3 Things You Can Do to Fight Authoritarianism
You are not helpless.
Today's rising authoritarianism overwhelms us in scope, audaciousness, and intensity. By design, we feel vulnerable and powerless. But this is a mirage.
Don't Appease. Resist.
Resistance is not futile; it's essential to save democracy. The first step to fighting authoritarianism is accepting your own agency. Authoritarians need you to believe you're weak because that is the only way they can win.
As Yale historian Timothy Snyder wrote in his 2017 book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (a book that is especially relevant today),
Do not obey in advance.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
Build Bridges
"Politics makes strange bedfellows," a proverbial saying from the 1800s that riffed off Shakespeare's The Tempest ("misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows"), becomes especially true during authoritarian times.
Defeating authoritarians requires a broad coalition of democracy-lovers. As The New York Times editorial board wrote this week (gift link),
The patriotic response to today’s threat is to oppose Mr. Trump. But it is to do so soberly and strategically, not reflexively or performatively. It is to build a coalition of Americans who disagree about many other subjects — who span conservative and progressive, internationalist and isolationist, religious and secular, business-friendly and labor-friendly, pro-immigration and restrictionist, laissez-faire and pro-government, pro-life and pro-choice — yet who believe that these subjects must be decided through democratic debate and constitutional processes rather than the dictates of a single man.
You may find yourself working alongside people you previously considered political foes. That's OK. Honestly, it's a good thing, because we should be working across our political divides to find common ground even in normal times. And, assuming we save democracy, those bonds will be essential in the rebuilding phase.
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks also put it well recently when he wrote (gift link),
It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.
Save One
In the 2017 film, "Justice League," there's a scene where the heroes are about to go into their first battle together and The Flash tells Batman he's not ready for it.
"I can't be here. It's really cool you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff, but, full transparency, I've never done battle," The Flash says.
"Save one," Batman responds.
"And then?" The Flash asks.
"You'll know," Batman says.
Every fight, no matter how seemingly small, matters. The village of Sackets Harbor, New York, showed us this last month. An immigrant mom and her three children who are in the process of acquiring legal status were apprehended by ICE. Around 1,000 people in the town of 1,300 marched in protest. Jamie Cook, the principal of the school the children attended, was among those speaking out at the rally and urging their return.
“Within this community, there are people who I never would have expected to get involved, on all sides of the political spectrum, including people who have voted for the president,” she said.
It was a small victory in the grand scheme of everything else going on, but that small victory showed we’re not helpless.
Fighting authoritarianism won't be a first round knockout. This is a full 12-round fight, with lots of blocks, weaves, and jabs, and fair warning, we’re going to get hit a lot as well.
You can't do everything but you can do one thing. Look for those opportunities to get involved. Save one. Then? You’ll know.
Additional Resource:
For more on how to fight authoritarianism, check out Protect Democracy’s The Faithful Fight: Toolkits for countering authoritarianism.
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This segment appeared on CBN, a conservative Christian network that has been generally supportive of Trump.
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