Across the political spectrum, there are concerns and predictions that the US government could become authoritarian. A shared theme is that power will be concentrated at the top and not originate from below.
Liberals fear an authoritarian future is coming. Liberals see former President Donald Trump as the leading perpetrator of creating an authoritarian state. Organizations backing him, like the conservative Heritage Foundation, which released Project 2025, reinforce this perception. Trump claimed not to know who was behind Project 2025; however, a CNN review found that at least 140 people who worked for him were involved. The 900-page document details how the federal government’s “deep state” must be destroyed in a new Trump Administration.
Liberals from the west to the east coast feared a possible authoritarian future. From the heartland, the Nebraska Examiner contributor professor Steve Corbin writes in his piece, Authoritarian rule threatens America’s democracy, that 147 congressional Republicans voting to overturn the 2020 election results was authoritarianism in action. Veteran national political columnist Dick Polman, in the Progressive Populist, describes today’s political fight as between a pro-democracy party and an authoritarian cult. Ralph Nader accuses Roberts and his “clique” of five like-minded Supreme Court judges as authoritarians who re-installed the doctrine of “The King Can Do No Wrong.”
Donald Trump is seen triggering authoritarian views.
Because Trump ignited the MAGA movement, he is viewed as the embodiment of authoritarian behavior. Even mild-spoken President Joe Biden remarked at a Maryland fundraiser that the MAGA philosophy was “semi-fascism.” Consequently, liberal commentary interprets Trump’s language and actions as displaying approval for authoritarian government leaders. He has expressed admiration for Russian President (Dictator) V. Putin.
At a campaign rally in 2022, Trump said, “The smartest one gets to the top,” Trump told the crowd. “That didn’t work so well recently in our country. But they ask me, ‘Is Putin smart?’ Yes, Putin was smart.” Just before one of his other rallies, Trump was caught on a hot mic saying that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was his kind of guy: “He speaks, and his people sit up in attention. I want my people to do the same.” His list of dictators he respects or envies goes on to include others.
Trump provides liberals a big easy target for fearing a coming authoritarian state. Biden does not offer that target for Conservatives. Also, Democratic presidential candidate VP Kamala Harris lacks the baggage of quotes that can match the veracity of Trump’s allegiance to exercising raw power.
The far right believes we are already halfway to being an authoritarian state. Trump’s MAGA is a core group fearful of the federal government. The large crowd attending Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech at the White House Ellipse shared that belief. They cheered when he said he would “never concede” the race and that if his supporters didn’t “fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Mainstream media rarely notes the size of the crowds that Trump attracts other than in general terms. Trump also contributes to doubting their size when he describes them in absurd comparisons.
For instance, Trump claims that his January 6 crowd was larger than the 250,000 people who attended Martin Luther King’s DC speech in 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial. However, by repeating the Associated Press's estimate that it was at least 10,000, the media diminishes the level of Trump support. Rarely mentioned is that according to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, the crowd size before heading to the Capitol was possibly as much as 80,000.
However, despite Trump’s language, some conservatives critical of Trump do not see him as a danger to democracy. John Bolton, former US national security adviser and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, says former President Donald Trump is not fit to be president. Still, he's not a threat to our democracy.
As faith in our democracy falls, support for more authoritarian rule increases.
What does endanger our democracy is that many citizens see the federal bureaucracy as currently or potentially restricting their freedoms.
A Monmouth (“Mon-muth”) University Poll in the summer of 2023 found the following. A majority (55%) of Americans are very concerned that their fundamental rights and freedoms are under threat – with Republicans (63%) being more likely than Democrats (53%) or independents (51%) to feel this way. The three top “rights under threat” were speech 26%, guns 21%, and abortion/women’s rights 19%. Republicans were at 38% on speech and guns and 1% on abortion/women’s rights. Democrats were most concerned with abortion/women’s rights at 36%, then speech at 14%, and guns were at 4%.
