by Simone E., Editor-in-Chief
I’m currently in a class called Politics of Authoritarian Regimes, and something that my professor said, jokingly, while we were discussing elements of totalitarian regimes, is that we would need to pay close attention to what he was about to say because we were about to experience it ourselves. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of authoritarian regimes, I think of Russia and North Korea and compared to those countries, we are still a thriving democracy. However, there are a lot of concerning similarities and some changes that President Donald Trump are in favor of that could move America towards an authoritarian regime. This is not a research paper, simply my thoughts based on some readings I’ve done throughout the semester. What is an authoritarian regime? An authoritarian regime is a regime type classified by the rule of a single leader, small group or single political party. There are severe limits imposed on political opposition and there is also often suppression of the people. Leaders of the regime exercise a high degree of control over social and economic activity and there’s little governmental transparency. Now, there’s different types of authoritarianism and they can be classified on a scale, but I’m just going to focus on authoritarianism in general and broad terms. So, let’s think about this for a second. Authoritarian regime leaders also exercise control over the media and who holds positions of power in the government. Many have argued that the way President Trump has attempted to fill the government with Republican allies, and has done so successfully, that he is beginning to exert similar control over the government that an authoritarian dictator would. He has expressed respect for dictatorships where citizens were forced to respect for their leader: he said, about Kim Jong Un, that, “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” Of course he later recanted the statement, but this was not the first one made of the same sentiment. President Trump is known for his “us versus them” narratives that he utilized during his campaign. Sometimes dictators utilize these narratives and other fear tactics which include making up threats to the nation, to ensure loyalty. President Trump has always called Hispanic people “criminals” or Muslim people “terrorists” and has essentially been talking down a vast majority of minorities that allows him to unite people to him due to possible fear of whatever they have fear of (i.e. rapists, taking away jobs, terrorism, etc.) This is a similar tactic, to call upon a famous dictator, that Hitler used to unite the nazis to him. It was an “us versus them” that worked in his favor, and according to the election, seemed to work in President Trump’s favor as well. Continuing with this is his slogan, “Make America Great Again,” speaking to nationalism and patriotism which a lot of dictators, past and present, utilize to, again, ensure loyalty to the country and to the regime/dictator. North Koreans genuinely believe that their country is the best, that they have the best military power, and that other countries are suffering in a way that they can’t relate to. This is due to the fact that they’re shut off from the world and they are not allowed to have similar internet access that Americans do, but if they truly believe that they are living in an amazing country with a dictator that loves and supports them, why wouldn’t they follow him and his orders? America hasn’t gotten this far, but I don’t think it’s too far off to say that there are a lot of blind followers of Trump who truly believe that America is the best nation with the best ruler who has their best interests in mind. Something else that authoritarian leaders utilize is their military. Militaries are institutions sometimes used to suppress the people, and America doesn’t have that, but the celebration of military power is something that is present in a lot of authoritarian regimes, and just the other week, Trump wanted to have a celebratory march for the military. This can be done to ensure that citizens know the extent and power of the military, but it's more important to let other countries know of the power that the nation has in order to ward off threats. This again ensures citizen loyalty (our country is the best and we can’t be beat because we have the best military). You may ask, but we have elections? I can vote for who I want so we can’t possibly be authoritarian. Unfortunately, the presence of elections is not an indicator of democracy. There are a lot of hybrid regimes (regimes with elements of democracy and authoritarianism) that have elections. Sometimes the elections are free and fair (not often), but the elections in America are not always free and fair either. There were countless examples in Georgia and Florida in this recent election where ballot boxes were “broken” or votes were “found” later and uncounted. I’m sure there are a few other examples, and again, feel free to comment below where you disagree because this is not a research paper. This is something that I’ve noticed and wanted to see what others thought about it. I think that we may be heading towards authoritarianism. We may end up being a hybrid regime along the way, and honestly, it doesn’t seem like we’re far off. Picture from: cnn.com
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