so interesting about this is that all the intrigue and drama did not happen in a setting like national politics or big business. This guy wasn't a Harvey Weinstein with the power to make somebody a movie star. This is a study in tyranny writ small, Machiavellian scheming in the maintenance office of school district.
It can happen here. It does all the time.