These threats could explain why polls show low faith in the U.S. institutions necessary to maintain a democracy.
A July 2023 Gallup poll measured Americans' confidence in 16 institutions it tracks annually. Congress was at the bottom at 8%, but the Presidency at 26% and the Supreme Court at 27% were nothing to brag about. The military was at 60%, and the police were right behind them at 43%. Both polls suggest that people fear losing their freedoms under elected government officials. However, the most trusted institutions are those that use force, the military and police, to ensure their safety. This may explain why the following polls strongly support a strong, authoritative government run by a strong leader or the military. They may see how using state-authorized violence could free them from chaos and insecurity.
According to a February study by the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans believe a military regime or authoritarian leader would be a good way of governing the country “without interference from Congress or the courts.” The U.S. had the highest percentage of citizens holding this belief among the 14 wealthiest nations surveyed in Europe, including Australia and Israel.
If you like this piece, become a Patreon patron or make a single contribution to help me reach others. - thank you, Nick Support for authoritarian rule varies by political leanings and personality traits.
Support for authoritarian rule among Americans registered at 37% from the center, 29% from the right, and 25% from the left. The right’s support for authoritarian rule was the highest percentage in 16 nations of the 18 nations polled, with the center having the highest percentage in the U.S. and Australia. These labels are self-identified by those surveyed.
The high percentage of those in the center who support authoritarian rule would indicate that the term “moderate” is not the same as being in the center. It’s just that these folks don’t like the major parties representing the right or the left. They still want drastic measures that are more reflective of their core beliefs than affiliating with a party.
Historians have observed that the tendencies of the farthest wings of the left and right movement overlap. In the Atlantic, psychiatrist Sally Satel, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, points to some research that supports that belief. She writes that researchers found some common traits between left-wing and right-wing authoritarians, including a “preference for social uniformity, willingness to wield group authority to coerce behavior, cognitive rigidity, outsized concern for hierarchy, and moral absolutism.”
These traits are shared by political and religious groups across the spectrum who strongly believe that the policies they support are best for everyone. For them, our democracy is failing to pursue their policies. Given the results of a Pew Research Center survey in July 2023, they also have many potential followers to preach to. Pew found that 63% of Americans are exhausted by politics, and 55% are just plain angry with politics. Just 16% of the public say they trust the federal government always or most of the time.
Where do we go from here?
Remember Barack Obama’s campaign theme, “Hope”? That Pew survey found that only 10% were hopeful about American politics. Nevertheless, although many other polls show dissatisfaction with our government, that level is similar to that of other functioning democracies in wealthy countries.
In a 2022 Pew survey, France, Japan, Italy, and Spain, like the U.S., had majorities dissatisfied with their democracies. The political orientation of those governments didn’t matter; Japan was conservative-nationalist, France was centrist, Italy and the U.S. were liberal, and Spain was Socialist leaning.
When asked if their political system “allows people like them have not much or none at all influence on politics,” Japan, Australia, and the U.S. all scored 71% for those polled who agreed with that measurement.
However, complaining is not the same as rejecting the principles democratic institutions protect. Americans surveyed by Pew in 2020 were asked, “What are very important” functions of their democracy to possess?
The following six, in order of importance and percentage, were: Fair Judiciary 93%, Gender Equality 91%, Free Religion 86%, Regular Elections 84%, Free Media 80%, and Free Speech 77%. These conditions could easily be restricted if not eliminated under authoritarian rule.
To sustain a functional, not a fake, democracy, we must measure whether these conditions are being provided. Failing to provide and protect them will gradually transform any country into an authoritarian state.
The political conditions in Venezuela and Hungary provide two recent examples of how democracies can drift afar when authority is concentrated at the top.
In the next Citizenship Politics, I analyze what lessons we can learn from them.
Nick Licata is the author of Becoming A Citizen Activist and Student Power, Democracy and Revolution in the Sixties. He is the founding board chair of Local Progress, a national network of over 1,300 progressive municipal officials.
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