It Could Happen Here
By: Alexander Smith
Tags: Authoritarianism, Democracy, White Supremacy, Hope

It could happen here and it’s time that we talked about it.

I’ve heard some version of this statement more times than I care to recall: “It can’t happen here, this is America!” Or “We’re a democracy, this isn’t Europe.” “The constitution will protect us, that’s what it’s designed to prevent.” These lines of defense fail to consider one key point: we’ve never seen this before. Our democracy has never faced the challenges that once faced Germany, Russia, Vietnam, and numerous other nations that fell victim to authoritarian regimes. So how do we know? How can we assert that it can’t happen here if it’s never been attempted?

An untested system can’t be properly graded, and a democracy can’t be declared secure unless it has been attacked.

The rise of executive power was first brought into the public’s attention by Dick Cheney and the Bush Jr. Presidency, but it goes much deeper. The War Powers Resolution of 1973, increasing reliance on executive orders by both Bush and Obama, and drone strikes ordered by the president alone are just a few examples that illustrate the growing power of the president. Now Donald Trump has inherited that power and is refusing to let it go despite a Biden victory. I understand that there will obviously be recounts and legal battles similar to the Bush-Gore election. However, Trump has refused to concede the election even if he loses, his team refuses to initiate the transition process, and the wall of defenses around the White House grows larger even as I write this. We’ve seen this before. Not here, not yet, but this happens. It’s happening now with Poland’s “Law and Justice” party, Turkey’s Erdogan, Belarus’s Lukashenko, and Russia’s Putin.

It’s happening all around us and yet we continue to hide behind our constitution and our laws.

To be clear, I agree with Abraham Lincoln’s assertion that the Declaration of Independence is an “apple of gold” within the silver frame of the constitution, and that both should be ardently defended. However, the fact remains that documents cannot defend themselves. America (specifically white America) has long been the center of a global empire that hasn’t felt the brutality of war and repression since the Civil War. Most average Americans are uncomfortable confronting the idea that authoritarianism could come to us and would rather dismiss me as a doomsayer, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are currently extremist groups plotting to ignite a second civil war.

The Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Patriot Prayer, Atomwaffen, and approximately one thousand other militias and hate groups carry guns through our streets and threaten our populace on a daily basis. The governor of Michigan was almost kidnapped, protestors were shot in Kenosha and run over in Charlottesville, and the opponent’s campaign team was run off the road by flag-waving supporters of the president that have been terrorizing roadways across the country. I’ve personally been threatened with vehicular homicide by several dozen men, tear gassed by local law enforcement, and terrorized along with my small southern hometown by a local militia organizer.

I’m sure that a lot of people have experienced the same and much worse. Yet the White House at best, refuses to acknowledge or tackle the problem, and at worst openly endorses and encourages white supremacist groups to enact violence on his opponents. Trump retweets the accounts of white supremacists, draws false equivalence between literal Nazis and those who resist them in the street, and spreads baseless conspiracy theories with reckless abandon.

All the while, he refuses to agree to a transition of power and the wall around the White House grows larger.

Totalitarianism doesn’t win out in singular grand battles where the masses defend their country in a pitched battle against the forces of evil. Totalitarianism, at least at first, requires active cooperation and consent from the masses. Caesar didn’t cross the Rubicon without the expectation of support in Rome. Totalitarianism rises when enough people are willing to sell the rights of others and dehumanize the opposition. Totalitarianism wants you to believe that it can’t happen to you, it depends on the barbarism of a few fanatics and the civility of decent people trying to maintain a peaceful life.

It requires the silent majority to stay silent while the black shirts kick in the doors of your neighbors in the dead of night.

And they already do. The plainclothes officers that killed Breonna Taylor struck in the dead of night. ICE and the DHS round up migrant children on our borders and place them in concentration camps while decent Americans look the other way. This summer, dozens of unmarked vans with no badges, no identification, and no warrants appeared in US cities and arrested protesters. Federal agents without uniform flooded our cities under the president’s orders and escalated already intense protests across the country. It’s hard to “back the blue” when those enforcing the law won’t even wear a uniform and the president encourages the violence with sentiments like “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

The fundamental right of due process and trust in law enforcement has been undermined in front of our eyes. But we celebrate Trump’s defeat, and the wall around the White House grows larger.

Democracy dies slowly, in pieces. It dies institution by institution, slowly, then as one. There are a series of small bangs, a whimper, then uproarious applause. Apologies to the Washington Post, but democracy does not die in darkness. It dies in the light of God and with the consent of the governed.

Donald Trump is the biggest threat to American Democracy we have ever faced. Not Donald Trump the person, but Donald Trump the movement. He is clearly entrenching his position (literally and figuratively), and something must be done to prevent what happens in so many other places. Stop celebrating because this election is far from over. Then, consider how history will remember your actions today.

It can happen here, but only if we let it.