The Rise of Demagogues and Tyrants in Democracy: Predicted, but Ignored
Posted by T.Collins Logan onIt was time.
This essay draws on many different ideas, from writers spanning Plato to Habermas, and offers an explanation and proposed remedy for the travesty of democracy – and tragedy for the U.S. and the world – that has just occurred with the reelection of Donald Trump. It focuses on what fifty years of a conservative political and social agenda has accomplished for America, and how its consequences were predicted over the past 2,400 years. Then the essay tackles what we can do to restore sanity and the common good in concrete and pragmatic terms. Introduction below.
http://tcollinslogan.com/resources/The_Rise_of_Demagogues_in_Democracy.pdf
Introduction
We were warned, but we did not listen. Several conditions have converged to create the perfect seedbed and fertilizer for demagogues and tyrants to spring forth and flourish in modern western democracies, while we seem to have passively expected that our civic institutions would be strong enough to resist or contain them. And, despite growing evidence to the contrary, many well-educated experts continue to assure us that existing tools to collectively prevent the sabotage of our civil society remain potent. But this essay proposes that such mechanisms and institutions are in fact not strong or potent enough – and predictably so – while also offering possible escape hatches from what has become a dire and accelerating downward spiral.
As a starting point, the explanations, accusations, and insights about what swayed the outcome of the U.S. 2024 Presidential election have been plentiful. They are wide-ranging, but include:
- The stoking of grievances and anxiety about an inflation economy that weren’t adequately addressed by Democrats.
- The unexpected but potent rise of podcast influencers and “Bro” culture.
- The electorate’s craving for simplistic, black-and-white solutions to complex problems.
- Frustrated finger-pointing at Joe Biden’s resistance to an open Democratic primary.
- A well-worn trope that the U.S. electorate is “just not ready” for a female president…let alone a woman of color.
- A lack of cogent response from the Left to the Right’s campaign against transgender rights.
- A bizarre confidence that Donald Trump’s policies will somehow be more favorable to the working class that Kamala Harris’ would have been.
- The clear observation that Harris did not sufficiently differentiate herself from an unpopular incumbent, or adequately appeal to working voters.
- The fundamental reality of worsening income inequality….
Are these explanations valid? I think a persuasive case can be made that each of them had a measurable impact on 2024 outcomes. But none of these can be singled out as the primary cause of Trump’s victory. In fact, even in combination these simplistic factors are a distraction from what should invite much more concern and scrutiny – and it is this larger, considerably darker storm that we’ll be exploring. It is storm that has been decades in the making, with a force and scope that might have been delayed, but not countered, by this or any other single national movement. I would even speculate that, with so many threads of history coming together at once, and with so much accumulated energy and momentum behind them, those conditions made the outcome of the 2024 U.S. elections inevitable.
What are those historical threads, then, and why have they converged right now? Here is a quick summary of those threads, each of which will be explored with more depth before weaving them into what has become a toxic whole.
- Erosion and rejection of the rule of law
- Celebration of greed, selfishness, and opportunism as acceptable cultural norms
- Confusion about the nature of liberty, equality, and justice
- Pervasive isolation, disconnection, and alienation across society
- Cultural strife, discord, and division
- Economic stress and worsening inequality
- Willfully persistent ignorance
Although all of these influences have existed in human civilization for millennia, it is critically important to appreciate just how carefully, deliberately, and successfully they have been engineered and amplified over the last few decades. The amplification was the result of well-funded and coordinated efforts that were not arbitrary or accidental. And although many technological, cultural, and ideological developments could have lent themselves to any cause, it was one synthesis in particular that seems to have taken greatest advantages of these tools in current times: the marriage of free market fundamentalism, cultural conservatism, Christian nationalism, pro-white racism, and neoliberalism. This synergy has generated one of the greatest deceptions ever perpetrated on the U.S. electorate – and others around the globe.
Our hypothesis is that as these destructive conditions were carefully cultivated through methodical and sustained right-wing messaging and activism, they contributed to our cultural susceptibility, en masse, to the emotional appeals, deceptive manipulations, and empty promises of demagogic would-be tyrants – eventually coalescing in our current global reality as an unstoppable storm.
The through line of the underlying causality has become obvious, reinforced by the repeated warnings from both advocates and critics of democracy itself, and illustrated by unmistakable patterns in history. It seems, however, that we are an inattentive and forgetful folk, and have become acclimated over successive generations – like the metaphorical frog in a pot of boiling water – to adverse and degrading influences. Despite a chorus of reminders, we have relaxed our vigilance, and that is what allowed the opportunists first to plot, and then to strike.
This leads us to an obvious question: what is the best strategy for an effective and comprehensive response? We will aim to answer that question as well, not only addressing effective forms of resistance, but offering a path forward to building a stronger democratic civil society – on foundations of truth, justice, kindness, and caring – that can resist future storms and return a modicum of sanity to our world.